Ceres Community Project, by The Gratefulness Team
think we all crave connection. Ceres gives a lot of people a way to create it…Caring for each other, especially through the vehicle of food, is a gift for both the receiver and the recipient. Here in our feature “Grateful Changemakers,” 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. Ceres Community Project The Ceres Project energizes communities by linking what we eat and how w... posted on Apr 5 2019 (4,780 reads)

Kazu Haga: The Creation of Our Beloved Community, by Bela Shah
following piece is based on an August 2nd, 2014 Awakin Call interview with Kazu Haga. You can listen to the full recording of the interview here. Kazu Haga’s dream is that one day, children in every school in the United States will not only learn traditional subjects like math and history but also how to practice nonviolence. As they grow up in our society and confront conflicts that will inevitably arise, they will know how to relate to each other as human beings instead of enemies. Kazu is the founder of the East Point Peace Academy, an organization that is dedicated to bringing about a culture of peace. Just close your eyes for 20 seconds and imagine what a culture of... posted on Apr 8 2019 (6,545 reads)

Solar Sister, by The Gratefulness Team
in our feature “Grateful Changemakers,” 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... posted on May 22 2019 (6,345 reads)

Three Ideas. Three Contradictions. Or Not., by ted.com
name is Hannah. And that is a palindrome. That is a word you can spell the same forwards and backwards, if you can spell. But the thing is --  (Laughter)  my entire family have palindromic names. It's a bit of a tradition. We've got Mum, Dad --  (Laughter)  Nan, Pop.  (Laughter)  And my brother, Kayak.  (Laughter)  There you go. That's just a bit a joke, there.  (Laughter)  I like to kick things off with a joke because I'm a comedian. Now there's two things you know about me already: my name's Hannah and I'm a comedian. I'm... posted on Feb 11 2020 (6,425 reads)

Befriending Ourselves: An Invitation to Love, by Kristi Nelson
are the one you have been waiting for. ~ Byron Katie Everything flourishes in the nourishment of our appreciation. If we are interested in greater flourishing in our lives, it will surely serve us to surrender the burden of incessant goals, shoulds, aspirations, and the need for accomplishments. We can release the litany of ideas about what we must have and need to fix, who we should be, and whose permission we might require before we can be grateful for who we are. We can even set down many of the confines of how we have learned to identify ourselves in the world. We do not need to do, have, or be anything to be worthy of receiving our own acceptance and kindness. Instead, we can tu... posted on Jul 28 2019 (9,038 reads)

Wild Imagination, by Geneen Marie Haugen
16, 2019 John Atkinson Grimshaw, Midsummer Night, or Iris, 1876 “Go forth onto the land”—and reanimate the world Descended from the indigenous hunter-gathers of the European arctic, I am an uprooted – or unrooted, or partially rooted – human being, currently re-homed in the American Southwest. Part of my family’s story was deliberately misplaced. Like the colonized indigenous people of North America and other continents, my Sami ancestors ingested profound shame for their “uncivilized” ways. Decades ago, when I started to wonder if there was something unspoken in my family story, I asked my mother if our Finnish ancestry might ... posted on Jul 25 2019 (8,400 reads)

Gratefulness Embraces Parkinson's, by Tim Roberts
was diagnosed with Parkinson’s just over three years ago when I was 50. Receiving the diagnosis from a matter-of-fact doctor was a traumatizing experience, and I felt that my life and my family’s identity had collapsed. Life was difficult and still is difficult, yet something amazing is beginning to happen. I have slowly started to shift my attitude from the anger, fear, and loneliness brought on by the Parkinson’s and the grim predictions of a Parkinson’s future to a more body-based feeling of gratefulness for the wholeness of life as I experience it second by second.  I have discovered not only profound wonder and indebtedness for the gift of my life and r... posted on Aug 4 2019 (6,805 reads)

