detail: Silva, 42, cannot afford to pay. He lives rough under the platform of a cable car station in Madrid’s sprawling Casa del Campo park, one of dozens of homeless people who have started dining for free at the “Robin Hood” restaurant that earlier opened this month. The project is the brainchild of the “Messengers of Peace” association, led by Angel Garcia, a 79-year-old rebel priest with a thick head of white hair and kindly smile known for his charity work and alternative church. By day, the restaurant charges regular customers for breakfast and lunch with an 11-euro (US$11.7) menu, subsidizing the same meal for the homeless at night, even if th... posted on Dec 29 2016 (14,150 reads)

whenever I lose a sense of presence, I automatically start pushing myself and others along, absent to the flow of energy. So the question of whether we are leading or following is a useful one to keep at the back of your mind and ask repeatedly as you go through your day. For example, next time you engage in doing something, notice how your arms move. Observe the relationship between your hands. They could be aware of each other, turning and talking to each other as you move. When you are working with this image, you will be able to experience a constant reflection of energy from one hand and arm to the other, until they both become alive and tingling. They move through space in relati... posted on Feb 5 2017 (13,089 reads)

years ago I moved to the heart of the Navajo Reservation in northern Arizona. I was a graduate student, working on my PhD at the University of Illinois, and I wanted to live for a while among the People, the Dine’, to find out what research for my dissertation would be most helpful to the tribe. Within a few weeks, I fell in love: in love with the incredible landscape of red sandstone cliffs and mesas that was as different from the Midwestern rain and black soil as if I had moved to Mars. And in love with the magnificent people and the way they welcomed me as family. So I dropped out of my doctoral program and decided to stay in Navajoland. I needed to provide something in ret... posted on Feb 11 2017 (20,114 reads)

equipping yourself for such action, and for the consequences that come with it. “For anyone to become an active, everyday social hero who does daily deeds of helping and compassion, that journey and new role in life begins in one’s mind,” says psychologist Philip Zimbardo, author of The Lucifer Effect and founder of the Heroic Imagination Project. While few of us will witness an actual hate crime, anyone can be confronted with hateful language—at work, on the street, or even over Thanksgiving dinner. Here are some strategies you can use to turn your mind toward everyday heroism—and to act in ways that reflect that commitment. 1. Educa... posted on Mar 6 2017 (26,783 reads)

overdrive like a sixth sense. When his hearing was surgically restored two years later, the medical miracle ignited his passion for music and science which he channeled into his wildly successful 30+ year career as the CEO of the world’s largest and most-awarded audio communications agency, Elias Arts.  It's from this uniquely intuitive and empirical place that he stands against the conventional economic thinking that businesses exist simply to make a profit. Scott’s work is a force for bringing out the very heart and soul of business.  By designing for love in some of the world’s biggest companies, he’s a leading voice for the idea that busi... posted on Mar 16 2017 (8,127 reads)

life. Many of the essays, poems, and teachings suggest that, while the process of dying is often difficult and painful, there is something beautiful and true about fully showing up for it.  —SM     A Call to Mercy Hearts to Love, Hands to Serve by Mother Teresa Image Books Blessed Mother Teresa of Kolkata was canonized by Pope Francis on September 4th, coinciding with the conclusion of his Year of Mercy jubilee, honoring those engaged in works of mercy. It’s hard to comprehend how she could have such superhuman fortitude; such unbelievable selflessness; such passion for Christ; such an ability to transcend physical disgust.... posted on Apr 4 2017 (38,060 reads)

Child” television segment at WFAA-TV. Campos estimates that, over the years, she has featured more than 350 children, 75 percent of whom were adopted thanks to her reporting. But of all those children, there was one young boy whose story she would not soon forget — that of Ke’onte Cook. In 2007, Campos featured spunky, well-spoken, 8-year-old Ke’onte on her program. He was adopted shortly after the segment, but unfortunately it didn’t work out and he went back into the foster care system, where he bounced from home to home. After learning about his unfortunate situation, Campos featured Ke’onte again in August 2009. This time... posted on Apr 19 2017 (17,814 reads)

humble toaster. They came up with three different approaches, each of which, says the company, “embodies a different strategy to designing circularity from the outset.” Designing for Longevity AoD began by attacking the planned obsolescence that has dominated product design for so long. Knowing that aluminum recycles “with no loss of its material properties” and that the material is likely to remain valuable to recyclers for the foreseeable future, the design team worked to make every part of the first toaster, known as the Optimist, out of aluminum, “starting off with 100% recycled content and knowing that it can be infinitely recycled into other product... posted on Apr 24 2017 (16,292 reads)

to people. That was my first formal job, and the way people connected there and the way they listened to each other, it really did feel like family. What I learned was your title wasn't all that important. It didn't matter that I was a doctor. What mattered was that I could connect, that I could relate to that essence of being human and being related to each other's happiness. My journey continued on -- I got some scholarships, got certified as a medical assistant and started working in many clinics. Today, I am being trained as a Physician's Assistant, currently working with a geriatric doctor. Yet, I still carry my experience at Michael's store. People skills, ar... posted on Aug 3 2017 (11,230 reads)

anything so good, so sweet. I wanted to grow everything.” For a quarter century, all manner of trees and flowers, fruits and vegetables, have thrived across abandoned lots in the Bronx because of Washington. Deemed “the queen of urban farming,” she’s an African-American woman who’s dedicated her life to greening New York City’s poorest borough. Since 1985, Washington has assisted dozens of neighborhoods build their own community gardens, taught workshops on farming and promoted racial diversity in agriculture. Your food “is not from a grocery store, it’s not from a supermarket. It’s grown in the ground,” she says. ... posted on May 13 2017 (8,502 reads)

