All You Need Is Love?, by James Ballantyne
Mallette. CC0 1.0. “Can we dare to think people are kind, and shape organisations around this view?” That’s the question Rutger Bregman examines in his latest book Humankind, and it’s one that anyone involved in youth and community work like me wrestles with on a daily basis. But is Bregman’s optimistic analysis grounded in reality? For anyone who’s read this piece on the “Real Lord of the Flies,” the gist of the first half of Bregman’s book will be familiar. His premise is that despite news reports, social media, politics, religions and ideologies that suggest otherwis... posted on Mar 8 2021 (4,664 reads)

Eldering in the Age of Consumption, by Sharon Blackie, Stephen Jenkinson
does it mean to be elder in today’s world? Sharon Blackie That question inevitably leads me to the related subject of death and dying. As always, when I think about these issues, I’m informed by the native wisdom and mythology of my Celtic roots. I’d like to begin by sharing a short section from my book, If Women Rose Rooted, and then hear from Stephen Jenkinson, writer, author, and the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Canada: …a man returned from hunting on Beinn Bhric one day when he heard a sound like the cracking of two rocks against each other. At the base of a large stone by the road, he found a woman with a green sh... posted on Mar 9 2021 (11,423 reads)

Oh For Crying Out Loud, by Barbara McAfee
has been visiting my life a lot in this past year. During those times, I have frequently heard Mary Elizabeth Frye’s well-known poem, “Do No Stand At My Grave and Weep.” This morning as I was lolling abed, I began naming my departed-beloveds in my mind, calling their sweet faces to mind and silently speaking their names one by one. This is one of the ways I honor them and deal with their absence.  In the midst of that familiar ritual, I “heard” a distinct voice speaking into my mind.  This is what it said. Now, Honey.  You just go ahead and stand at my grave and weep.  As a matter of fact, you could fall to the ground if you wante... posted on Mar 13 2021 (12,524 reads)

Her Art Informed Science: Maria Sibylla Merian, by Tanya Latty
women of history: Maria Sibylla Merian, 17th-century entomologist and scientific adventurer A colour portrait of Maria Sibylla Merian by Dutch artist Jacobus Houbraken, circa 1700. Wikimedia Commons Tanya Latty, University of Sydney In this series, we look at under-acknowledged women through the ages. Most school kids can describe in detail the life cycle of butterflies: eggs hatch into caterpillars, caterpillars turn into cocoons and cocoons hatch. This seemingly basic bit of biology was once hotly debated. It was a pioneering naturalist, Maria Sibylla Merian, whose meticulous observations conclusively linked caterpillars to butterflies, laying the groundwork for the ... posted on Jun 13 2021 (6,847 reads)

Changing the World One Map At A Time, by Patrick Meier
have always been a source of fascination and intrigue. Today's maps, however, can also help to save lives during disasters, document human rights abuses and monitor elections in countries under repressive rule. This presentation explores how today's live maps can combine crowds and clouds to drive social change. “The goal of the social good sector must be to end need, not just meet need. This means, for example, that international organizations … must have a transition plan that is centered around devolving power, money and voice to local organizations.” – Patrick Meier When Patrick Meier was 12 years old and living in Africa with his European ... posted on Mar 17 2021 (4,626 reads)

She Convinced a Community to Love a 'Bad Omen', by Emily Sohn
Indian biologist went door-to-door, listening and helping people develop livelihoods, to ultimately save an endangered species. In January 2019, graduate student Tracy Melvin traveled from Michigan State University to India to attend an annual meeting of the Women in Nature Network, a loose collection of female conservationists from around the world. The trip required multiple flights and many hours of travel, but Melvin was eager to join in on conversations about the successes and struggles of conservation projects in a supportive environment. As the conference began, Melvin says, she was impressed to hear what women were accomplishing, especially in low-income countries. But ... posted on Mar 19 2021 (5,688 reads)

Poetry Calls Us To Pause, by Elizabeth Brule Farrell
vision will become clear only when you look into your own heart.   --Carl Jung I have been writing poems since childhood. My notebook became a friend with whom I could have a quiet dialogue. This relationship has continued and sustained me for decades.  It is in observing the small things that make up a daily life that calls me into making a poem. It is the simple topic, a commonality that I choose to explore, so when I walk down a street, open a can of soup, view a fading poster on the wall, or imagine what I might write in wet cement, I ask myself what am I noticing and what is my response in the moment. The action of allowing a pause to set down words wit... posted on Mar 27 2021 (5,235 reads)

Left Behind: Surviving Suicide Loss, by Nandini Murali
the spring of 2017, Nandini Murali, a South Indian journalist and author, returned from an out-of-town assignment to an eerily quiet home. Typically, her husband would greet her at the front door, but that morning he hadnt answered her phone calls. It was Nandini who discovered his body, and confronted an unfathomable reality. T.R. Murali, one of the most prominent urologists in India, and her beloved husband of 33 years, had ended his own life. "Space dissolved," writes Nandini, of that moment. "Time stood still. The axis of my life heaved, cracked and split." On the first anniversary of her husband's death, Nandini launched SPEAK (Suicide Prevention Postvention E... posted on Apr 13 2021 (6,930 reads)

Motherhood: Facing & Finding Yourself, by Lisa Marchiano
knew I didn’t want children. In college, when a friend confessed a deep longing to become a mother, I couldn’t relate. I had ambitious career plans, and being a mother sounded limiting and ordinary. After college, I worked for a nonproft organisation in Washington, DC. My work felt exciting, important, and meaningful. Deep down, I knew there were many things I needed to do in my life, and I feared that having children would prevent me from fulfilling my potential. Bestselling author and psychologist James Hillman proposed what he called the “acorn theory” of psychological development. He contended that we each enter the world carrying something unique t... posted on Apr 20 2021 (8,316 reads)

Love is the Last Word:Aldous Huxley on Knowledge vs. Understanding and the Antidote to Our Existential Helplessness, by Maria Popova
understand anything — another person’s experience of reality, another fundamental law of physics — is to restructure our existing knowledge, shifting and broadening our prior frames of reference to accommodate a new awareness. And yet we have a habit of confusing our knowledge — which is always limited and incomplete: a model of the cathedral of reality, built from primary-colored blocks of fact — with the actuality of things; we have a habit of mistaking the model for the thing itself, mistaking our partial awareness for a totality of understanding. Thoreau recognized this when he contemplated our blinding preconceptions and lamented that “we hear... posted on May 21 2021 (5,730 reads)

Rumi, Grace & Human Friendship, by Tami Simon
Simon: Welcome to Insights at the Edge produced by Sounds True. My name is Tami Simon. I’m the founder of Sounds True. And I’d love to take a moment to introduce you to the new Sounds True Foundation. The Sounds True Foundation is dedicated to creating a wiser and kinder world by making transformational education widely available. We want everyone to have access to transformational tools, such as mindfulness, emotional awareness, and self-compassion, regardless of financial, social, or physical challenges. The Sounds True Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to providing these transformational tools to communities in need, including at-risk youth, prisoners, ve... posted on May 29 2021 (5,415 reads)

The Way of the Nomad, by Wakanyi Hoffman
than a decade ago, I packed up our wedding gifts, a new baby, and a career in a suitcase. The sum of my childhood and young adult life was shipped from my homeland in Kenya to my husband’s in Ohio. What I didn’t know then was that I would be signing up for a life measured in terms of time and distance, away from friends and loved ones. That first move signaled the start of a modern nomad’s life, which was recently captured in a painting by our 8-year-old daughter, in her attempt to document her quarantined life. It is simple a painting titled ