so it was easy to take a leap into the dark. At the time, it felt like the next interesting adventure, to explore solitude and simplicity in a very foreign place. I have friends who left the United States to live in Japan because they disliked the United States or felt there were no opportunities for them. Came to Japan, built good lives here, but I think there’s still some restlessness because they never accomplished what they wanted to in the United States. There’s unfinished business with them at home. And so that is a different situation I think. They knew they didn’t want to be in Australia or England, but they didn’t know that they particularly wanted to... posted on May 11 2018 (12,465 reads)

were motor neurons firing in monkeys when monkeys didn’t move a muscle. It spawned an avalanche of interest in all things empathy. At the same time, corporations have been driving the idea for empathy. As they are looking to market things to us — one-to-one — as opposed to the mass-media commercials, they’re calling that empathy, which may be a bastardization of the term. Knowledge@Wharton: We have seen certain areas of science getting incorporated into the business world, and into society in general. Seemingly, this is the latest. And it feels like businesses understand that empathy in the workplace is important, both in terms of working with their empl... posted on Jun 26 2018 (10,770 reads)

settlement for Te Awa Tupua and for all — not just the Maori.”  Asked whether the pakeha populations, local government, or the Crown were nervous about the implications of ceding property claims, Beverley said, “What has been put in place is a very forward looking framework. I think we’re going to see a springboard for this type of thing. People are already taking next steps voluntarily.” The Maori and the Crown see these new protections as good for business, and ultimately good for the economy. “This legislation recognizes the deep spiritual connection between the Whanganui iwi and its ancestral river and creates a strong platform for the ... posted on Jun 2 2018 (6,953 reads)

sitting here smiling as I say this because a couple of hours ago I visited the completion of a project in Harlem, very green healthy housing for low-income seniors. It has beautiful gardens and a back yard and social support services. I really believe the world is a better place for the creation of that building, and that the lives of everyone involved in the project have been enriched by being involved in something that makes the world a better place. And our firm undertook it as a for-profit business, in partnership with a local community based not-for-profit group, HCCI, Harlem Congregations for Community Inc. Via Verde’s stepped form was designed to maximize the use of natu... posted on Jul 14 2018 (9,441 reads)

I must confess that actually I'm very confused, on the details of what all the changes that we’re going through, means. I’m completely puzzled about where this is taking us. Because I would say there are 2 or 3 major converging trends. One is that inequality and struggle for livelihoods is going to intensify very, very sharply. Second is how much technology is now set to change the way we know life. Whether it is robots that will be almost like human beings, or this whole business of gene splicing and gene mixing and people being able to have a custom-made baby. The third factor is the impending and accelerating ecological collapse. Not just climate change -- climate c... posted on Aug 23 2018 (4,970 reads)

the ante on those two things—dread and hope—enormously, as you’d expect. So at this point my tendency was to look at these things that were so heavily traded upon and simply wonder if they could pay the rent that they seemed to owe for the enormous real estate they took up in the enterprise. That’s all. It was an exercise in discerning, not in judging. So I looked at hopefulness, not the hoped-for thing. Because they did get cagey after a while in the palliative care business. They realised that dying people hoping for a cure was probably not the best deal, right? So what they just did is gently nudged them towards, quote, “More realistic hope,” that&r... posted on Oct 19 2018 (12,548 reads)

revealed the intimate dependence of the human on the integral functioning of things. That the human had such intimate rapport with the surrounding universe was possible only because the universe itself had a prior intimate rapport with the human. This experience we observe even now in the indigenous peoples of the world. They live in a universe, in a cosmological order, whereas we, the peoples of the industrial world, no longer live in a universe. We live in a political world, a nation, a business world, an economic order, a cultural tradition, in Disneyworld. We live in cities, in a world of concrete and steel, of wheels and wires, a world of business, of work. We no longer see the st... posted on Nov 21 2018 (5,778 reads)

the money down every three months and had a meeting with them about how to be intelligent with this stuff called money. The more we worked with the power of the Amazon rainforest — this magnificent, incredible treasure — the more we realized that this call that we thought came from the Achuar actually came through the Achuar from the forest, from the spirit of life. Once we felt that that was what was calling us, I knew this was the next chapter of both of our lives. Bill was a business guy. He had three companies. He was very involved in yacht racing. I was running 50 countries for The Hunger Project. We had kids. We had no time to do this. But once it became clear that it ... posted on Dec 7 2018 (10,823 reads)

translate facts about the environmental cri- sis into effective action in the United States. We are discovering that the human heart is not changed by facts alone but by engaging visions and empowering values. Humans need to see the large picture and feel they can act to make a difference. Failing to Dream We could name many complex factors that have contributed to this impasse, the failure of dreams. Here is a brief summary of a few of them: 1. Institutions and leadership — in business, in government, and in religion — put up resistance. In business, a corporate mentality operates with a single-minded mantra that economic growth is an unqualified good and ecological c... posted on Dec 17 2018 (6,758 reads)

article shows how in response to thuggish forces the qualities of feminine intelligence—available to men as to women—can enable us to take a significant leap in consciousness and demonstrate what anyone can do to build a beautiful future. Published in Spring | Summer 2017 What we encounter now—in Europe and the Middle East, as in the US—is an upsurge of primitive, brutish forces employing threat, superior power, trickery, punishment, and information manipulation. It is as if permission has been given for thuggish behaviour. We are witnessing—very starkly because it is on our screens daily—the darkest capacities of humans to hurt, humil... posted on Dec 21 2018 (8,579 reads)

