Father & Son Heroes
The story of Dick and Rick Hoyt is an inspirational love story, based on the philosophy "you can!" Although Rick was born with cerebral palsy, his parents were determined to treat him just like their other boys, despite medical professionals who counseled them otherwise. Consequently, Rick grew up engaging and intelligent; and when he was 12 years old even found his voice with the help of the 'Hop... posted on Sep 20, 2467 reads

Locks of Love
After witnessing her own child's hardships with hair loss due to a medical condition called alopecia areata, Madonna Coffman started Locks of Love. The non-profit collects donated hair, manufacturers them into hairpieces, and distributes them to financially disadvantaged children. The protheses provide help restore self-esteem, enabling the children to face the world and their peers. ... posted on Sep 20, 1248 reads

World's Largest Love Letter
The World’s Largest Love Letter, soon to be delivered from children in India to children in Pakistan, started as few projects do: for visa renewal! Two Americans visiting India needed to make a quick trip outside of India to renew their visas; how wonderful, they thought, if they could arrive in Pakistan carrying armloads of friendship letters – from children, to children. So they began riding... posted on Mar 19, 2762 reads

Made With Love Café
It started as a relief project after Hurricane Katrina. But it's still going today -- a volunteer-run kitchen that serves 1500 hot meals a day in New Orleans! "Our meals are free and available to anyone who needs food. We are non-political, non-religious, and hope that by bringing volunteers together from all over we can create a joyful and safe place for residents to begin rebuilding their comm... posted on May 31, 3094 reads

The Barber Who Loved Books
Fueled by a lifelong love of literature -- which began as a child when he sneaked a pre-dawn peek at his neighbor's newspaper –- Rueben Martinez decided it would be his mission to raise the literacy rate among Hispanics. He got the idea to open a bookstore inside his barbershop in 1993, after customers repeatedly borrowed his collection of 200 books. The store took on a life of its own, expandin... posted on Jul 23, 1548 reads

A Daughter's First Words
A little girl who cannot walk or talk has used a machine to tell her mother for the first time: "I love you." Six-year-old Elke Wisbey, who was born brain-damaged, has been able to communicate with her family by using a high-tech gadget which tracks her eye movements. Readers of a local newspaper raised money to buy the specially-adapted machine for the family. The MyTobii Smartbox machine from Sw... posted on Nov 2, 1830 reads

A Daughter's First Words
A little girl who cannot walk or talk has used a machine to tell her mother for the first time: "I love you." Six-year-old Elke Wisbey, who was born brain-damaged, has been able to communicate with her family by using a high-tech gadget which tracks her eye movements. Readers of a local newspaper raised money to buy the specially-adapted machine for the family. The MyTobii Smartbox machine from Sw... posted on Nov 6, 4249 reads

Wings of Love: Airline Ambassadors
She lost her father to cancer on Christmas Eve 1983. Traveling the world to find answers, she came to this realization of life's purpose: love in action. In 1997, this flight attendant started a nonprofit called Airline Ambassadors to deliver small amounts of humanitarian aid to orphanages worldwide. In 1999, she was honored as World Woman of Peace. Meet Nancy Rivard.... posted on Dec 25, 3312 reads

Benjamin Zander's Shining Eyes
There are 2 ways to approach this talk: 1. A man talks about classical music 2. A man discusses how to experience life and throws in some Chopin for good measure. Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it -- and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections. ... posted on Feb 15, 4701 reads

Hero Provides A Free Lunch
Chemotherapy treatments are no fun, but patients here at the Kaiser Permanente Oncology Department in Denver have reason to look forward to their visits. On the fourth Thursday of every month everyone here -- patients, family, and staff -- gets a free, homemade lunch. "They love it and I love it. I bring sandwiches and Texas sheet cake, and chips. We have the same menu every month, but everybody l... posted on Aug 3, 2152 reads

