Love's Footprints, by Bonnie Rose
colleagues who know about Pet Grief said “Get a paw print from Stella before she dies.”  Determined to honor her passing exactly right, I vowed “I will get that footprint.”  Stella and Bartie's feet. Photo by Bonnie Rose. So in the midst of inconclusive vet visits and internet searches for horrifying dog illnesses, I staggered over to a craft store to survey their Pet Memorial Products.  There I found The Pet Memorial Stepping Stone.  The picture on the box indicated you could cement a pristine footprint from your dog and decorate it with mosaic tiles.  Perfect.  I got two.  I came home and mixed the ce... posted on Sep 19 2016 (15,162 reads)

Lessons from Living in Nature, by Nisha Srinivisan
Srinivasan and her husband Ragu Padmanabhan had Silicon Valley careers, when in 2008, soon after having their son Aum, they promptly sold everything off and moved to rural India. They wanted to farm, but had no experience in it and so set out as students of the land -- for instance, when they planted 9000 trees on their barren land, thousands didn't make it, but thousands blossomed into a mini-forest. More generally, they jumped in with the intention of living and being in a way that was better aligned with their inner voices, and learning what they needed along the way. In their own words, they just saw it simply as an"experiment in laying a new path on an old road that leads... posted on Sep 22 2016 (25,647 reads)

Fierce Contemplation: The Nature Loving Nuns Who Stopped a Pipeline, by Laura Michele Diener
easiest way for me to find God is in nature,” Sister Ceciliana Skees explains. Born Ruth Skees, she grew up in Hardin County, Kentucky, during the 1930s. It’s a rural place of soft green hills, where her father farmed his entire life. Now just a few months shy of her eighty-fifth birthday, she remembers feeling the first stirrings of a religious calling at the age of 10. Her peasant blouse and smooth, chin-length haircut don’t fit the popular image of a nun, but she has been a Sister of Loretto—a member of a religious order more than 200 years old—since she took vows at the age of 18. Skees’ commitment to social activism goes back almost a... posted on Sep 26 2016 (9,596 reads)

How to Cultivate Ethical Courage, by Brooke Deterline
we only realize our deepest values once we’ve contradicted them. For Tina, an up-and-coming African-American woman and associate professor at a prestigious private university, one of those moments came just after she had earned a coveted administrative post.  I met Tina at a five-day Multi-Cultural Competence workshop. Tina was the one who skillfully voiced the racial and gender bias that was occurring in the room, most challengingly by the famous founder and facilitator of the workshop.  As one of the most courageous women I know, she’s a perfect example of how easy it is for any of us to betray important values in challenging situations at ... posted on Oct 1 2016 (17,578 reads)

The Secret Life of Trees, by Maria Popova
dominate the world’s the oldest living organisms. Since the dawn of our species, they have been oursilent companions, permeating our most enduring tales and never ceasing to inspire fantastical cosmogonies. Hermann Hesse called them “the most penetrating of preachers.” A forgotten seventeenth-century English gardener wrote of how they “speak to the mind, and tell us many things, and teach us many good lessons.” But trees might be among our lushest metaphors andsensemaking frameworks for knowledge precisely because the richness of what they say is more than metaphorical — they speak a sophisticated ... posted on Oct 11 2016 (19,884 reads)

The Giving Season, by Jennifer Merlich
was recently the recipient of an incredible act of anonymous kindness. It came from out of nowhere, at exactly the right time.  The magnitude of the gift moved me to tears, and I was so grateful and profoundly moved by the generosity of my unknown benefactor.  But I was also sure there had been a mistake. In the midst of this beautiful act, I am ashamed to admit that I was momentarily overcome by feelings of unworthiness.  I simply couldn’t believe I was deserving of such radical kindness.  Had I been face to face with my benefactor, I would have given them 100 reasons why they “shouldn’t have”, attempting to convince them that they wer... posted on Oct 16 2016 (13,700 reads)

Cafe Momentum: Serving Second Chances, by Chris Peak
the far southern outskirts of Dallas County, Chad Houser pulled off the I-45 highway, drove onto a dead-end road leading to several shooting ranges and made a quick right turn to his final destination: the Dallas County Youth Village, a non-secure juvenile detention facility for 10-to-17-year-old boys. Stepping out of his car, Houser, a chef at the acclaimed Dallas bistro Parigi, noticed a putrid stench rising from the nearby landfill and water treatment plant. He grabbed a bundle of fruits and herbs from his car and strode into the compound, where he planned to teach a class on making ice cream. The whole ride over, Houser fretted about the disrespect and back talk he was ab... posted on Nov 2 2016 (12,739 reads)

