by Diane Barker The present pandemic, which in a few short months has wreaked havoc across our world, is most likely caused by an imbalance in the natural world, as loss of habitat and biodiversity is not only driving animals to extinction but directly causing animal viruses to spread to humans. In response our leaders are using the images of conflict: “We are at war with Covid 19,” we keep hearing; it is an “invisible enemy” we need to “vanquish.” But although this virus is disrupting our lives, causing sickness, death, and economic breakdown, it is itself a completely natural phenomenon, a living thing reproducing itself in the way nature in... posted on Aug 9 2020 (15,723 reads)

finally killed by exploitation and grief, we need to find this story, song, dance, dream, and so help the Earth become alive again, its colors to sing in the air.  Because just as stories nourish our soul, give us a sense of belonging, so too do stories nourish the Earth in hidden ways. This is part of the ancient covenant between humanity and the natural world, how magic is woven into the web of life and how that magic can come alive again, in the songlines of Dreamtime, in the images of the First Peoples, spirals engraved on stone, or the animals, bison and bulls, even a rhinoceros, painted on the cave walls in Southern France. Our rational world may have banished magic fro... posted on Sep 20 2020 (7,215 reads)

Jam 2017, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU),  photograph courtesy VCUArts Excerpts from an unpublished manuscript... Creativity makes us kin . . . the goal is to quickly and easily engage participants in a relaxed and creative state by transforming cloth strips into soft sculpture, using folk-art tradition of rag-rug making. Crochet Jam . . . is a bridge that unites people and cultures. I grew up on a small farm. My father harvested a bounty of vegetables–cabbage, green peas, onions, white and sweet potatoes, green beans, corn, beets, squash, cucumbers, watermelons, cantaloupes, green and red peppers, lettuce. We raised pigs, chickens; and even earthw... posted on Oct 14 2020 (6,604 reads)

time of crisis and chaos, the kind that a pandemic brings, is, among other things, a time to call on our ancestors for their deep wisdom. Not just knowledge but true wisdom is needed in a time of death and profound change, for at such times we are beckoned not simply to return to the immediate past, that which we remember fondly as “the normal,” but to reimagine a new future, a renewed humanity, a more just and therefore sustainable culture, and one even filled with joy. Julian of Norwich (1342–ca.1429) is one of those ancestors calling to us today. After all, she lived her entire life during the worst pandemic in European history—the Bubonic plague that killed 4... posted on Nov 13 2020 (10,802 reads)

paths diverge     From the beginning, human beings have sought to understand the laws that govern the universe, their role in the great cosmic orchestra and   of an existence marked by the constant interplay of joy and pain,beauty and abomination, amazement and anguish, life and death.  Early on, this search for meaning led humanity to explore the spiritual dimension. This exploration took two main paths, following the two movements described by Plato and the Neo-Platonists: an ascending directionality, which follows matter to spirit; and a descending path,which goes from spirit to matter. According to this vision, the cosmos a multidimensional w... posted on Nov 18 2020 (7,389 reads)

friend of mine was looking to buy a horse that could be a backyard buddy, a friend to their current quarter horse mare and new member of the family. She didn't want to spend a lot of money, so I suggested we go to the local monthly horse auction to see if we might rescue one of the horses from a potential death sentence. For those of you who are unfamiliar with horse auctions, many times the meat buyers end up taking the unwanted animals at low prices. There are always horses there who have plenty of life left and just need someone to show up and recognize their value, see their heart, and offer them a space where they can just be a loved horse. We found a few older horses who se... posted on Nov 24 2020 (12,307 reads)

cool breath of evening slips off the wooded hills, displacing the heat of the day, and with it come the birds, as eager for the cool as I am. They arrive in a flock of calls that sound like laughter, and I have to laugh back with the same delight. They are all around me, Cedar Waxwings and Catbirds and a flash of Bluebird iridescence. I have never felt such a kinship to my namesake, Robin, as in this moment when we are both stuffing our mouths with berries and chortling with happiness. The bushes are laden with fat clusters of red, blue, and wine purple, in every stage of ripeness, so many you can pick them by the handful. I’m glad I have a pail and wonder if the birds will be ab... posted on Jan 19 2021 (11,607 reads)

us.  “People say, ‘Yes, I’m very happy,’ but that could change tomorrow,” Lopez says. “If the underlying spiritual and social and psychological bases are not strong enough, they’ll change.” *This story is based on a research project of a political nature. Therefore, pseudonyms are used to protect the participants’ identities. Interviews were conducted in Spanish and translated into English. People shown in these images were not a part of the research. ... posted on Jan 20 2021 (4,800 reads)

being traced with the delicacy of a paintbrush, my creativity blossoming with each new turn. Over time, I felt called to reconstruct the original visualizations, a pursuit that filled my waking hours. Crafting color schemes and uniting design elements was like learning a new language that you wish you’d always spoken. It was, and continues to be, a labor of love and an honoring of my innermost self in ways that I couldn’t have imagined. The combining of these inner messages with images -- first with my photographs, and then with my graphic designs, was a natural unfolding that neither words nor timelines can fully explain. If I told you that Emily’s Affirmations was bor... posted on Feb 14 2021 (7,461 reads)

good and I’m being paid to do this awesome work in the world, so what’s going on here? I became very interested in exploring the human nature connection, spending solo time in nature, depth psychology, dreams, altered states of consciousness and realms of knowing beyond the rational. Because really the world I’d been working in was for the most part very rational. I started having a series of really strong archetypal dreams that were littered with wild creatures, gypsy women, images of dismemberment. Some were truly numinous encounters, both in waking life and dreams. By numinous I mean an encounter beyond the ordinary that feels like it has a strong meaning or significanc... posted on Mar 1 2021 (4,757 reads)

a spiritual perspective, ego is always trying to claim the privileges of being right and to assign judgmental proof about who is wrong; and by doing so it blocks receptivity to the subtler realms of spiritual insight. Receptivity is the door to a more spacious and non-judgmental awareness. The mystic practices attunement to what is and tries to leave behind any ego attachment to what should be. It is one thing to practice this as a meditation exercise; it is another to carry it into one's daily life. After all, what we're talking about here is a strenuous commitment to breaking down the conditioning that blocks us from a subtle receptivity to the language of spirit. We litera... posted on Mar 3 2021 (4,651 reads)

Mallette. CC0 1.0. “Can we dare to think people are kind, and shape organisations around this view?” That’s the question Rutger Bregman examines in his latest book Humankind, and it’s one that anyone involved in youth and community work like me wrestles with on a daily basis. But is Bregman’s optimistic analysis grounded in reality? For anyone who’s read this piece on the “Real Lord of the Flies,” the gist of the first half of Bregman’s book will be familiar. His premise is that despite news reports, social media, politics, religions and ideologies that suggest otherwis... posted on Mar 8 2021 (4,787 reads)

and family members, for precious little money, but enough to help the women support their families. They were made from fabric scraps, mostly worn out dresses, sheets, and aprons, and were more functional than beautiful. But the warmth they provided, and the visible hand stitching, spoke to me of the hard work that went into their making, and of a powerful connection to their creators since each stitch was a direct link to the work of their hands. Some years later I was inspired by the images of the AIDS Quilt, which consisted of countless numbers of large, quilted blocks, each representing a loved one who had died of AIDS, made by friends and family. I saw a section of the AIDS Qui... posted on Apr 29 2021 (7,309 reads)

