Fetzer' Institute's blog: Each year, as spring begins, we share a reflection on the season by Parker Palmer. In 1995 Parker wrote a welcome for the Fetzer Institute's newly built retreat center, Seasons, which included a reflection on each of the four seasons. Here we excerpt his musings on spring in the Upper Midwest where he lives and where the Fetzer Institute is located. While the seasons may differ in your part of the world and the movement of Parker’s "inner seasons" may be quite unlike your own, we offer his reflections in the hope that you might be encouraged to explore the seasons of your own life and work. I will wax ro... posted on Mar 21 2021 (14,287 reads)

Fox M.A. is the founder and director of the Prison Yoga Project, (PYP), an organization dedicated to establishing yoga and mindfulness programs in prisons and rehabilitation centers worldwide. Since 2002, Fox has been teaching yoga and meditation to prisoners at San Quentin Prison as well as other California State prisons. The Prison Yoga Project helps incarcerated men and women build a better life through trauma-informed yoga with a focus on mindfulness. It helps prisoners make grounded, conscious choices instead of reactive ones. Fox says the practice of yoga was “a gradual awakening” for him. With a background in international affairs, he was recruited into ... posted on Apr 25 2019 (4,800 reads)

followed a path that led me into one of these woods, through a tunnel of green gloom and smoky blue dusk. It was very quiet, very remote, in there. My feet sank into the pile of the pine needles. The last bright tatters of sunlight vanished. Some bird went whirring and left behind a deeper silence. I breathed a different air, ancient and aromatic." A joyful observer of the quotidian, playwright, novelist and essayist J.B. Priestley shares his heart's delight in the quiet manifestations of beauty and magic in everyday life--a quiet pine wood at dusk, a spray of plum blossoms, the light and warmth of sunbeams. Celebrate the everyday wonders of the natural world with J.B. Pries... posted on May 2 2019 (6,382 reads)

handmade Gratitude Tree has hung in our hallway for years. We keep the tree lively by writing on leaves made of brightly colored paper, then tape them to the tree. It’s usually filled with life affirming reminders like hugs from Daddy, going to the library, bike rides, playing cards with Grammy, and yes, winning arguments.  The year my youngest son Sam was six, he got so inspired that he said he was grateful for a hundred things. A bit dubiously I offered to type the list while he dictated. I was astonished as he kept going until the list numbered 117. Listing what we’re grateful for is increasingly popular. Studies show that those who practice gratitude are h... posted on May 6 2019 (8,050 reads)

Seasons of the Soul: The Poetic Guidance and Spiritual Wisdom of Hermann Hesse, translated and with commentary by Ludwig Max Fischer, published by North Atlantic Books, English translation and commentary copyright © 2011 by Ludwig Max Fischer.  All poems by Hermann Hesse from Sämtliche Werke, Band 10: Die Gedichte, copyright © 2002 by Suhrkamp Verlag GmbH, all rights reserved and controlled through Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin. Reprinted by permission of North Atlantic Books. Nature: Source of Strength and Solace (commentary from Ludwig Max Fischer, Phd) Nature was Hesse’s first and foremost teacher: the garden, the forest, an... posted on Jun 9 2019 (8,654 reads)

earth is a machine with inputs and outputs, and the same is true for management. Our MBA thinking looks at an organization as a well-oiled machine, where we have human resources as inputs, and then you try to maximize your outputs. And it's full of engineering language. And it's just fascinating to see how consistently organizations who are led by some of these visionary founders or leaders talk about their organization as a living system, as a living entity, as an ecosystem, and use images and language and metaphors from nature.. And so that has indeed profound implications, like, a machine needs to be programmed. Otherwise it doesn't move. You need a strategic plan, and t... posted on May 13 2019 (7,646 reads)

life and also to marvel at the intricate web of dependence and care that holds us all. May we honor the work of taking care of each other. It is in the recognition of our profound interconnection with one another that we can rise up to protect what we hold most sacred. Let us be moved too by the thousands of activist mothers before us. Let us appreciate and celebrate our deep bonds with each other.  And let us not forget that we need each other’s care. The images above are excerpted from Everyday Gratitude © by A Network for Grateful Living; book design and lettering by Alethea Morrison; watercolors and cover illustration © Katie Ebe... posted on May 12 2019 (8,232 reads)

Hani Rice Terraces in Yunnan Province, China.. Credit: By Jialiang Gao, www.peace-on-earth.org - Original Photograph via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. What do all these ideas have in common—a tax on carbon, big investments in renewable energy, a livable minimum wage, and freely accessible healthcare? The answer is that we need all of them, but even taken together they’re utterly insufficient to redirect humanity away from impending catastrophe and toward a truly flourishing future. That’s because the problems these ideas are designed to solve, critical as they are, are symptoms of an even more profound problem: the implicit values of a gl... posted on May 16 2019 (6,392 reads)

own time on earth has led me to believe in two powerful instruments that turn experience into love: holding and listening. For every time I have held or been held, every time I have listened or been listened to, experience burns like wood in that eternal fire and I find myself in the presence of love. This has always been so. Consider these two old beliefs that carry the wisdom and challenge of holding and listening. The first is the age-old notion that when holding a shell to your ear, you can hear the ocean. It always seems to work. The scrutiny of medicine has revealed that when you hold that shell to your ear, you actually hear your own pulsations, the ocean of your blood being pla... posted on Jul 26 2019 (9,038 reads)

following is an adapted excerpt from A New Republic of the Heart by Terry Patten, published by North Atlantic Books, copyright © 2018 by Terry Patten. Reprinted by permission of publisher. In this pivotal moment of truth for our species, a whole wave of radical conversations is inevitable. For these conversations to really make a difference, we must break through our personas and our inauthentic poses. This is a deeper level of discourse than has hitherto seemed thinkable in public—disarming, tender, and authentic. To my knowledge, we have never had such a public conversation. Any such conversation requires an extraordinary degree of freedom and clarity and intelligence&mda... posted on Jun 2 2019 (5,579 reads)

