Wendell Berry On How To Be A Poet And A Complete Human Being, by Maria Popova
power corrupts, poetry cleanses,” John F. Kennedy proclaimed in his touching tribute to Robert Frost, celebrating poetry as “the means of saving power from itself.” And although poetry itself exerts a singular power over the human spirit, as one of the greatest poets of all time observed, it is hardly a power that comes easily to the poet: “Writing poetry is an unnatural act,” Elizabeth Bishop wrote when she was only twenty-three. So how, then, does one come to master this unnatural power — how does one become a Poet? That’s what the wise and wonderful Wendell Berry (b. August 5, 1934) — a man of great wisdom on solitude, love, a... posted on Oct 17 2015 (14,803 reads)

Four Activities for Building a Positive School Climate, by Vicki Zakrzewski
are a slice of humanity: Everyone brings both their wonderful innate goodness and their challenging globby muck to the classroom. Creating a safe and supportive school culture is one of the most difficult tasks principals face as fearless school leaders. When they succeed, it helps everyone—students, teachers, and themselves—bring out the goodness and reduce the muck. Given the extraordinary complexity of this task, wouldn’t it be great to hand principals a “silver bullet” for building a learning environment in which everyone thrives? But alas, no silver bullet exists. For principals who aren’t sure where to start, the Greater Good Science... posted on Nov 11 2015 (13,863 reads)

10 Ways to Become More Grateful, by Robert Emmons
Keep a Gratitude Journal. Establish a daily practice in which you remind yourself of the gifts, grace, benefits, and good things you enjoy. Setting aside time on a daily basis to recall moments of gratitude associated with ordinary events, your personal attributes, or valued people in your life gives you the potential to interweave a sustainable life theme of gratefulness. 2. Remember the Bad. To be grateful in your current state, it is helpful to remember the hard times that you once experienced. When you remember how difficult life used to be and how far you have come, you set up an explicit contrast in your mind, and this contrast is fertile ground for gratefulness. 3. Ask Yourse... posted on Nov 17 2015 (48,916 reads)

Desert Solitaire: A Love Letter to Solitude, by Maria Popova
the desert offers no tangible riches, as there is nothing to see or hear in the desert,” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote in his exquisite memoir of what the Sahara Desert taught him about the meaning of life, “one is compelled to acknowledge, since the inner life, far from falling asleep, is fortified, that man is first animated by invisible solicitations.” No one captures this invisible animation of inner life more bewitchingly thanEdward Abbey in Desert Solitaire (public library) — a miraculously beautiful book, originally published in 1968, which I discovered through a passing mention by the wonderful Cheryl Strayed. (How right Laurence Sterne was t... posted on Nov 25 2015 (11,608 reads)

Flowered Dresses from the Flour Mills: A Story of Kindness, by Kindness Blog
times gone by, amidst widespread poverty, the flour mills realized that some women were using sacks to make clothes for their children. In response, the flour mills started using flowered fabric… With the introduction of this new cloth into the home, thrifty women everywhere began to reuse the cloth for a variety of home uses – dish towels, diapers, and more. The bags began to become very popular for clothing items. As the recycling trend looked like it was going to stay, the manufacturers began to print their cloth bags – or feedsacks – in an ever wider variety of patterns and colors. Some of the patterns they started using are shown below Ove... posted on Dec 11 2015 (38,180 reads)

The 'Magic Strings' of Mitch Albom, by Knowledge@Wharton
a new novel, The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto, Mitch Albom, bestselling author of Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, tells the story of a guitarist who can change people’s lives through the power of his musical talent. Albom recently was a guest lecturer in the Authors@Wharton series. While Albom was on campus, Wharton management professor Adam M. Grant spoke with him about why he wrote the book, his choice to pursue writing, and how we can each discover and share our greatest talent. An edited transcript of the conversation follows. Adam Grant: What inspired you to write the latest book? Mitch Albom: Ever since I wrote Tuesdays with ... posted on Dec 21 2015 (15,288 reads)

The 'Magic Strings' of Mitch Albom, by Knowledge@Wharton
a new novel, The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto, Mitch Albom, bestselling author ofTuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, tells the story of a guitarist who can change people’s lives through the power of his musical talent. Albom recently was a guest lecturer in the Authors@Wharton series. While Albom was on campus, Wharton management professor Adam M. Grant spoke with him about why he wrote the book, his choice to pursue writing, and how we can each discover and share our greatest talent. An edited transcript of the conversation follows. Adam Grant: What inspired you to write the latest book? Mitch Albom: Ever since I wrote Tuesdays with Morrie, ... posted on Dec 21 2015 (3,833 reads)

