McFerrin: This is what I want everyone to experience at the end of my concert is everyone has this sense of rejoicing. I don't want them to be blown away by what I do, I want them to have this sense of real, real joy from the depths of their being. Because I think when you take them to that place then you open up a place where grace can come in. Krista Tippett, host: Who better to contemplate the human voice — its delights, its revelations, and its mystery — than Bobby McFerrin? He's won 10 Grammys and is as comfortable with Chick Corea as with Mozart. He's also known for drawing thousands of strangers into singing the Ave Maria, beautifully, to... posted on Aug 15 2014 (14,491 reads)

Kingsnorth examines the collective fear of the future and the progressive concept of space colonization. He urges us to deflect the delusions created by our techno-industrial society. It was perhaps most popular in the 1950s, as a new consumer society began confidently rolling off the production line, and the age of literary science fiction arguably reached its peak. It was particularly popular with children, who read about it in comics with titles like Fantastic Adventures and Planet Stories. But many adults were equally sold on the promise offered. It was assumed fairly widely that by the year 2000 the promise would have been kept, and that humanity would benefit greatly. ... posted on Jul 27 2014 (14,299 reads)

creative activities like knitting and cooking can boost your levels of serotonin and decrease anxiety. Photo by Asife/ Shutterstock. Do you consider yourself creative? If the answer is "no," you are not alone. We have been working as creativity facilitators for close to two decades, and whenever we ask people this question, shockingly few hands go up. It turns out that you don't have to be a great artist to be creative. Creativity is simply our ability to dream things up and make them happen. Cooking breakfast, planting a garden, even developing a business plan are all creative acts. But here is where the arts do come in. Partici... posted on Jun 5 2014 (37,735 reads)

is a time-honored strategy in the repertoire of nonviolence, but we must learn to use it properly. Poke fun at the problem not the person. Credit: http://breakingstories.wordpress.com. All rights reserved. Five or six men stood over me yelling as I sat in a chair at the Ministry of the Interior in San Salvador in 1989. I was there to renew my visa as a member of Peace Brigades International (PBI), an NGO that provides 'protective accompaniment' for teachers, trade unionists, students, indigenous leaders, church workers and other activists when faced by threats of violence. I was on the verge of tears, with horror stories fresh in my mind about people who had b... posted on Jul 8 2014 (36,229 reads)

not swimming in Walden Pond, Linda Booth Sweeney, a systems educator and writer, focuses on how to clearly and creatively teach students of all ages about living systems to help them make better decisions in the world. She spoke with Lisa Bennett, communications director for the Center for Ecoliteracy and coauthor of Ecoliterate: How Educators Are Cultivating Emotional, Social, and Ecological Intelligence, about leaving a career in advertising for education, teaching her own children about living systems, and feeling hope for the future. LISA BENNETT: You live in Concord, Massachusetts — home of Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Walden Pond. I assume that you... posted on Jul 5 2014 (19,170 reads)

stuff of our lives — perishable and processed, luxurious and essential, mass-marketed and handcrafted, manufactured and farmed — arrives safely and conveniently, thanks to a complex web of wraps, packs, and pallets. Yet this packaged world also comes to us at an undeniable cost. In the U.S., containers and packaging materials constitute 32 percent of the municipal solid waste stream, over 800 pounds per person annually. To keep goods moving, 500 million new wooden transport pallets (enough material on a volume basis to frame 300,000 houses) are added each year. More than 80 percent of these pallets are used once before being ground up, incinerated, or thrown away. S... posted on Aug 14 2014 (15,689 reads)

science is just beginning to understand how Facebook has changed our social lives since it was born ten years ago. Over the past ten years, Facebook has added a new dimension to the social lives of over a billion people—and together with other social media like Twitter and Instagram, it has created an entirely new category of social ties. Given their popularity, social media have become the topic of a growing body of research in the social sciences. For Facebook’s tenth birthday, I collected ten discoveries this research has yielded. If you’re on Facebook, then these studies apply to you! 1. Facebook might increase dissatisfaction with your life. Th... posted on Nov 16 2014 (28,991 reads)

become the tools of our tools; And the fault – and the solution – lies not in our tools, but in ourselves. The digital revolution promised so much at the outset: computers would make air travel safer, health care more affordable, and education more widely available. But for all the evident benefits – and there are many – the tools have taken over the toolmakers. - Complex algorithms, beyond human understanding, replace even the most high-valued jobs, including the jobs of algorithm writers; - Yet even as jobs and income disappear, mobile devices bombarded with messages urging endless consumption of finite resources. The resulting ... posted on Aug 4 2014 (24,876 reads)

years ago I was living in a small, second-floor walk-up apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts. One day my refrigerator stopped working. It still managed to store my food, but kept it warm rather than cold. When I called a repair shop they said it would cost fifty dollars just to send someone to look at it. As an impoverished graduate student with little disposable income, I resolved to fix the refrigerator myself. First I went back to the used furniture guy who sold me the refrigerator. Based on my description of what happened, he said it probably needed an electrical part that cost only a few dollars, and told me where to buy it. I went to the electrical supply store, and the ... posted on Sep 4 2014 (19,825 reads)