It Could Be Worse, by Michael Eselun
imagine that the very last person to survive the end of the world as we now know it, will at some point turn around and say to no one there at all—“Damn!  But I guess it could be worse!”  It’s a pretty darn universal coping strategy I find. And an effective one.  It demands that we step back from our current circumstances and get a larger perspective. And it sort of insists that we muster some kind of gratitude for whatever we do have, slapping us into an “attitude of gratitude.” In my work as a cancer chaplain, at the Simms/Mann-UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology, I would say that upwards of 90% of the folks I’ve seen over the y... posted on Aug 20 2019 (10,220 reads)

The True Life of the Forest, by Silver Donald Cameron
conversation is presented courtesy of TheGreenInterview.com, a website that has produced more than 100 feature-length interviews with many of the world's greatest environmental thinkers and activists. More about the site here.  Dr. Diana Beresford-Kroeger, botanist, medical biochemist, writer and broadcaster, combines medical training with a love of botany. She is an expert on the medicinal, environmental and nutritional properties of trees, and author most recently of The Global Forest. When her parents died, she was raised by an uncle who taught her everything from physics to Buddhism and Gaelic poetry. She was one of only ... posted on Sep 12 2019 (6,941 reads)

Giving Directions, by Akiko Busch
has been made in recent years of the manner in which people ask for directions—women do, men don’t; women will admit to being lost, men generally won’t. Of much greater interest to me is the way people give directions. MapQuest and GPS notwithstanding, we all need to pull over and ask someone for help sometimes. The odd and overtly contradictory instructions that are then invariably offered charm me so thoroughly that I often end up glad to have gotten lost. Providence, Rhode Island, is a city in which I am prone to wrong turns, and on my last trip there, I made the inevitable stop at a bodega to find out how I might find my way out of town and back to Route 6. The ... posted on Sep 22 2019 (3,875 reads)

How Emotions Change the Shape of Our Hearts, by ted.com
other organ, perhaps no other object in human life, is as imbued with metaphor and meaning as the human heart. Over the course of history, the heart has been a symbol of our emotional lives. It was considered by many to be the seat of the soul, the repository of the emotions. The very word "emotion" stems in part from the French verb "émouvoir," meaning "to stir up." And perhaps it's only logical that emotions would be linked to an organ characterized by its agitated movement.  But what is this link? Is it real or purely metaphorical? As a heart specialist, I am here today... posted on Nov 11 2019 (19,213 reads)

13 Life Lessons From 13 Years of Brain Pickings, by Maria Popova
October 23, 2006, Brain Pickings was born as a plain-text email to seven friends. It was then, and continues to be, a labor of love and ledger of curiosity, although the mind and heart from which it sprang have changed — have grown, I hope — tremendously. At the end of the first decade, I told its improbable origin story and drew from its evolution the ten most important things this all-consuming daily endeavor taught me about writing and living — largely notes to myself, perhaps best thought of as resolutions in reverse, that may or may not be useful to others. Now, as Brain Pickings turns thirteen — the age at which, at least in t... posted on Oct 31 2019 (17,478 reads)

Why We Turn to Mr. Rogers, by Shea Tuttle
spent a lot of time with Mister Rogers over the last three years as I researched and wrote my book about his life and faith. Throughout, I have been fascinated by the question of why we keep summoning him forth from memory. For decades, we have recalled Fred whenever something terrible happened in our world, sharing his comforting words and image on social media. Then, in the last couple of years, we’ve dug a little deeper, with documentary and books (and merch!) galore. This week, the fascination seems to have peaked with the release of a feature film, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, starring Oscar winner Tom Hanks. Why do we ... posted on Nov 27 2019 (12,947 reads)

Earth as Goddess, by Thanissara
Mandaza Augustine Kademwa, from Zimbabwe, was born a Svikiro (in Shona, his native tongue), a carrier of many earth and water spirits, and a Mondhoro (Lion), one who is in constant prayer on behalf of others. He is guided by water and lion spirits. As a vessel of the Spirits, Mandaza receives visions and dreams, makes offerings, performs healing rituals, and serves as a messenger for the Ancient Ones. Mandaza is an African traditional healer and voice for Mother Nature, who was initiated through the tradition of the njuzi, the water spirits. Mandaza carries with him, in his heart, the Central African spiritual tradition of healing and peacemaking. —Thanissara ... posted on Dec 8 2019 (6,034 reads)

