was thanks to artist Walter Gabrielson that I was able to get in touch with James Turrell. Gabrielson was an old friend of Turrell’s from Pasadena and, like Turrell, also a pilot. The prospect of meeting this remarkable artist was exciting and arranging it took some persistence. Michael Bond, who managed Turrell’s projects around the world, was encouraging, but he suggested some homework. I should go to Los Angeles to experience one of the artist’s pieces in a private collection there, The Second Meeting. Although I was already familiar with Turrell's work from reading about it, the visit to LA underlined my sense of his unique place in the art world. Eve... posted on Mar 26 2017 (16,062 reads)

number of precariats, who, if not completely locked out of the economy, must increasingly compete for temporary employment at low wages—to the point that they can’t pay off student loans or consumer debt, qualify for mortgages, save for retirement, or make plans for the future. Many are essentially one paycheck away from destitution. Standing’s solution is a 29-plank platform of policy changes he calls “the Precariat Charter.” Some are as basic as redefining work to include all productive labor, paid or unpaid, while others are as “revolutionary” as unconditional basic income (UBI), which would pay a basic, livable stipend to every man, woman,... posted on Nov 26 2017 (21,321 reads)

countries in an endless war with each other. Generations of enemies born into hating the opposition. And with no end in sight, Yoav Peck has found a way to harness peace and cultivate unity between two groups of unlikely allies. Co-Executive-Director of the Sulha Peace Project, Yoav says the key is in listening and in working from the heart and not the head. “Each of us has a story. It's important to the Israelis to establish a situation in which not only are they listening to the Palestinians but that the Palestinians are listening to us. And it means listening to the history of our families. Any political future must address the human needs of both sides, We at Sulha stand on... posted on Sep 18 2017 (8,450 reads)

children are playing on a playground and they're fighting, the very first thing that we tend to do is separate them. Separation works to stop the fighting, but it doesn't work to settle the issues that they're fighting over. So there are relatively primitive and relatively advanced methods for handling any particular type of conflict. And those are endless -- throughout our lives, we have nothing but opportunities for transcendence and transformation! To change the form of the thing, and by changing it, we learn from it and discover some higher order of capacity, to come to terms with this thing that was giving us the most trouble.” Ken Cloke is Director ... posted on Nov 27 2017 (14,989 reads)

about you? What’s the hardest part about conversations for you? DAVID WHYTE: I think the hardest part of any conversation is paying attention to something other than yourself, creating a real-life frontier. The hardest part is giving up the name you are going under, the story you’re a part of—giving up your idea of where the conversation is going. That’s the crux of it: the listening ear. I certainly went through this giving up early on in my twenties when I worked as a naturalist in the Galapagos Islands. I got to those islands in freshly-minted scientific arrogance where I soon found that none of the animals had read any of the zoology books I had read.... posted on May 23 2018 (22,469 reads)

Bakshi is a Mumbai-based freelance journalist and storyteller who writes about social and political movements in contemporary India. Two of her well-known books include ‘Bapu Kuti: Journeys in Rediscovery of Gandhi’, chronicling the work and lives of activists engaged in social transformation rooted in the philosophy of Gandhi, and ‘Bazaars, Conversations and Freedom: for a market culture beyond greed and fear’ that looks at the history, philosophy and anthropology of market-systems. In this free-ranging Awakin Call with Rajni Bakshi, a wide range of diverse and thought-provoking themes are illuminated. Some examples include what being a child of Partition ... posted on Aug 23 2018 (5,053 reads)

we celebrate programs and projects that serve as beacons of gratefulness. These efforts elevate the values of grateful living and illuminate their potential to transform both individuals and communities. Join us in appreciating the inspiring and catalyzing contribution these Changemakers offer to shaping a more grateful world. Solar Sister Solar Sister trains and supports women to put clean power in the hands of people in rural African communities. This women-led movement works to recruit, train, and support entrepreneurs who earn income by selling clean energy products directly to people without power. Since its founding in 2010, Solar Sister has reached over 1.5 mill... posted on May 22 2019 (6,404 reads)

with the Multiple Hats Syndrome Despite the neighborly support, I was stretched thin with all the hats I wore, striving to perfection in every role: mother, sister, daughter, wife, physician, teacher, friend, colleague, acquaintance, and so on. For seventeen years I left home at six in the morning with both children plus three or four other neighborhood children in the carpool. I’d drop the girls off at the girls’ school, the boys at the boys’ school, then come to work. After a long day at work, I would pick them up and drop them at whatever after-school practice they had, run to the grocery store, pick up some food for them, come back to the office and work un... posted on May 18 2020 (5,665 reads)

I respect on the inadequacy of the simplistic ways we take up such questions, if we take them up at all — the necessity of moral imagination and the cultivation of character alongside all of the so-called hard skills that are no longer serving us. This is at the heart of her book, Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World. It feels important to me, in a moment like this, to look below the radar of rupture — to see models and practices that work, and that in fact can take up the huge hard problems. Acumen, which Jacqueline Novogratz founded and leads, is an exercise in creative, human-centered capitalism: a venture capital fund that serv... posted on May 26 2020 (6,914 reads)

in the millions, topping bestseller lists across the US, Canada and Australia and causing a revolution in the medical world. Having studied the classics and philosophy as a young undergraduate in Toronto, Norman earned a medical degree, followed by psychiatric and psychoanalytic training at Columbia University in New York. This bedrock of philosophy compelled Norman to pursue life’s big questions: What is mind? What is consciousness? What is life? Spellbinding in its brilliance, his work to date has had a profound impact on our understanding of the human brain. What was formerly thought, for centuries, to be in a state of degenerative decline, the brain is now understood to ... posted on Nov 10 2021 (12,152 reads)