How Women-Led Movements Are Redefining Power, From California to Nepal , by Rucha Chitnis
her essay “There is No Hierarchy of Oppressions,” black lesbian feminist poet Audre Lorde wrote: “I have learned that oppression and the intolerance of difference come in all shapes and sizes and colors and sexualities; and that among those of us who share the goals of liberation and a workable future for our children, there can be no hierarchies of oppression.” Around the world, women’s movements have long recognized the wisdom of that thought, which emphasizes the way social movements benefit by recognizing the intersections between different forms of oppression. In their letter “Women for Women in Ferguson,” the National Domestic Workers All... posted on Nov 15 2016 (17,289 reads)

Food Waste and the Culture of Rush, by Diana Moreno
after signing my contract as a store assistant for a well known low-cost German supermarket company, I came across a nasty reality that seemed not to bother the rest of my colleagues: every day, at a sleepy four o’clock in the morning, a random employee has to do the “waste inventory.” This consists of scanning all the products that can’t be sold anymore, one by one, and then throwing them out into a blue container. The resulting mountain of food is impressive—around seventy bakery items, a hundred pieces of fruit, and fifteen trays of meat. Over two hundred food items start the morning at the bottom of the garbage container, every single day. ... posted on Nov 27 2016 (13,130 reads)

Spotlight on Anonymous Giving , by Shari Swanson
Mysterious B. Virdot “The year was 1933 and Christmas was just a week away. Deep in the trough of the Great Depression, the people of Canton, Ohio, were down on their luck and hungry. Nearly half the town was out of work. Along the railroad tracks, children in patched coats scavenged for coal spilled from passing trains. The prison and orphanage swelled with the casualties of hard times. “It was then that a mysterious “B. Virdot” took out a tiny ad in the Canton Repository, offering to help the needy before Christmas. All he asked was that they write to him and tell him of their hardships. B. Virdot, he said, was not his real name, and no one would ... posted on Dec 13 2016 (14,454 reads)

The Women Who Restored Jungles, by Anuradha Sengupta
is early morning in Dhepagudi, a sleepy hamlet nestled in the green hills of Odisha, India. Admai Kumruka is sifting millet in a traditional sieve made of bamboo strips. Children mill around, playing on a mud and sand mound. A few huts down, Rello Dindika is sorting through harvested corn. A group of women are chopping fresh pumpkin leaves and flowers for a stir-fry dish. They have finished morning chores and farming work and are now preparing breakfast. Some of the corn will be ground to a powder for a wholesome porridge. The rest will be popped in clay vessels for evening snacks. “The forest department has become very aggressive.” “We have mandya or&nbs... posted on Dec 22 2016 (11,636 reads)

Why We Love Our Own Creations, by Dan Ariely
R. Trower Behavioral economist Dan Ariely points out the surprising joy and engagement we feel when we make things. We are the CEOs of our own lives. We work hard to spur ourselves to get up and go to work and do what we must do day after day. We also try to encourage people to work for and with us. We do this in our personal lives, too: from a very young age, kids try to persuade their parents to do things for them. As adults, we try to encourage our significant others to do things for us; we attempt to get our kids to clean up their rooms; and we try to induce our neighbors to trim their hedges or help out with a block party. Rather than seeing motivation as a simple, rat... posted on Dec 26 2016 (15,793 reads)

KindSpring's Top 10 Kindness Stories of 2016, by KindSpring
year KindSpring shares a selection of the most powerful stories they've received over the last twelve months. In the spirit of anonymity these real-life stories are often posted by people who choose to use a "Kindness alias". Some of the stories are about children and teenagers who have stumbled on creative ways to flex their kindness muscles, others are about adults of different ages, nationalities and backgrounds who regularly go out of their way to make our world a kinder, brighter place. Whether the stories describe a small act that made someone's day, or a gesture that forever altered the trajectory of a life, they all share one thing in common: a very big heart.... posted on Jan 4 2017 (19,456 reads)