at Occupy Portland, October 21, 2011. Flickr/K.Kendal via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 2.0. Personal transformation is usually an experience we actively seek out - not one that hunts us down. But in the twenty-first century, becoming a caregiver is a transformation that comes at us because today the ‘call to care’ is at odds with the imperative of work and the call to individual achievement. Being a caregiver is not something most people think or dream about, let alone prepare for, even though it’s a role many of us will inhabit, since there are approximately 43 million informal caregivers in the United States and 6.5 million caregivers in t... posted on Jun 6 2019 (10,237 reads)

aren’t known for being contemplative. By definition they are trying to change something beyond themselves, and the stereotype of an outgoing extrovert with a megaphone exists because in part, it’s true. That kind of campaigning attracts admiration and often appears as the visible face of change. But what if collective introspection made us into better campaigners by improving our ability to listen and learn, especially from those we disagree with? Who we interact with, and how, have became urgent concerns for campaigners, as opinions become more polarised around us. The challenge of reaching people we don’t agree with is especially important at a time when th... posted on Jul 16 2019 (10,381 reads)

members of the group are developing decentralized alternative technologies based on solar energy, while others are creating open source blueprints that enable people without specialist knowledge to construct simple plastic recycling machines all over the world. Continuing the work of Standing Rock, the last two gatherings focused on thwarting oil drilling threats in Portugal, and each included an aerial art action in which participants used their bodies to form giant images alongside messages to "Stop the Drilling." These actions strengthened the growing resistance in Portugal to fossil fuel extraction, which won a significant victory in October 2018 whe... posted on Jul 2 2019 (6,777 reads)

Marton speaks with Fadak Alfayadh Fadak Alfayadh spent her childhood in Iraq—a country that shifted from one world to an entirely different, “unliveable” one seemingly overnight. 15 years ago Fadak sought refuge with her family in Australia, where they received little support from the system but were welcomed by their community in Dandenong, Victoria. Today, Fadak is paving the way for the refugees who have arrived in her wake. Her “Meet Fadak” tours combat the misperceptions that the Australian community holds about those seeking asylum and the narratives we so often hear in mainstream media, while her work as a community lawyer helps support and sett... posted on Jun 24 2019 (3,155 reads)

met Richard Kamler at a party. Most of the party-goers had been on the program at the 2010 Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, CA. Many were also listed in the Women's Environmental Art Directory. Looking around, I saw only two or three familiar faces and, intent on making new acquaintances, I found myself chatting with one person after another. Among them was an older man, slight of build, who was particularly easy to talk with. After awhile, I realized I'd heard about him before: Richard Kamler.      Didn't he have a radio program in San Francisco where he talked with artists? A friend had once suggested I contact him thinking we would hit it off, especial... posted on Jun 26 2019 (3,784 reads)

       “I know,” I chagrined, “I told you it wouldn’t rain.”  I tried to smile as I admitted my over-active sense of success to Deborah Stewart, brave soul who was watching her Breast Cancer Survivor Weekend plans dissolve in the forecast.  In the midst of a dry spring season on the Mid-Atlantic coast, we met on a grey-cloud-filled sky afternoon, in the hour our first participants were to arrive.  We were desperately revising our scheduled outdoor activities, humor and optimism spilling together as retreat leader, amateur naturalist and survivor-volunteers put five heads together to scrape a meaningful experienc... posted on Jul 22 2019 (5,023 reads)

not every day you find yourself chatting with a former Olympian, let alone one whose discipline and determination on the ice has translated effortlessly into shifting the mental health landscape as we know it. Last month, I was privileged to speak with Rachael Flatt, a former competitive figure skater who took seventh place at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Down-to-earth and deeply insightful, it’s no surprise that the 26-year-old, aptly known as “Reliable Rachael”, has already made quite a name for herself. At the time of our call, Rachael had just completed the first year of her Ph.D. program in Clinical Psychology at the University of North Carolina... posted on Jul 1 2019 (4,480 reads)

in aikido and other martial arts fosters confidence, strength and awareness, but to be whole people we need more. We need to learn how to be in relationship with the world without dominating or being dominated. Our martial confidence can give us personal strength but it is the open heart, the intention and capacity to protect and include the attacker that will allow for connection and appreciation. The open heart gives us the possibility of transcending our survival instinct. The element of compassion changes the frequency of the shared field. Compassion has a strength quite different from that of muscle power; it is not only open and inclusive; it also has a blade like aspect th... posted on Jul 18 2019 (9,305 reads)

care not only saves smiles, it saves lives. Yet millions of Americans can’t afford to go to a dentist. They may not have health insurance that covers dental care, or they may live far from a dentist or one who accepts Medicaid patients. In Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America, Mary Otto describes how American dentistry came to the point of producing Hollywood smiles for some while leaving enormous gaps in care for others. In this excerpt, she describes a model of accessible, affordable dental care that is used successfully in other countries and now, in some parts of the United States. Dental health aide therapists, or DHATS... posted on Jul 30 2019 (4,410 reads)

still on the pilgrim path?                   Petra:   I can say I did three major Christian pilgrimage destinations. To Santiago, that was the first one; to Rome, that was the second one; and then to Jerusalem. That was the last, the biggest one. We walked across America and then flew from New York to Lisbon and walked to Jerusalem. RW:   If you think about each of your pilgrimages what comes to you as some of the most important, or memorable, parts you would want to share? Petra:   I think the first one, for sure, was that I realized I could not stay in my j... posted on Aug 3 2019 (5,864 reads)