editors reflect on what the past year of witnessing everyday people choose love over fear have taught us. Unsung Heroes Are Right Under Our Noses We are taught to look at the stage to see displays of greatness, but it's resoundingly clear that heroes can often be found among the most ordinary, everyday situations. If you walk into a Walmart late at night, you may just run into a high school principal stocking shelves. In South Carolina, school principal Henry Darby works the night shift after full school days and donates his earnings to his struggling students. Go for an early morning run at the park, and you might meet a community legend. Along the waterfront i... posted on Jan 4 2022 (15,225 reads)

and I’m calling to ask about Deborah Meier.” He said, “Just a minute please,” went and turned down the radio, came back, and said, “Deborah Meier the educator?” I said, “Yes. The Schumacher Lectures are this weekend, and Deborah Meier is one of the speakers. He said, “I don’t know who you are, and I don’t know anything about the Schumacher Lectures, but I do know about Deborah Meier. She is my daughter’s mentor. My daughter worked for her, and her whole life has been changed by that experience.”  It was an extraordinary conversation. Now, in a small town like Great Barrington, this kind of thing happens to ... posted on Feb 13 2023 (2,666 reads)

follows is the edited transcript of Chelan Harkin's Awakin Call Mark Peters:  So it’s now my honor to introduce Chelan. Chelan has been channeling ecstatic poetry for more than a decade now and has published two popular collections of her work, Susceptible to Light and Let Us Dance: The Stumble and Whirl with the Beloved, both of which were released in 2021. Her books aim to remind readers of their inherent joy, to support modes of relating to life that open the heart, and to deconstruct anything about God that doesn’t feel intimate, authentic, and warm. Her publishing journey has been supported by mystical connections and prayer experim... posted on Apr 1 2023 (5,125 reads)

but here, we’re being trained to notice that certain things that come up in our consciousness take us out of the more full experience of our self, in presence, through these different modalities of our consciousness, through different intelligence that exists within us. So for me, as a Five, there’s been this long journey of being more grounded, being more physical, when in the early days of learning about all this, my teacher had me literally chop wood and carry water. I had to work in labor, I was working out in fields, I was working on drywall, and he was trying to develop that body-center intelligence in me. There’s also been a journey of being more emotionally a... posted on Apr 7 2023 (6,573 reads)

follows is the transcript of the Awakin Call with Nic Askew, moderated by Preeta Bansal ,and hosted by Steve Elkins.  Steve Elkins: Our moderator today is Preeta. Preeta Bansal has had a lifelong passion for service which, for much of her life, took the form of public service. A constitutional lawyer by background, Preeta has served in some of the most senior posts in the governmental and corporate sectors, from the White House to U.S. diplomatic and human rights work, to the top echelons of state government and global corporations and law firms. Her passion for service is now finding expression in ServiceSpace, and she is the anchor for these Awakin Calls alo... posted on Apr 11 2023 (3,374 reads)

conversation took place in March 2024.Guest: Mary Ann BrussatHost: Janessa Gans WilderModerator: Charles GibbsJanessa: Welcome, everyone. My name is Janessa, and I will be hosting today's Awakin call. Thank you for joining us from wherever you happen to be in the world and here from sunny California. The intention behind these calls is to plant seeds of awareness and transformation within ourselves and our communities through conversations with individuals whose journey and work inspire us.Awakin Calls is an initiative of ServiceSpace, a distributed, global, all-volunteer community committed to the principle that by changing ourselves, we change the world. Behind each of these calls is ... posted on May 5 2024 (3,278 reads)

some employees, a typical day at the office might begin with a barrage of work-related questions from impatient colleagues who have been awaiting their arrival. For others, it might start off with a series of cheerful greetings from co-workers, questions about how their family members are doing or perhaps an offer to grab a quick cup of coffee before the daily work deluge begins. According to Wharton management professor Sigal Barsade, there is reason to believe that the latter scenario — which illustrates what she refers to as “companionate love” in the workplace — is not only more appealing, but also is vital to employee morale, teamwork and customer sati... posted on Jun 12 2014 (23,031 reads)

Kafka is considered one of the most creative and influential writers of the 20th century, but he actually spent most of his time working as a lawyer for the Workers Accident Insurance Institute. How did Kafka produce such fantastic creative works while holding down his day job? By sticking to a strict schedule. He would go to his job from 8:30 AM to 2:30 PM, eat lunch and then take a long nap until 7:30 PM, exercise and eat dinner with his family in the evening, and then begin writing at 11 PM for a few hours each night before going to bed and doing it all over again. Kafka is hardly unique in his commitment to a schedule. As Mason Currey notes in his popular b... posted on Oct 13 2014 (22,172 reads)

some employees, a typical day at the office might begin with a barrage of work-related questions from impatient colleagues who have been awaiting their arrival. For others, it might start off with a series of cheerful greetings from co-workers, questions about how their family members are doing or perhaps an offer to grab a quick cup of coffee before the daily work deluge begins. According to Wharton management professor Sigal Barsade, there is reason to believe that the latter scenario — which illustrates what she refers to as “companionate love” in the workplace — is not only more appealing, but also is vital to employee morale, teamwork and custo... posted on Dec 2 2014 (22,531 reads)

when she asked me this question I drew a blank. I didn’t have an answer, and that was a big shock to me. I felt colorless.” Mother of three and managing director of the Goi Peace Foundation in Tokyo, Japan, Maki Kawamura shares her story softly. Sincerity flutters through her words like a small, bright-eyed bird. It is difficult not to be instantly won over. “I realized that I really needed to find my own color and the only way to find my color was to really work with myself. To ask myself: ‘What do you love? What are you here for? What were you born to do?’ It took more than a year to do this. Prayer helped me.” When Maki uses t... posted on Apr 23 2016 (18,249 reads)