Physicist David Bohm on Creativity, by Maria Popova
most regretful people on earth,” Mary Oliver wrote in her exquisite meditation on the central commitment of the creative life, “are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.” The past century has sprouted a great many theories of how creativity works and what it takes to master it, and yet its innermost nature remains so nebulous and elusive that the call of creative work may be as difficult to hear as it is to answer. What to listen for and how to tune the listening ear is what the trailblazing physicist David Bohm (Decem... posted on Jan 7 2017 (21,094 reads)

Interview Joshua Gorman: Generation Waking Up, by Rhonda Fabian
have been working with young people for a number of years now, Joshua. How is this generation different? Joshua Gorman: There’s a new generation of young people waking up and coming of age all across the planet, a generation rising between an old world dying and a new world being born. We are the make-it-or-break-it generation. The all-or-nothing generation. It’s the crucible through which civilization must pass or crash. That’s the significance of these times, the significance of who we are. That’s what we are being called to. Young people today are being swept up by the new story and it’s defining our lives, it’s who we... posted on Jan 18 2017 (12,366 reads)

It's About Critical Connections Not Critical Mass, by Curtis Ogden
the recent Thanksgiving break, I had the opportunity to meet with friends of extended family members, a couple who are engaged in both disaster relief and community planning work. She is from Nepal and he is from the U.S., and together they relayed a story about their time visiting Nepal during the devastating earthquake of 2015. The two of them were hiking in the mountains when the 7.8 magnitude quake struck. Shaken but not hurt, they made their way back to Katmandu as quickly as possible to check in on family members and then to offer their assistance to others. Originally assigned the task of loading water jugs on trucks, they then volunteered and were enlisted for their... posted on Feb 4 2017 (26,100 reads)

Singing to Tomatoes, by Alanda Greene
visited the tomato house this morning: a shelter constructed of arched white plumbing rods covered in plastic. It keeps them warm in a mountain area where spring can stay cool until late June and nights stay cool most of the time. Right now the tomatoes are strong and full of large green fruit between deep green abundant leaves. The fruit is just beginning to tinge towards red and I’m excited at the prospect of eating delicious vine-ripened tomatoes, grown from the tiny seeds begun indoors in March. Every morning I visit the garden and relish what is growing. Today when I step into the tomato house, I feel a sense of welc... posted on Feb 7 2017 (14,009 reads)

How Do We Wake Up?: A Conversation with Mark Dubois, by Richard Whittaker
I first began hearing about Mark Dubois, his name was mentioned with a note of awe. “You’ve got to meet him, Richard!” People like giving me suggestions and I’m grateful for them; this one, however, had a different energy about it. But then nothing further happened. It wasn’t until two years later that I met Dubois at a ServiceSpace gathering. One doesn’t forget meeting Mark. First, he’s taller than almost anyone you’ve ever met. And second, you receive the longest hug from a stranger you’ll ever run into. It makes an impression. The man is a force, an embodiment of a special dimension of love that manifests in an irrepressibly physi... posted on Feb 13 2017 (10,904 reads)

In the Midst of Winter, an Invincible Summer, by Tracy Cochran
by Benjamin Baláz My daughter Alex once put her bike out on our Brooklyn street for any stranger to take. She made a sign saying “Free bike! Please enjoy!” in purple crayon, adding a bold smiley face. I helped her carry the bike down the steep steps of our brownstone and place it under the streetlight, the sign taped to the seat. Lying in bed that night, her face shone with happy anticipation. Things appeared and disappeared on the street all the time, but it was different being part of it. In a way, this was what I wanted her to understand: meaning is an action; we make meaning through our actions. You exist in a web of life: this was the message. Yo... posted on Feb 18 2017 (20,759 reads)

How to Combat the Creativity Crisis, by Michael Ruiz
United States prides itself on being a beacon of innovation. But there has been a substantial dive in the nation’s creativity in the last few decades, according to research by educational psychologist KH Kim, author of the new book The Creativity Challenge. Kim has tested more than 270,000 people, from kindergartners to adults, looking at (among other things) their ability to come up with original ideas, think in a detailed and elaborative way, synthesize information, and be open-minded and curious—what she considers creativity. Her research has found that Americans’ creativity rose from 1966 to 1990, but began significantly declining after then. An... posted on Feb 21 2017 (13,756 reads)