How to Overcome Our Biases? Walk Boldly Toward Them, by ted.com
follows is the transcript of Verna Myers 2014 TEDx talk I was on a long road trip this summer, and I was having a wonderful time listening to the amazing Isabel Wilkerson's "The Warmth of Other Suns." It documents six million black folks fleeing the South from 1915 to 1970 looking for a respite from all the brutality and trying to get to a better opportunity up North, and it was filled with stories of the resilience and the brilliance of African-Americans, and it was also really hard to hear all the stories of the horrors  and the humility, and all the humiliations. It was especially hard to hear about the bea... posted on Dec 13 2019 (9,594 reads)

Seeking Wholeness in a Time of Brokenness, by Awakin Call Editors
Victor Kazanjian is the executive director of the United Religions Initiative (URI), a global grassroots interfaith peacebuilding network.  URI has more than a thousand multi-faith groups working in over a hundred countries with a million volunteers to build bridges of cooperation between people of all faiths and cultures. Victor is ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church and was trained as a community organizer working to address the systemic causes of poverty and injustice through the support of community-based groups. He's also studied and deeply embodies Gandhian principles of pluralism and grassroots change. Along with Gandhi's grandson, Arun Gandhi, he fo... posted on Jan 16 2020 (4,021 reads)

Accepting What Is, by Rose Zonetti
the word “acceptance” enters a room, “but” is never far behind. But what about suffering and injustice? What about the pursuit of our personal goals? What about our individual and collective potential? As soon as the idea of acceptance surfaces, we seem to, ironically, brace ourselves against it as though it will render us incapable of anything other than complacency and apathy. In a goal-focused, free-will-oriented, and stand-your-ground culture, acceptance can feel almost like a betrayal. Scared as we can be of failing ourselves, others, and the world; of lacking in mind, body, and spirit; of being used and hurt; and of losing control, we rebuff anyth... posted on Feb 25 2020 (13,420 reads)

The Nature of Gratitude, by Unknown Yet
Nature of Gratitude is an ensemble of artists who come together to explore and share their experience of nature and gratitude on stage using music, spoken word, and photography. After five years of offering this program, The Nature of Gratitude has evolved into a core ensemble of committed artists who include accomplished singer/songwriter and Oregon Book Award-winning poet Beth Wood; award-winning singer/songwriter Halie Loren; GRAMMY® award-nominated Native American multi-instrumentalist Gentle Thunder; performance poet Jorah LaFleur; and co-founders Tom Titus, performance prose and author of Palindrome: Grateful Reflections from the Home Ground,&... posted on Mar 5 2020 (6,190 reads)

Yoga and Our Relationship to Reality, by Pavithra Mehta
August 2015, my husband was unexpectedly diagnosed with a one in a million potentially fatal condition whose causes are largely unknown and that western medicine has no dependable cure for. Just days earlier he’d carried a wheelchair-bound friend up the stairs to our home. He’d tossed a Frisbee, climbed a steep hill, given a high-level presentation at work. To say we did not see this coming is an understatement. We explored alternative options, and met remarkable practitioners of Ayurveda, acupuncture, and more. We entered a period that in retrospect felt like an open-ended meditation retreat. My husband's bone marrow suppression resulted in acutely low immunity, It re... posted on Apr 8 2020 (10,870 reads)

Into the Chrysalis, by Chris Corrigan
both inspire and baffle me. The thought that a caterpillar can crawl into a sac made of its own body and dissolve its form and come out as a butterfly is a cliched image of transformation, but holy crap. Stop for a moment and really think about that. Does the caterpillar know this is going to happen? If it does that shows some tremendous trust. If it doesn't, then that shows some incredible courage. It just hangs out there, isolating itself from the rest of the world and changing in ways it can never understand. Does a caterpillar see a butterfly and go "that will be me one day?" So yes, we are all heading into our chrysalises. We have all climbed into our... posted on Apr 9 2020 (10,634 reads)