UN High Commissioner for Refugees. “We tried to stay away from politics because we serve diverse communities,” Feder says. “But what happened with Babi pushed us to the forefront of a very public struggle. He’s part of our family.” The Garden Library started a Facebook page called “freeBabi.” Within four hours the new group had over 300 “Likes.” It quickly grew to over 1,000. People across Tel Aviv, even some Israelis abroad, posted images with supportive slogans. Ibrahim was released on July 24. “I wouldn’t be free today without the Garden Library community,” he says. On July 29, the Garden Library team s... posted on Nov 1 2014 (19,134 reads)

is a quote somewhere, perhaps it is a lyric to a song “look with your heart not with your eyes” – I love this and try whenever possible to include my heart as I go throughout the day, especially when meeting new people. Recently, my 94 year old grandmother was moved from hospital to a rehabilitation/care facility. I have been visiting her almost daily. She has dementia and has no short term memory –she doesn’t know I came yesterday but is grateful to see me today. We laugh easy together, play solitaire in partnership, high-five with both hands when she “wins" at the end; we play only as long as it is fun then I hold her hands, or she hold... posted on Sep 1 2019 (50,009 reads)

photo: Sean Butler, 16-year-old sophomore at Carmel (Calif) High School, mentors Judy Dudley on how to use her smart phone. Photo by Dennis Taylor CARMEL, CALIFORNIA- Seniors who feel like today’s technology has left them in the dust are hitching a ride with a philanthropic gaggle of students who, in their spare time, are helping older generations return to the fast lane with their iPods, iPads, smart phones and computers. A group of teenagers who never knew a world before computers launched Wired for Connections/Mentor Up, a club at Carmel High School in California, designed to help senior citizens understand the basics of modern-day devices and brid... posted on Oct 2 2014 (38,953 reads)

something off can trigger a downward negative spiral. But a recent study suggests that being kind to yourself can help you achieve your goals. Why do we procrastinate? Often because we fear failing at the task and dread all the negative self-evaluations that might result from that failure. Unconsciously, feeling okay about one’s self becomes more important than achieving the goal. But the procrastination, of course, triggers other negative feelings about ourselves—recriminations and ruminations for “failing” to take action. In 20 years of providing psychotherapy, I’ve witnessed so many times how paralysis in the face ... posted on Oct 9 2014 (60,151 reads)

Smith Listens, Strums a Bit, Then Helps Soldiers Write Their Song This story first appeared on the Christian Science Monitor. SongwritingWith:Soldiers provides a healthy emotional outlet. The songs help others facing similar challenges and build a bridge between military service and civilian life. By David Conrads BELTON, TEXAS — It’s a warm, clear morning just outside Temple, Texas. Darden Smith sits down after breakfast with his guitar and his laptop, as he often does, to write a song. In a career that spans nearly 30 years, the native Texan and longtime Austin, Texas, resident has written and co-written innumerable songs, recorded 14 albums, and performed ... posted on Aug 20 2014 (14,773 reads)

Keegan, Her Parents, and The Opposite of Loneliness Borne of forgiveness, a young author’s first and last book rings silently true BY ALICE PECK ON APRIL 8, 2014 Marina Keegan’s The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories got a lot of attention when it was published by Scribner. It has already received accolades from The New York Times, The New Republic, and other major publications, and it deserves all the buzz, shares, and likes it will get. This posthumous collection of essays and short stories is beautiful and brilliant, young but not childish—just like the author was. Every essay is a gem you want to pick up and put in your pocket, taking it out from... posted on Apr 6 2021 (59,859 reads)

born with millions of little lights shining in the dark And they show us the way One lights up Every time you feel love in your heart One dies when it moves away" -- Michael Passenger Like so many of us, I felt such sadness in hearing the news of Robin Williams' death. Although I'm aware that creative, bright, and humorous people are as susceptible as anyone (maybe even more susceptible) to depression, there's something about the uniqueness of Robin Williams' gifts that makes me wish he could have been spared emotional anguish. I'd also like to imagine that anyone who played such incredible characters as the therapist... posted on Nov 25 2014 (18,005 reads)

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. Alberto Casillas, instantly became a national celebrity in Spain when he protected a group of youths who were protesting against the government’s austerity measures. The police were beating and attacking protestors who then ran into Casillas’s cafe for protection. When the police demanded he let them enter, he stood against them, with absolutely no weapons or way to defend himself and said, ”On my Life, you will not enter! It will be a massacre.” Ukrainian girl giving sandwiches to pro... posted on Sep 17 2014 (98,835 reads)

remain in prison for the rest of my life is the greatest honor you could give me: the story of Sister Megan Rice Where does moral courage come from - the energy and strength to challenge and transform much larger powers? A prison correspondence provides some answers. Credit:http://climateviewer.com. All rights reserved. The Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oakridge, Tennessee, is supposed to be impregnable. But on July 28th2012, an 84 year-old nun called Sister Megan Rice broke through a series of high-security fences surrounding the plant and reached a uranium storage bunker at the center of the complex. She was accompanied by Greg Boertje-Obed (57) and Michael Walli (63).... posted on Oct 1 2014 (34,095 reads)

kindness just an old-fashioned value celebrated in kindergarten and then soon forgotten as one grows older and more ambitious --- or is there more to it? As increasing numbers of people look to live a purpose-driven life, research is beginning to reveal the tremendous rewards that come with living kindly. What follows are some of the most compelling recent studies on the topic of kindness, and the ramifications they hold for ourselves and our world. 1: Kindness rewires our minds for greater health: “The biggest news is that we’re able to change something physical about people’s health by increasing their daily diet of positive emotion, and that helps us get... posted on Sep 23 2014 (142,937 reads)

on navigating the open sea of knowledge. For my part in the 2014 Future of Storytelling Summit, I had the pleasure of collaborating with animator Drew Christie — the talent behind that wonderful short film about Mark Twain and the myth of originality — on an animated essay that I wrote and narrated, exploring a subject close to my heart and mind: the question of how we can cultivate true wisdom in the age of information and why great storytellers matter more than ever in helping us make sense of an increasingly complex world. It comes as an organic extension of the seven most important life-learnings from the first seven years of Brain Pickings... posted on Nov 9 2014 (20,290 reads)