A Collection of Mothers' Best Advice
"Give and take in that order." "Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty. They'll wash clean." "Say "I love you, frequently but not casually." "No matter how a body ages, the spirit stays forever young." "Always have a love for learning." "Never say no to someone who asked for food." These are just some of the favorite sayings thousands of readers shared when asked about the best advice given to t... posted on Aug 1, 5689 reads

Art & The Happiness Entrepreneur
"Through a long series of coincidences, this 'art box' finds you. When I had to give a gift for my sister, I realized her two loves. Her first love was art, the joy of creative expression, the connection with a subtler force. In her high school graduation speech, she used a quote that summed up her perspective: an artist isn't a special kind of a person but every person is a special kind of an art... posted on Aug 18, 3898 reads

A Mother's Love
There are mothers who will spend today missing sons and daughters fighting overseas. There are women who have lost children in those wars, for whom Mother's Day will never be the same. And then there is Eva Briseno. Joesph Briseno Jr., Eva's 27-year-old son, is one of the most severely wounded soldiers ever to survive. A bullet to the back of his head in Baghdad marketplace in 2003 left him paraly... posted on May 9, 2485 reads

Inspiring a Community of Hope
When Nancy Sieglar was diagnosed with breast cancer, sunflowers saved her life. With no reason other than, "they make me feel good and give me inner strength," Sieglar began growing the regal flowers with love, an act that helped her get through some very scary times. Now, her garden - brimming with 26 species of sunflowers, some as tall as 16 feet - is burgeoning into a vibrant sanctuary of hope.... posted on Oct 2, 2901 reads

A Love Affair With Questions
In this beautiful black-and-white vignette, filmmaker Nic Askew interviews a man named Julio Olalla. Julio candidly speaks about an encounter with his father that changed his life, and what he learned: "Gratitude in so many ways is so dramatically missing in the world today. Without gratitude nothing is enough." Over this 10-minute video, he reflects on his own experiences, ranging from exploring ... posted on Jul 3, 5345 reads

Connected: Love, Death, & Technology
"From the beginning of time, every new technological advancement has brought with it a complex mix of positive and negative repercussions as well as unintended consequences. I set out to make a film that addresses the potential of our twenty-first-century technologies and the importance of harnessing their powers. I also wanted to examine what can happen when these new technologies take over and s... posted on Oct 3, 21424 reads

A Guide to Finding Your Passion
"Following your passion can be a tough thing. But figuring out what that passion is can be even more elusive. I'm lucky -- I've found my passion, and I'm living it. I can testify that it's the most wonderful thing, to be able to make a living doing what you love. And so, in this little guide, I'd like to help you get started figuring out what you'd love doing. This will be the thing that will get ... posted on Feb 5, 87040 reads

How to Be Alone
This charming and chirpy video pays tribute to the happy wholesomeness of being alone. Tanya Davis recites her poem about the ways of solitude, gently cataloging all the places where aloneness can bring freedom and healing. Whether at a lunch counter, park bench, mountain trail, or on the edge of a dance floor -- all we have to do is love ourselves enough, to love being alone.... posted on Mar 16, 10326 reads

A Sister's Deathless Legacy of Love
"After living through an experimental cancer treatment my sister Barb was left unable to work. When she was offered the opportunity to do a mission trip in India if she could come up with $3,000 - she was left thinking there was no way she could go. No way to raise the funds. She asked me to brainstorm with her as to how she could raise money. "The only thing I can do is hug," she told me - and th... posted on Jul 18, 16360 reads

One of the Greatest Love Stories Ever
This animated StoryCorps video tells one of the greatest love stories ever. Funny, touching, and insightful, Danny and Annie share the story of their ordinary yet wondrous journey together, right from their very first date up until their final farewell.... posted on Jul 21, 11269 reads

