have been on this planet for 400 million years longer than humans. I believe that trees have a soul, they have a conscience. And I do believe that anyone, everyone can learn to communicate with them." The following is an edited version of an interview with David. You can read or listen to the full version of the interview here.  Samir Patel (moderator): Thank you everyone, for giving me the opportunity to host this conversation. My first point of contact with David and his work was when I was living at the Gandhi Ashram. I was at a farm and came across this book called “The Man Who Planted Trees” by Jean Giono. At that time, it was a book that inspired me to... posted on Mar 23 2017 (29,699 reads)

someone, “How are you today? I know you are suffering. If you want to talk about it, I’m here,” then people can bring it up. Ms. Tippett: I’m Krista Tippett, and this is On Being. [music: “Seven League Boots” by Zoe Keating] Ms. Tippett: Sheryl Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Facebook. Adam Grant is a professor of psychology at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. They’ve previously written together about gender and working life. Now they’re launching a book and a non-profit together called Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy. Ms. Tippett: Where I think I’d like to star... posted on Jun 17 2017 (17,962 reads)

a poem is made available to the public, the right of interpretation belongs to the reader,” young Sylvia Plath wrote to her mother as she reflected on her first poem. What is true of a poem is true of any work of art: Art transforms us not with what it contains but with what it creates in us — the constellation of interpretations, revelations, and emotional truths illuminated — which, of course, is why the rise of the term “content” to describe creative output online has been one of the most corrosive developments in contemporary culture. A poem — or an essay, or a painting, or a song — is not its “content”; it transforms ... posted on Jun 27 2017 (8,426 reads)

surrender. Finally, Tami and Michael discuss the application of these ideas to those things we truly value, including bringing the idea of surrender to social and environmental activism. Tami Simon (TS): You're listening to Insights at the Edge. Today, my guest is Michael Singer. Michael Singer is the author of the number one New York Times bestseller The Untethered Soul and The Surrender Experiment. In 1971, while pursuing his doctoral work in economics, Michael experienced a deep inner awakening and went into seclusion to focus on yoga and meditation. In 1975, he founded the Temple of the Universe, a yoga and meditation center wher... posted on Dec 22 2017 (48,422 reads)

E. F. SCHUMACHER LECTURES OCTOBER 2004, STOCKBRIDGE, MA EDITED BY HILDEGARDE HANNUM Judy Wicks is one of my heroes. She is a single woman who built and runs a financially successful business, which at the same time is socially responsible and ecologically accountable. The White Dog Cafe not only serves regionally grown organic food but actively supports the network of farmers who grow that food. Staff share in profits and decision-making. The White Dog Cafe hosts community discussions around global issues of peace, renewable energy, rights of workers in countries around the world, hab... posted on Apr 17 2018 (8,111 reads)

a poem is made available to the public, the right of interpretation belongs to the reader,” young Sylvia Plath wrote to her mother as she reflected on her first poem. What is true of a poem is true of any work of art: Art transforms us not with what it contains but with what it creates in us — the constellation of interpretations, revelations, and emotional truths illuminated — which, of course, is why the rise of the term “content” to describe creative output online has been one of the most corrosive developments in contemporary culture. A poem — or an essay, or a painting, or a song — is not its “content”; it trans... posted on Sep 9 2019 (5,068 reads)

never met before. Episode after episode lays bare the theater of relationship, which is also the drama of being human. And that’s what I take up with her this hour. What does “erotic intelligence,” one of her terms, have to do with the human condition writ large and to life at every stage — coupled or not? And how might it inform our emotionally raw societal dramas? [music: “Seven League Boots” by Zoë Keating] Esther Perel: My book and my work is about eroticism. It is about how people connect to this quality of aliveness, of vibrancy, of vitality, of renewal. And that is way beyond the description of sexuality. And it is mystical. It ... posted on Dec 18 2019 (11,125 reads)

the current Executive Director of the Charter for Compassion, which provides an umbrella for people to engage in collaborative partnerships worldwide. In December 2019, she spoke with MEGHANA ANAND about the organization, its partners, and the work done through the Charter in different countries. Marilyn is an educationist-author and writes about world religions and cultures, bringing out their diverse and uniting threads. MA: How did it all begin, your work with the Charter for Compassion? MT: Well, I think it all started when I was a child from a hyphenated American family, in this case Croatian-American. I grew up in an immigrant neighbo... posted on Aug 18 2021 (3,208 reads)

and the Institute on Race & Poverty at the University of Minnesota. john and I talk about belonging, and what I can tell you is that his warm presence is such an elegant invitation for all of us to become ambassadors of belonging, to build belonging, to become belonging activists in our lives. I’m so grateful I had this chance to talk to john a. powell and to share this conversation with you. john, I’ve really been looking forward to this conversation. Just the preparatory work that I’ve done has already been illuminating for me. I’ve learned so much, and I’m so grateful to have this chance to share you and your wisdom with the Sounds True audience, so... posted on Aug 31 2021 (3,558 reads)

of Washington, DC, and the author of more than 15 books, including two books with Sounds True, Living an Examined Life and Living Between Worlds: Finding Personal Resilience in Changing Times. With Sounds True, he’s also created the audio series, Through the Dark Wood: Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life. And a new series, A Life of Meaning: Exploring Our Deepest Questions and Motivations. All right, I’m going to tell it to you as it is. In my work at Sounds True, one of the greatest privileges I feel I have, one of the greatest joys for me is to get to speak with someone who has the depth, the life experience and the ability to help so man... posted on Oct 1 2022 (4,645 reads)

of human experience is a conversation between loss and celebration. This “conversational nature of reality” — indeed, this drama of vitality  — is something we have all been shown, willing or unwilling, in these years. Many have turned to David Whyte for his gorgeous, life-giving poetry and his wisdom at the interplay of theology, psychology, and leadership, his insistence on the power of a “beautiful question” and of everyday words amidst the drama of work, as well as the drama of life. The notion of “frontier” — inner frontiers, outer frontiers — weaves through this hour. It is a delight to surface this as a companion ... posted on Jun 18 2023 (4,500 reads)