What Does a Grateful Brain Look Like?, by Adam Hoffman
Does a Grateful Brain Look Like? Evidence is mounting that A team at the University of Southern California has shed light on the neural nuts and bolts of gratitude in a new study, offering insights into the complexity of this social emotion and how it relates to other cognitive processes. “There seems to be a thread that runs through subtle acts of gratitude, such as holding a door for someone, all the way up to the big powerful stuff like when someone gives you a kidney,” says Glenn Fox, a postdoctoral researcher at USC and lead author of the study. “I designed this experiment to see what aspects of brain function are common to both these small feelings of a... posted on Jan 2 2016 (16,191 reads)

Have Wheels Will Shower: Lava Mae Brings Bathroom Buses to Homeless, by Lexi Dwyer
courtesy Lava Mae)  If you woke up this morning and showered in the privacy of your own bathroom, consider yourself lucky: America's nearly 600,000 homeless people often don't have a clean place to clean up. But in San Francisco, where the number of homeless has risen seven percent in the last decade, a non-profit organization is putting bathrooms on wheels and driving them to those in need. The group Lava Mae, whose name loosely translates to "wash me" in Spanish, is retrofitting decommissioned city buses with ensuite bathrooms and bringing them into neighborhoods like the Castro, the Mission and the Tenderloin, currently... posted on Jan 6 2016 (11,574 reads)

How Strong Friendships Defy Dementia, by Marcus Harrison Green
Padilla’s laugh cut through the air at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo. Fresh off an hour-long exhibit tour, she and 16 other friends sat in the zoo cafeteria, snacking on sugar cookies and mocking current bestsellers. The group could appear to be just another cluster of friends visiting the zoo. But they were there for another purpose, too: to provide joy as much as support. Part of a program called Momentia, more than half of the people in the group have dementia. The day was, in effect, an act of defiance for the 63-year-old Padilla, who was diagnosed with dementia two years ago. By living wholly in the present, Padilla is fighting a disease that threatens to rob her of h... posted on Jan 17 2016 (11,405 reads)

The Surprising Benefit of Going Through Hard Times, by Carolyn Gregoire
excerpt is from the new book Wired to Create: Unravelling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind, by psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman and HuffPost Senior Writer Carolyn Gregoire. One of Frida Kahlo’s most famous self-portraits depicts her in a hospital bed connected by a web of red veins to floating objects that include a snail, a flower, bones, and a fetus. Henry Ford Hospital, the 1932 surrealist painting, is a powerful artistic rendering of Kahlo’s second miscarriage. Kahlo wrote in her diaries that the painting “carries with it the message of pain.” The painter was known for channeling the experience of multiple miscarriages, childhood polio, and a num... posted on Jan 27 2016 (31,515 reads)

A Beautiful Mind: A Conversation with Gina Sharpe, by Tracy Cochran
arrived at meditation teacher Gina Sharpe’s house prepared to talk about what it means to live a beautiful life and more: I wanted to find a good story. The bare facts of Sharpe’s life were promising. Born in Jamaica, Sharpe moved to New York when she was eleven. She studied philosophy at Barnard College, worked in movie production (on the iconic 1970s movies Little Big Man, Paper Lion, andAlice’s Restaurant), and later became a successful corporate lawyer. I knew there had to be adventures. Undoubtedly there were villains and mentors, dark times that gave way to light. Best, there was the promise of a moral: In the midst of all her worldly wanderings, Sharpe began to ... posted on Jan 30 2016 (19,563 reads)

How a Disappointing Restaurant Experience Turned Into an Effort That Now Feeds 1200 Kids , by Meryl Garcia
started as a small gesture, of feeding underprivileged children, by 31-year-old Darshan and his friends has turned into a full-blown movement. I t’s funny how mundane decisions turn out to be life-changing ones, right? This is exactly what happened in Vadodara-based Darshan Chandan’s case. An email he shot off to a restaurant, after being deeply disappointed with the service he got there, just changed the course of Darshan’s life. When the restaurant management apologised for the poor service and offered to give him free food, Darshan refused the offer and asked them to feed underprivileged children instead. The restaurant went ahead with his suggestion, and a... posted on Feb 6 2016 (25,018 reads)