A Conspiracy of Love: Stanford Graduation Speech
In these video excerpts, charismatic Newark Mayor, Cory Booker, reminds Stanford graduates that their success is the product of a vast "conspiracy of love," and challenges all of us to engage in the conspiratorial caring that makes our society safe, strong, and ennobling. A clear and compelling message, and one of the most articulate and inspired commencement speeches of recent times.... posted on Aug 4, 5516 reads

One Hat, One Heart
Seeds of Light is the humanitarian service arm of CoreLight, an international non-profit organization practicing "love-in-action." One Hat One Heart is a project that provides handmade, warm winter hats to orphans and vulnerable children in Mpumalanga, South Africa. These hats are the medium through which joy and open-heartedness are being expressed. This short video on their work demonstrates wha... posted on Oct 27, 2702 reads

Solving Gen Y's Passion Problem
"This simple phrase, "follow your passion," turns out to be surprisingly pernicious...The verb "follow" implies that you start by identifying a passion and then match this preexisting calling to a job. Because the passion precedes the job, it stands to reason that you should love your work from the very first day. It's this final implication that causes damage. When I studied people who love what ... posted on Oct 18, 12183 reads

The Wisdom of Babies
"For years I worked with families who were very abusive to their children. Over time, I came to realize that all of the suffering that the children collected -- whether it was domestic violence or child abuse or neglect -- was a result of the absence of empathy in the parent. I saw that if you haven't experienced love, it's very difficult to know how to love. So what can we do to break this cycle ... posted on Jan 25, 0 reads

The World Needs More Love Letters
Finding a letter of encouragement in the mail or tucked unexpectedly in the unlikeliest of places is sometimes all we need when in doubt or feeling down on our luck. And imagine receiving this note anonymously, as if some magical force out there knew just what you needed to hear and wanted you to know that you haven't been forgotten. In the fall of 2010, in the midst of her own depression and lon... posted on Jan 11, 26553 reads

The Wisdom of Babies
"For years I worked with families who were very abusive to their children. Over time, I came to realize that all of the suffering that the children collected -- whether it was domestic violence or child abuse or neglect -- was a result of the absence of empathy in the parent. I saw that if you haven't experienced love, it's very difficult to know how to love. So what can we do to break this cycle ... posted on Jan 26, 40066 reads

Mr. Wright's Law of Love
No one falls asleep in Jeffrey Wright's high school physics class. Exploding pumpkins, hovercrafts and an experiment involving a bed of nails, a cinder block and a sledgehammer, are some of the crazy stunts that keep the students enthralled. But it is a simple lecture - one without props or fireballs - that makes the greatest impression on his students each year. The talk is about Mr. Wright's exp... posted on Mar 9, 7558 reads

Love Your Life: An Interview with Maurice Sendak
As our spirit grows, we become more in touch with the beauty of the world. Artist Christoph Niemann illustrates his personal take on an interview with Maurice Sendak on NPR's Fresh Air. He invites us into a world of wild things, inspiration and the love that Sendak has for the world. "Live your life, live your life, live your life."... posted on Mar 16, 6478 reads

Elders & Llamas: A Love Story
It's not everyday that a llama walks into your room. And that's the magic in it! The llamas is question are therapy animals, who visit nursing homes, mental institutions, and rehabilitation facilities to surprise, delight, nuzzle, and be-nuzzled-by the residents. These lovely, funny-faced creatures have received many hours of special training to provide a comforting, affection-inducing presence. A... posted on May 20, 6842 reads

What Is It To Be Intellectually Humble?
According to Aristotle, "All people by nature desire to know." The wish to know and understand things can foster great ambition. But this article is about intellectual humility, when we care so much about knowing, understanding, and getting to the truth that we become oblivious of what we are "worth." The apostle Paul says, "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." Can love of knowledge bring us h... posted on Jul 10, 34950 reads