And that's representative of many of the feelings of immigrants who have left arduous circumstances or violence. Their sense of gratitude is paramount and leaves no room to stand up for equality or justice.” Simon Hampel: A Quest for Visionary Leaders and Change Agents How do leaders become wise and compassionate stewards? The question has guided Simon Hampel in his work as a Partner of Leaders’ Quest, a London-based organization that trains leaders in business, government and civil society worldwide to become purposeful, conscious, and transformational leaders. “My sense of purpose is when you connect to something bigger tha... posted on Jan 21 2019 (7,081 reads)

another line of yours I love: “We see trees. What more do we need?” Ms. Kalman:That’s really true. It’s really hard to be sad. And of course, I’m always looking at the things that make somebody less sad, a.k.a. happy, which is not “a.k.a.” at all. So walking and looking at trees really is one of the glories of the world, and we say “Rejoice” when we see these things. We say that when we see people walking and going about their business, but something about trees — they’re very hard to paint, by the way, but I’m happy to try. Ms. Tippett:And again, I guess I’m speaking for myself, but I think I&rsq... posted on Feb 14 2019 (6,761 reads)

to a fugitive building a fairer version of Bitcoin, to the rural electric co-op members who are propelling an aging system into the future. As these pioneers show, co-ops are helping us rediscover our capacity for creative, powerful, and fair democracy." WTF?: What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us by Tim O'Reilly "In today's economy, we have far too much dismay along with our amazement, and technology bears some of the blame. In this combination of memoir, business strategy guide, and call to action, Tim O'Reilly, Silicon Valley's leading intellectual and the founder of O'Reilly Media, explores the upside and the potential downsides of today... posted on Mar 1 2019 (9,983 reads)

there are few options to escape extreme poverty. A California native, Lacey has been a Sister of Mercy since 1966. G.K. Chesterton tells the story of a person--let's call him Joe--who lived a rather unreflective life and was entirely indifferent to spiritual matters. Early in mid-life, Joe unexpectedly died and slid unceremoniously into hell. Joe's old buddies really missed him. One evening, over a few beers, they formulated a plan to rescue him. They decided that Joe's business partner should go down to the gates of Hell to negotiate springing him from the place. He knocked and knocked, pleaded and pleaded, but the gates never budged; the heavy iron bars stayed firm... posted on Apr 24 2019 (8,149 reads)

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 the California wine and beer business, and then eventually transitioned into the nutritional supplements business. In 1987, he also became a serious student of yoga and mindfulness. While finding that there were physical benefits... posted on Apr 25 2019 (4,937 reads)

about it. I prepared a big inheritance for you.”      I thought, “My God!” I thought perhaps he left me some money. I thought, “Man, I have to get in contact with my half-sister!” So, I called her. That was the first real contact with her too. She said, “There is no money.” Then I wanted to go to the cemetery [where her father was buried]. I wanted to go to a material place, and I’d learned where his grave was. I had a business meeting in Cologne, and I thought, “This is the day.” But I couldn’t find the gravestone. Then I had another business meeting in Cologne and I went again to this place. My i... posted on Aug 3 2019 (5,935 reads)

call a thermodynamic reaction. A thermodynamic reaction pulls in carbon, bonds the carbon into sugar and evolves oxygen. Your life and my life and all the lives of all the creatures on this planet, depends on that one reaction. And we do not understand it! CAMERON: That is a sobering thought. One of the things that struck me as I was reading your book is that I know some of these things, and in a way the book made things kind of click for me. I suddenly realized that you have the whole business of fragrances as a chemical reaction, you have colours.... You said at one point a tree is a chemical factory. Then you went on to talk about the ways in which the chemicals that it produc... posted on Sep 12 2019 (6,956 reads)

in Mornese, Italy in August, 2013. I had made a pilgrimage of sorts there, a little more than a year after Blyden’s death, as an expression to myself that I was still alive even though I felt lost without my partner of almost 40 years. We had a good friend who lives near Mornese, Rossano Pestarino, whom we had gotten to know and love and who became family through correspondence over the previous five years, after he purchased a rare book from us on Amazon.com, on the little used-book business that Blyden and I enjoyed conducting there. Rossano and I struck up a conversation after he purchased this book, emailing each other back and forth, sharing our life stories and ourselves. I ... posted on Feb 14 2020 (4,859 reads)

write her notes and she could tell me, "That's what that means." Laura was 27 years old, she'd worked for Google for four years and then for a year and a half at Airbnb when I met her. Like many of her millennial cohorts, she had actually grown into a managerial role before she'd gotten any formal leadership training. I don't care if you're in the B-to-B world, the B-to-C world, the C-to-C world or the A-to-Z world, business is fundamentally H-to-H: human to human. And yet, Laura's approach to leadership was really formed in the technocratic world, and it was purely metric driven. One... posted on Feb 27 2020 (7,290 reads)

rapidly change, where the social permission for flying and other high carbon behaviours rapidly shift. From our position on this uphill side of the slope, it’s hard to imagine it, but imagine it we must. Sometimes on my travels, I see places where it has already tipped. Persephone supervising Sisyphus in the Underworld, Attica black-figure amphora (vase), c. 530 BC, Staatliche Antikensammlungen. Wikipedia. There’s the guy I met in France who 3 years ago started a business composting food waste from businesses, and for whom the first 2 years were exhausting and no-one was interested. Then, something tipped, and now he can’t keep up with demand, and is hav... posted on Jun 30 2020 (4,789 reads)