familiar practice, and serves as a building block to all that follows. For example, even accomplished musicians practice the basic scales. No scales, no Beethoven. Same with athletes: no jogging, no marathons. Spiritual teachers: no regular contemplation, no wisdom to share. Underlying all of this is repetition and commitment, but also a certain elegant simplicity. The form an effective practice takes is rarely complicated, maybe because we are complex enough inside ourselves, and the real work remains in grappling with the mind and persisting until something shifts and the heart knows it. Placing these ideas about practice and opportunity within the context of our day-to-day lives, it ... posted on May 18 2017 (21,852 reads)

overcoats. Being a vegetarian, I gave him back the contents of the sandwiches and just ate the buttered white bread. His face darkened; I didn’t know real hunger, he said. But in less than a minute he was back to his cheerful self, giving me advice on everything from the Scottish history they don’t tell you in school to how to find out if a rabbit’s at home using a twig, and the best way to find a sandwich: look for the back door of a hospital kitchen, since the people who work there are always willing to help. After an hour or two I reminded myself that my companion was a hitch-hiker’s hindrance and declared that we should go our separate ways in order to incr... posted on Jun 10 2017 (9,590 reads)

lines of force are revealed, for example, through patterns that can be seen in iron filings sprinkled on a sheet of paper covering a magnet. Without digressing too far from our topic, many physicists now believe that all matter is composed of vibrating 10 or 11 dimensional strings or “branes,” that vibrate at different frequencies to produce all the known elementary particles. A super-symmetrical unification of all known forces and particles within a single vibrational framework would tell us that the universe does not consist simply of lumps of matter separated by vast reaches of empty space, but of a constant translation of matter into energy and back again, that is ex... posted on May 24 2017 (8,901 reads)

against each other as leaders of countries facing conflict or crisis. "The students scheme and negotiate, compete and cooperate, wage war and make peace. But the game is not won until all countries enjoy security and prosperity. Says one fourth grader, “One of the things I learned is that other people matter. In this game one person can’t win, everyone has to win. That taught me a lot about cooperating with other people, being generous, and having an attitude that, if you work together, you can achieve anything.” Moved by a story about 7-year old, Owen Shure's heartwarming letter to a football player who missed a vital kick, one mother considered... posted on May 26 2017 (10,071 reads)

This experience recalled the former one at the compost. This time I wasn’t mired in grumpiness, I just wasn’t really there at all. Where had my mind been when suddenly this luminous deep purple red pulled it into the now? Now was full, rich, alive. That other place? I don’t even know. Pulling a red onion from the soil, peeling the hard, dirt-encrusted outer skin away, I see a white layer pasted against the dark red. The dark color behind the pale layer reveals a network of pattern, similar to brick work, to skin cells seen under a microscope, to the strata of layers in the inner bark of a tree. Again, I am arrested with beauty and the marvel of the patterns in N... posted on May 29 2017 (13,468 reads)

at an exhibit of paintings and sculptures of wild animals. There I met and touched a rescued Barred owl named Luna. How exciting to be so close to wildness. This past summer, I lost my best friend of 50 years and in the fall, I was diagnosed with cancer. The fragility of human life was put right in front of me. I sought solace in nature, seeking solitude, silence, and hibernation. And nature is not something out there. I got it that I am nature--we are nature---we are a part of this vast network of life. Oregon naturalist, Loraine Anderson says, “Our bodies are the earth of us, and a wild river pulses in our blood.” Some Native American tribes thought a person could lean a... posted on Aug 12 2017 (16,721 reads)

social entrepreneur known for building huge, global coalitions, Jeroo first started in Mumbai, working with street children. She gave them her private phone number in case of emergencies. Soon every night it was ringing. From that caring and then recognition of system need came Childline. Any street child could call a free number and be answered by a trained and sympathetic street child. Shortly thereafter help would be on the way. The consequences were profound. Services could connect with need. Bad and good performance became clear. Areas of shortage gained resources. And police exploitation fell sharply because a call to a sympathetic operator from half a block a... posted on Jun 7 2017 (9,782 reads)

word that tempts us to think outwardly, to run bravely against opposing fire, to do something under besieging circumstance, and perhaps, above all, to be seen to do it in public, to show courage; to be celebrated in story, rewarded with medals, given the accolade, but a look at its linguistic origins is to look in a more interior direction and toward its original template, the old Norman French, Courage is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work; a future. To be courageous is not necessarily to go anywhere or do anything except to make conscious those things we already feel deeply and then to live through the unending vulnerabilities of ... posted on Jun 15 2017 (17,832 reads)

the Hood’s mission: Prepare young people of color for rewarding careers in tech. For Zakiya Harris, growing up in East Oakland, Calif., meant navigating between two acutely different worlds every day. “I grew up in the hood, but I went to a very affluent school,” she says. “So I spent my days being one of few black people, and I spent my nights being in a predominantly black neighborhood. I believe that really shapes the work that I do, because I’ve always been a bridge-builder.” Today, Harris is building bridges in the Bay Area as the co-founder of Hack the Hood, an Oakland-based nonprofit that introduces young people of color to career... posted on Jun 18 2017 (7,068 reads)

us to react to immediate danger. If there’s a rhinoceros coming at a group of people full speed, everybody gets up and runs. If you say, “There’s a rhinoceros coming in 30 years,” people will ask, “What’s the problem?” Moderator: The reason I’m interested in this question of emotional responses is because behavioral scientists say that people are frozen by bad news and motivated by positive messaging. This creates a challenge for those working for environmental change. Matthieu: All my photographic work is about showing the beauty and the wonder we have in terms of nature—implying, of course, how incredibly sad it woul... posted on Jun 19 2017 (16,475 reads)