A Tale of Misplaced Love and Irony
"When the world began, there was a place for everything in the human heart, and everything was in its place. This meant one never, ever had to look for anything. Which sounds awfully convenient, and that is exactly what it was. Awfully. Convenient. In this impeccable order of things everything happened on a schedule. Serendipity, for instance got the 2 pm slot on Tuesday afternoons (which meant of... posted on Jul 12, 32555 reads

Wearing The Be Love Sign
"I go to the library in Santa Monica to write quite often. The other day, I went there to get some work done, and I see this man standing and looking at some books. New nonfiction. He has a sign on his chest that says "Be Love." I ask him if I can take a picture, and he happily obliges. I turn around to get some money in my wallet. (He's homeless -- that much is evident.) I turn back around, and... posted on Sep 7, 51071 reads

Life, Love & Uncle Don's Last Visit
"That first night, we didn't get to bed until four; it was as if we'd all agreed to wring every last bit of life out of these few days together. Thursday night I baked a six-layer cake I'd found in Bon Appetit... we were singing happy birthday to Uncle Don, as he turned eighty-eight. "You know," he said, "you live alone for so long, and then people do something like this for you, it just makes yo... posted on Oct 9, 20006 reads

A Great Potential for Love
"Natalie Batalha hunts for "exoplanets" -- Earth-sized planets beyond our own solar system -- that might have liquid water and harbor life. ...And, I've never met anyone who speaks more intriguingly than Natalie Batalha about the connection between science, love, and gratitude for life. She is a luminous voice for the way exploring the heavens -- as we do that now -- is bringing the beauty of the ... posted on Jan 29, 26851 reads

Steve & Susie Bear: A Story of Love, Loss and Learning
"Susie Bear was with me for thirteen years. And during that time, the relationship I had with her broke boundaries of what I thought relationships were about. There is a connection you make with an animal that goes beyond words, a power, a communication like a mother has with her infant. It's the communication my mother had when we were upstairs playing, and she would yell up the steps, "Okay kids... posted on Jan 6, 53538 reads

Tell Me A Story
Richard Hamilton asks why we love stories and why we love hearing them spoken aloud, in person. He concludes that whatever the evolutionary explanation, narrative seems to occupy a very central position in our thought patterns, that perhaps storytelling is a sort of flight simulator that allows us to practice something without getting hurt. ... posted on Jan 22, 3207 reads

My Mother's Last Words To Me
They say, a mother's greatest gift is the love that she shares -- unconditional in presentation, and with the capacity to permeate even our deepest wounds. When fear and adversity threaten our place, still a mother's love is there. In this beautiful article, author Sohaib Alvi graciously shares his dying mother's final words. And, in doing so, so brilliantly captures the essence of what it means t... posted on Feb 19, 40545 reads

The Spellbinding Effect of Stories
Richard Hamilton asks why we love stories and why we love hearing them spoken aloud, in person. He concludes that whatever the evolutionary explanation, narrative seems to occupy a very central position in our thought patterns, that perhaps storytelling is a sort of flight simulator that allows us to practice something without getting hurt. ... posted on Jan 31, 9661 reads

A 29-Year-Old's Undying Legacy of Love
He wasn't famous in the usual sense. But no one who met him ever forgot him. Raghu Makwana lost his legs to polio as a child. But he did not let that stop him from serving the world. When a group of students found him he was a young runaway arranging people's footwear outside a local temple. Struck by his luminous spirit they arranged to have him join a non-profit at the Gandhi Ashram in India. In... posted on Feb 10, 35750 reads

Empty Hands, Full Heart: Music for the Soul
At the pinnacle of a dizzying career, young Indian-American rapper Nimesh "Nimo" Patel was haunted by an unshakeable sense of emptiness. In his mid-twenties, he abandoned the limelight. An inner voice nudged him to radically simplify his life and find his purpose in service to others. Moving to the Gandhi Ashram in India, he dedicated himself to the children in surrounding slums. After a 7-year mu... posted on Jun 16, 48904 reads