the quiet of the mind that would tell me many things about my life; nothing was off-limits. It told me what to eat, who to interact with, and where to make efforts in my life. It even prefigured my moving to the islands of Hawai’i, twenty years later. After a little while, the voice said, “a twenty-six day personal workshop.” And sure enough, from that day forward for twenty-six days, my inner wisdom led me to places and precise moments where the scene and the photographic images I made had something valuable to teach me. I could not have conjured up these images and their precise symbolic language had I tried—nor did I fully understand them. Yet, after many years... posted on Aug 10 2021 (2,963 reads)

have overheard pale-skinned visitors to this refugee camp speak of windows as large as a cow and covered by glass that slides wide open. Those stories sound absurd. Such windows would be completely impractical! We Dinka windows allow in some air, of course; but first and foremost, we are designed for safety and comfort. Look at my size and shape: a triangle smaller than a cracked plate. No thief or rapist or looter could pass through me! If I were large, what sense would that make? A cow-sized window could not block the constantly blowing sand. Grit would cover the cooking pot and the sleeping mat and the faces of the children. Grit would tangle their hair and stick in their teeth ... posted on Sep 16 2021 (5,004 reads)

following is excerpted from Transforming Trauma: The Path to Hope and Healing. Trauma comes to all of us, and its consequences can be terrible.  That’s the truth and the bad news. The good news is that all of us can use tools of self-awareness and self-care to heal our trauma and, indeed, to become healthier and more whole than we’ve ever been.  If we accept the pain that trauma inflicts, it can open our minds and  bodies to healing change. If we relax with the chaos it brings, a new, more flexible, and more stable order can emerge. Our broken hearts can open with tender consideration and new love for others, as well as ourselves. This is the time... posted on Nov 30 2021 (4,925 reads)

excerpt from Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good, by Chuck Collins (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2016) Have you ever lived in a mobile home? Not me. Until the age of 24, I had never set foot in one. But two years later, I’d been inside hundreds. My first job out of college was to work with mobile home owners who rented their home sites in private parks around New England. The goal was to help them organize and buy their parks as resident-owned cooperatives. On an April day in 1986, I was sitting at the kitchen table of a spacious double-wide owned by Harlan and Mary Parro in Bernar... posted on Dec 6 2021 (7,126 reads)

us as sensory beings. It reveals messages and meaning, it can create comfort through a colour palette, a chord, a poem, a photograph. Art can enhance an environment or soften it. It creates space, it allows room to breathe and connect to the present. "I think art helps us acknowledge our own humanity, and remind us that we are all in this together, all deserving of the kindness of strangers." Which is why the Super Power Baby Project has had such an impact I guess. The images in the book shine back at you with so much life! Photography was my tool for communicating how amazing the children are. I was able to capture them, and their personalities and spark in a way t... posted on Jan 16 2022 (4,024 reads)

Masque for the Four Seasons. Walter Crane, 1905-1909. Oil on canvas. Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt, Germany. Wikimedia Commons. Source: Daderot Time speaks in many voices, many different images and sounds. For the Neolithic builders of Stonehenge, sacred time was marked by the Summer and Winter solstices, particularly the Winter solstice, when, at around 3:50 pm the midwinter sun would set in the southwest and its rays flood through the center of the monument, dropping down onto the altar stone. Thousands of years later, for the medieval farmer time was the changing seasons and the saint’s days, as well as the monastery bells ringing out over the fields, marking the monk&... posted on May 2 2023 (3,614 reads)

elder Arun Bhatt ("Arun-dada") spent decades serving alongside Gandhian legend Vinoba Bhave in India's historic Bhoodan (Land-Gift) Movement, Shanti Sena (Peace Army), and beyond, with an unwavering spirit and shining eyes. He passed away on Sept 2, 2024 at the age of 91 in Vadodara, India. Below is a 2019 interview with him during his visit to California, U.S. [Welcome to our Awakin Circle. Today we have an unusual speaker. There are traditional speakers who share in a sensational way, who share something extraordinary and amazing and we are rapt with attention. But then there are unusual speakers who share in away that just turns our pointer inward. And when you're in... posted on Sep 3 2024 (3,102 reads)