Karout is a leadership trainer and researcher working at Harvard and across the US and the Middle East, who teaches and coaches based on the principles and practices of adaptive leadership. Her work aims to build the capacity of individuals and communities to hold conflict and navigate complexity across various levels of authority. She holds a Bachelors of Engineering from the American University of Beirut, a Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, and is an incoming PhD candidate at UC Berkeley, where she will research the pedagogical and theoretical implications of generative AI. Vartika Sharma is a collage artist and illustrator based in New Delhi, India. Inspire... posted on May 15 2024 (3,395 reads)

ages range from 4 to 13 years of age. Thank you so much, Dr. Aguila, for joining us today. Demetrio: Thank you for inviting me to be on this call today. I'm very excited to be here and I'm very humbled and flattered that we have this opportunity to chat. AM: In your clinic, you created a compassionate payment program, M25 [where people can pay for their surgery by doing community service]. How did that come to you? Demetrio: I spent many years in the Air Force, and much of the work that I did was taking care of military members and their families. But during my last deployment which was to Afghanistan, I spent most of that time doing humanitarian work, taking care of the lo... posted on Jul 26 2024 (2,664 reads)

all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.’ ~Alexander Graham Bell Many of us grew up in the age of multi-tasking, where you couldn’t call yourself productive if you weren’t a good multi-tasker. We learned to always have several balls in the air at once — while writing something on the computer, we had a phone call going, we were writing something on a notepad or paper form, we were reviewing documents, sometimes even holding a meeting at the same time. That’s the productive worker, the effective executive. When email and Instant Messaging and blogs and the rest of the Internet came al... posted on Oct 5 2011 (40,017 reads)

ways, and complain about it: This is the source of their angst, their confusion, and yet here you are, one of the leading teachers on what unblocks creativity, and what you're offering is actually quite simple, at least on the surface. JC: I think that my tools are very simple. I sometimes say to myself, "Julia, it's like they go to school with you, and they come to kindergarten," but I believe that having the tools be so simple is one reason why so many people work with them, Tami. They have a feeling almost of déjà vu when they try the tools and they realize, "Oh! I used to journal!" "I used to go on expeditions!"... posted on May 7 2013 (26,983 reads)

the leaves have fallen around it and some have fallen into it. Rain and snow have fallen into it, and the fallen leaves have held the moisture and so have rotted. Nuts have fallen into it, or been carried into it by squirrels; mice and squirrels have eaten the meat of the nuts and left the shells; they and other animals have left their droppings; insects have flown into the bucket and died and decayed; birds have scratched in it and left their droppings or perhaps a feather or two. This slow work of growth and death, gravity and decay, which is the chief work of the world, has by now produced in the bottom of the bucket several inches of black humus. I look into that bucket with fascinati... posted on Mar 4 2014 (23,529 reads)

mom, chubby red-haired kid that went to a different school every two years. So you know no self-esteem at all. I had a really good third grade teacher. She had a big roll of butcher paper. She was like, “Now who should I give this to?” I was just kind of like “…ehh.” You know?  She’s like, “Yes, you.” It was just one of those things. I felt like I could do this. I could paint. I could draw. It was mostly nature. When I was very young I worked in acrylics, mostly nature. And when I was a teenager, it was cars for a while, pen and ink. All kinds of exotic cars, and I just kind of went back into oil paints exploring how to paint an emo... posted on Feb 16 2014 (22,513 reads)

is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work,” Chuck Close scoffed. “A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood,” Tchaikovsky admonished.“Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too,” Isabel Allende urged. But true as this general sentiment may be, it isn’t always an easy or a livable truth — most creative people do get stuck every once in a while, or at the very least hit the OK plateau. What then? Not too long ago, Alex Cornell rallied some of our time’s most celebrated artists, writers, and designers, and asked them to share t... posted on Apr 22 2014 (26,838 reads)

too long, too many of us have been entranced by heroes. Perhaps it’s our desire to be saved, to not have to do the hard work, to rely on someone else to figure things out. Constantly we are barraged by politicians presenting themselves as heroes, the ones who will fix everything and make our problems go away. It’s a seductive image, an enticing promise. And we keep believing it. Somewhere there’s someone who will make it all better. Somewhere, there’s someone who’s visionary, inspiring, brilliant, trustworthy, and we’ll all happily follow him or her. Somewhere… Well, it is time ... posted on Aug 28 2014 (35,402 reads)

“but once I got out the situation was pretty dismal.” That’s when he turned to the Doe Fund, as tens of thousands of homeless men and ex-cons have done since 1990. One of some 700 current members of Ready Willing & Able, the Doe Fund’s flagship training and sustaining organization, Joe will spend the next few months cleaning the streets for a small hourly wage while the organization offers him a place to sleep and three meals a day. His evenings will be spent working for a GED and learning computer skills. (There are also drug relapse prevention workshops, AA/NA meetings, conflict resolution, financial management, and parenting classes.) Then, if all goes ... posted on Jan 4 2015 (31,411 reads)