35 Images of Kindness Within Conflict
This collection of photos showing everyday individuals standing for love in times of terrible violence will shake your spirit and open your heart. These acts of love suggest that "during times of conflict and political or religious civil unrest, the power of the human spirit's capacity for non-violent protest and kindness still shines through."... posted on Sep 17, 99259 reads

Mr. Wright's Law of Love
No one falls asleep in Jeffrey Wright's high school physics class. Exploding pumpkins, hovercrafts and an experiment involving a bed of nails, a cinder block and a sledgehammer, are some of the crazy stunts that keep the students enthralled. But it is Mr. Wright's experiences as a father of a special needs son, and his teachings about love, family, and the meaning of life that leave the deepest im... posted on Dec 1, 12090 reads

Teaching Our Children To Love Their Enemies
"Forgiveness can lead to understanding. Understanding plants the seeds for love." Loving our enemies may be one of the most difficult pearls of wisdom to live out in our day to day lives. It requires overcoming our fears, our egos, and our need to be right. This piece, that tells the story of one woman's compassionate response to a band of young neighborhood pranksters, reminds us of how powerful ... posted on Mar 14, 18999 reads

Saturday In New York With Gitanjali
Gitanjali Babbar is a curious spirit who is gently shaking the world with her selfless service. As the founder of "Kat-Katha" in Delhi, she is bringing community and love to the otherwise bleak existence of sex-trafficked women, their families, and even brothel owners. The community is growing strong and volunteers are pouring in. But, during her recent visit to Manhattan, she told writer Tracy Co... posted on Jun 30, 10491 reads

A Classroom With Love At The Center
Peggy Sia has some remarkable fifth grade moments. "One morning, as we were discussing the meaning of resilience, a student recalled something his coach said to the team during a practice. The things one chooses to do that others will not do today, will enable one to do the things that others cannot do tomorrow. Such powerful words coming from that of a 10-year-old." Every day, they move her to ri... posted on Feb 27, 19646 reads

David Whyte on the True Meaning of Friendship, Love & Heartbreak
After a certain age, words flow from us, often without a second thought. So how can we come back into a conscious relationship with some of the most common words in our language? How can we return with fresh eyes to words like love and friendship? Poet David Whyte dives deeply into these terms, and encourages us to return to their visceral truths.... posted on May 12, 30970 reads

Seeds: A Story of Uncommon Change
Discover the story of Aruna, who's journey speaks of the transformative power of love and service. Aruna grew up in a poor leprosy community in India and, like so many other kids growing up in the harsh reality of a slum, did not believe in her dreams or that much good would come from her life, other than a prescribed arranged marriage. That was, until, she met Jayesh Patel, co-founder of Manav Sa... posted on Sep 7, 3027 reads

An Illustrated Love Letter to Canine Companions
There's something deep nestled within a dog's unconditional love, that prompts humanity's abiding devotion to these gracious,four-legged beings. In our worst of times, they are always there -- cold nose pressed firmly to heart, reminding us that we are not alone. In her beguiling book, Beloved Dog, artist Maira Kalman brings to life the deep bond between humans and their canine companions.... posted on Nov 8, 14540 reads

A Love Letter to the Wilderness
This love letter to wilderness celebrates the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Wilderness Act with stunning images and excerpts of poetry and words on wilderness from Edward Abbey, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Muir and Wallace Stegner. In 50 years, the designated wilderness areas in the United States has grown from nine to 109 million acres, including national forests, national parks, national wildlife r... posted on Jan 3, 5349 reads

India's First Shelter for Dogs with Disabilities
He is a renowned animal rights activist who holds many key positions in his home state. But nothing defines Mahendra better than his immense, undying love for animals. It was this love that led him to establish India's first home for dogs living with disabilities. Read on to learn how Mahendra's service to these dogs began after a chance encounter with a puppy on the streets of India.... posted on Jan 11, 14759 reads