Among the Trees
"Ive had a love of trees all my life. Throughout high school, I lived in a house in the woods in Massachusetts, and even on the darker mornings of winter what kept me from being frightened was the trees themselvesmostly scrub pines, as we called them there, with struggling oaks scattered among them. Unlike the kids at school, the trees remained silent as I passed, and I took this as a sign of acce... posted on May 16, 1803 reads

On the Edge of Life & Death
The hospice community of Joseph's House in Washington, D.C. believes that no one should live or die alone. Perched on the very edge of life and death, it is a place of belonging where people are lovingly companioned all the way to the threshold of death. Grace and mystery abound in encounters between people across racial and socioeconomic differences where they meet and love each other. People are... posted on Jun 23, 2291 reads

Forests Need Its People to Survive
B. Siddan, known as the Birdman of Bokkapuram, has an expert knowledge of birds in his region of India. He enthusiastically shares his love of birds in this short video, proudly introducing them by name like the old friends that they have become after his many years of bird watching. One such bird friend, a spot-bellied eagle owl, looks down knowingly on him. In holistic conservation, which B. des... posted on Jul 8, 1202 reads

Honey Church
"Our first summer in Baltimore. The first year of our marriage--your only marriage, my second one--when my kid became our kid. This house, our home. We watched the parade of ants--polite little soldiers marching single file along the kitchen baseboards in a thin and steady stream. You took a white sheet of paper from the printer, slipped it under their quick feet, then whoosh, like a magician and ... posted on Jul 17, 2138 reads

Ode to an Ugly Cat
"Idly is not a beautiful cat. There is something about the way he looks at you that will set you on edge and it will take you a long time to get over this feeling. The edges of his ears are jagged, a little bit frayed. Old cat ears. He has scratches on his nose. He always has something sticking to his whiskers and there is nothing you can do about that. He would rather have cat litter stuck to his... posted on Jul 19, 5553 reads

It Takes Brokenness to Find It
"My father was 67 when he died, and that's too young, but lately, as I stare at some hard realities of aging and mortality, I begin to appreciate the fact that he didn't have to endure a long period of frailty, pain, and dependence. My father was himself to very the end, brilliant and good and a force of nature, the most important person in my world, and I miss him terribly even now. Maybe espec... posted on Aug 6, 3905 reads

Elizabeth Alexander: Light of the World
"In 2009 at President Barack Obama's first inauguration, Elizabeth Alexander read a poem she wrote for the occasion called "Praise Song for the Day". It was a high point in her celebrated career as a poet, essayist, playwright, and academic. She has published many books of poetry and prose, she taught at Yale for many years, and now she's teaching at Columbia, in New York City, where she was born.... posted on Oct 1, 1650 reads

17 Life Learnings from 17 Years of the Marginalian
"The Marginalian was born on October 23, 2006, under an outgrown name, to an outgrown self that feels to me now almost like a different species of consciousness. (It can only be so -- if we don't continually outgrow ourselves, if we don't wince a little at our former ideas, ideals, and beliefs, we ossify and perish.) Seven years into this labor of love, which had by then become my life and livelih... posted on Oct 24, 2415 reads

All Real Living is Meeting
Cornelius Pieztner, currently a high-impact financial professional, spent the first 45 years of his life at Camphill - a network of intentional communities co-founded by his father Carlos Pietzner. The communities were designed for children and youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Through his interactions and work with teenagers with pronounced developmental disabilities, Cornel... posted on Oct 25, 1780 reads

The Endless Vows
"There are four vows we can practice in any given moment that will return us to what matters, that will return us to ourselves and each other. They are simple and always in reach, though they require everything from us. They are the utterances: help, thank you, I'm sorry, and I love you." Poet Mark Nepo shares more in this piece from Parabola magazine.... posted on Oct 28, 2446 reads

Kabir Helminksi: Rumi & the Mysterion
"Kabir Helminski is co-director, with his wife, Camille Helminski, of the Threshold Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to sharing the knowledge and practice of Sufism. He is the author of Living Presence and the translator of four volumes of Rumis poetry, including Love Is a Stranger and Rumi: Daylight. His new book which we discuss on the podcast is The Mysterion: Rumi and the Secret of ... posted on Oct 29, 2107 reads