What If Schools Taught Kindness, by Laura Pinger, Lisa Flook
to class one day, one of us (Laura) saw a young student crying and waiting for his mother to arrive—he had split his chin while playing. When Laura got to class, the other students were very upset and afraid for their friend, full of questions about what would happen to him. Laura decided to ask the class how they could help him. “Caring practice!” exclaimed one of the children—and they all sat in a circle offering support and well wishes. The children immediately calmed and they continued with their lesson. Young students make "peace wands" as part of the Center for Healthy Minds' Kindness Curriculum.Image courtesy of the Center for Health... posted on Feb 10 2016 (32,446 reads)

Rising Women Rising World: A Force for Change, by Dr. Hamira Riaz
Scilla Elworthy, Jean Houston and Rama Mani first met in 2012 there was a perfect synchronicity of temperaments and ideas. Clinical psychologist and business consultant, Dr Hamira Riaz, talks to the three founders of Rising Women Rising World about the goals of this global community of remarkable women and the art of a life well lived. It is an unusual occurrence when the roll call of achievements of just three women includes several nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize; training roles for UN Development Programmes, and advice-giving to NATO military officers and government officials. That the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela and the Clintons, to name just a few, have sought them out ... posted on Mar 8 2016 (15,627 reads)

Our Everloving Quest to Control Our Lives, by Leo Babuta
our entire lives are spent in a quest to gain control, security and comfort in our lives. Unfortunately, we never really get it, so we keep trying, relentlessly. This is the main activity of our lives. What would happen if we stopped? We could be less restricted by fear, less anxious, less driven by the need for comfort … and more in love with life as it is. You might be surprised by how much we strive for control. The Ways We Try to Get Control The basic nature of life is that it is everchanging, uncontrollable. When we think we have stability in life, something comes up to remind us that no, we don’t. There is no stability, no matter how much we’... posted on Mar 10 2016 (15,688 reads)

Why Silence is So Good For Your Brain, by Carolyn Gregoire
live in a loud and distracting world, where silence is increasingly difficult to come by -- and that may be negatively affecting our health. In fact, a 2011 World Health Organization report called noise pollution a "modern plague," concluding that "there is overwhelming evidence that exposure to environmental noise has adverse effects on the health of the population." We're constantly filling our ears with music, TV and radio news, podcasts and, of course, the multitude of sounds that we create nonstop in our own heads. Think about it: How many moments each day do you spend in total silence? The answer is probably very few. As our internal and external env... posted on Mar 14 2016 (80,795 reads)

A Conversation with Irene Sullivan: Understanding of the Heart, by Richard Whittaker
began with an email. Someone had discovered the magazine and had been touched, Irene Sullivan. It opened an exchange. I learned that Sullivan had lived in remote regions of Alaska providing health care as a nurse practitioner to theInupiat speaking peoples there, that she was an avid photographer, that her experiences with indigenous people awakened an interest in the role of women in shamanic practices among arctic peoples, and that later she found herself doing independent research as a Fulbright Scholar in Denmark at the Institute of Eskimologi. When Sullivan left her career as a nurse practitioner she went on to become an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church. Her ministr... posted on Mar 17 2016 (13,517 reads)

In Photos: The Seed-Saving Farmers Who Pass Land Down To Their Daughters, by Rucha Chitnis
sunset, Bibiana Ranee sets out to gather wild edibles for dinner from the surrounding forest. She returns with bright bunches of greens. Jarainand jali are washed, sliced, sauteed, and served with a hearty pork stew, with raw tree tomato on the side. Ranee, 54, is proud of her ancestral roots: She’s a member of the Khasi tribe, which nestles high in the mountains of Meghalaya, a state in northeast India. All three major tribes of Meghalaya—Khasi, Garo, and Jaintia—are matrilineal. Children take the surname of the mother’s clan and girls inherit traditional lands—the youngest daughter typically receiving the largest share. Girls inherit traditional lands&md... posted on Mar 23 2016 (11,938 reads)

Everyday Conversations to Heal Racism, by Roberto Vargas
am a second-generation Mexican American leadership coach and elder living in California. I experienced so much prejudice and racism during my young adulthood that for years I avoided even being in the presence of white people. Finally, well into my 30s, I realized that the wounds and pain I carried were robbing me of my full potential. I could do better than be angry at other people; I could work to transform the ignorance beneath the racial injustice. During the ensuing years, while I grew to accept the love within me, I also realized the necessity of extending this love to all others. I decided to make my daily conversations opportunities to learn and heal. Racism is extremely complic... posted on Apr 8 2016 (10,954 reads)