The End is an Illusion
The uplifting words and music of Jont are accompanied by a heart warming video display of loving connections, providing a healing combination of "medicine the world needs right now." With the focus on a sense of belonging and living fully, it is a joyous reminder that "connecting to the love will keep us safe and we will be just fine. We will be just fine."... posted on Nov 3, 2424 reads

Grateful: A Love Song to the World
Musicians Nimo Patel and Daniel Nahmod brought together dozens of people from around the world to create this beautiful, heart-opening melody. Inspired by the 21-Day Gratitude Challenge, the song is a celebration of our spirit and all that is a blessing in life. For the 21 Days, over 11,000 participants from 118 countries learned that gratefulness is a habit cultivated consciously and a muscle bui... posted on Nov 23, 3905 reads

A Family Reunion at the End of the World
"Have you ever been at a reunion or a big party, when the plates are empty and conversations wind down and you think about leaving? Then you hear peals of laughter, the clatter of dishes, and contagious giggles from behind the kitchen door. Thats where the real party is, as the aunties portion out leftovers to be taken home, scrape the dishes, and laugh with their hands in hot soapy water, snappin... posted on Nov 25, 1990 reads

Life's Present: Visits with my Mother and Dementia
In a touching reflection, Jackie Bailey shares heartwarming and intimate details about caring for her elderly mother, whose demeanor has softened with age and dementia. She muses, "It's not that mum has simply forgotten all her old beefs. Getting older is making her brain kinder." Citing studies on neuroimaging and the release of oxytocin, she asserts, "older people are kinder than the rest of us.... posted on Jan 3, 2303 reads

3 Steps to a Purposeful Year
The beginning of the year often marks the possibility of fresh beginnings. We make resolutions to help things to change for the better. It may sound something like: "I don't love my job or where I live, so I'm going to make some changes." "As a coach, I'm happy when my people are ready for change," writes author Christine Carter. "But the best first move usually isn't an outer change to our circum... posted on Jan 8, 3541 reads

Power of Slow Change
"People love stories of turning points, wake-up calls, sudden conversions, breakthroughs, the stuff about changes that happen in a flash," points out historian Rebecca Solnit. Yet, meaningful transformations often take time. "You want tomorrow to be different than today, and it may seem the same, or worse, but next year will be different than this one, because those tiny increments added up. The t... posted on Jan 28, 1863 reads

Love, The Sewer District
Imagine calling your local sewer district with an urgent need -- not for a pipeliner or an engineer -- but for a listening ear. This gravity defying leap was made possible by John Gonzalez, the communications director from Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. He posted a simple message online: "just a phone number, a voicemail, and a whole lot of emotions. 216-361-6772." Through the cryptic soc... posted on Jan 30, 1701 reads

From Accessing Your Ignorance to Accessing Your Love
"Ed had an amazingly minimalist teaching style. He did not give lengthy lectures. He never used a superfluous word. Ed the teacher inverted the relationship between learner and educator. Normally that relationship is based on the professor knowing things that the students don't, a learning structure in which the professor conveys information and insights through lectures, discussions, and readings... posted on Mar 1, 3007 reads

In a Bomb Shelter Under Kyiv, a Professor Taught Peace
When the war in Ukraine started, like many people, Professor David Dowling felt helpless. "I couldn't shake off the idea that I wanted to do something more," Dowling told ABC News. Last fall, he travelled from Pepperdine University in California to war-torn Kyiv to teach a course in conflict and dispute resolution at Taras Shevchenko National University. "Being with these students, with these amaz... posted on Mar 20, 1319 reads

Never Too Late: Becoming a World Champion at 40
Deanna Stellato-Dudek, a retired figure skater, made history at the ripe athletic age of 40, becoming the oldest woman ever to win a World Figure Skating Championship. After a series of injuries pushed her to retire from skating at the age of 17 in 2001, Stellato-Dudek went on with her life -- becoming a successful aesthetician and getting married. The unfinished saga of her athletic journey, thou... posted on Mar 25, 1384 reads

When Melodies Unlock Memory Reservoirs
Candy Cohn often would speak with her late mother, Lillian, in English, with a few words here and there in Yiddish. Then, one day, Lillian "started singing a beautiful Yiddish love song called Sheyn Vi Di Levone. 'I'd never heard her sing it. I never heard her play it. The look on her face and the joy. I hadn't seen that in her in a long time,'" Candy Cohn described to WLRN Public Radio. ... posted on Mar 31, 1282 reads

Sri Lanka's Untold Story of Resilience
When the legendary Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne -- often called "the Gandhi of Sri Lanka" -- passed away last month at the age of 92, his enduring legacy of selfless love expanded in hearts across the globe. For over sixty years, Dr. Ariyaratne's humility and servant leadership stewarded thousands of self-sufficient villages in Sri Lanka. Working quietly and often behind the scenes, the unique non-governm... posted on May 7, 2294 reads

From Snow to Water
Ready to meet a compassion and business hero? Xue, an immigrant from Inner Mongolia, made her way to MIT, Wall Street and as a successful entrepreneur until a life altering experience got her to question everything in her life. She co-founded 'The Space Between', an investment fund redirecting hundreds of millions not just to grow wealth, but to ignite change and foster compassion. Its founding pr... posted on May 11, 3300 reads

Small Sounds of the Past
"In Praise of Listening" by Christian McEwen celebrates the profound impact of sound on our memories and experiences. Through evocative stories like Alice Cozzolino's pasta-making rituals with her mother and Eleanor Adams' childhood memories of island life, McEwen reminds us of the power of sound to transport us back in time. In a world filled with noise, these memories serve as reminders to liste... posted on May 20, 1729 reads

Standing in Authentic Power
Stacey Lawson relates how real power is within, and takes inner work and outer action, and how sometimes it’s hard to understand why following inner guidance leads us on a path that doesn’t end where we might have wished. She explains how during meditation she repeatedly received a powerful call to run for political office, and while it was the last thing she wanted to do, and after st... posted on Jun 5, 3135 reads

Captioning Ubuntu
Our stories are a product of countless other stories in time and space. In South Africa, there is a saying that translates to: "A person is a person through other persons." In Kenya, there is a saying that translates to, "A person is other people." Both adages echo the essence of "ubuntu" -- systems of values that honor deep interconnectedness. Storyteller and author Wakanyi Hoffman illustrates pe... posted on Jun 20, 11167 reads

Four Steps to Help People Feel Listened To
Your child announces he's in love and dropping out of college to travel with his beloved across the globe. Your uncle makes a politically charged comment over a holiday meal. A doctor brushes off your concern, reiterating a line of reasoning you've already discussed. It can be a bewildering, enraging, or disempowering experience when something so clearly true from our perspective is so adamantly a... posted on Jun 26, 4374 reads

Families in One Town Adopt 77 Children. This Couple Led the Way.
Donna Martin was one of eighteen children whose mother managed to instill respect, compassion, and unconditional love in each of them. Donna went through devastating pain and loss following her mother’s passing. After grieving for months, she felt a call to “Give back. What about those children that didn’t have what you had?” Though she and her husband were not well-off and... posted on Jul 9, 1894 reads

‘If there’s nowhere else to go, this is where they come’
Nowadays, it doesn’t take much time in a local library to realize libraries are no longer hushed spaces with people reading books. They help with forms, tutoring, testing, and lessons from knitting to coding. Besides books, they lend footballs, walking sticks, winter coats, and a litany of other items and services. It is “somewhere where everybody can come,” even those who have n... posted on Jul 11, 1421 reads

The Benefits of Volunteering
Experience and research show that while volunteering is good in and of itself, volunteers may receive as much or more than they give. Some of the benefits: it keeps people active; leads to new friendships, less loneliness, and more social support; it instills a sense of purpose, and improves self-esteem and self-confidence; and they feel a sense of accomplishment. Researchers find volunteering may... posted on Aug 3, 1903 reads

An Awe Walk
A study on the effects of an “awe walk” revealed people found awe in the ordinary such as “a friend’s generosity, a leafy tree’s play of light and shadow on a sidewalk, a song that transported them back to a first love.” They found that even a few moments of awe can “reduce stress, decrease inflammation, and benefit the cardiovascular system.” They a... posted on Sep 11, 2764 reads

Rachelle Jeanty: Finding Spirit in Pain
Rachelle Jeanty gifts us with a few verses of her crystal voice in song, and talks about how she led a luxurious life as a backup singer for a global superstar. Her dream, however, was to be a singer-songwriter, so she left to follow her own path. She tried everything over ten years that included being betrayed and scammed by an agent that her intuition had told her not to trust. She was devastate... posted on Sep 25, 1545 reads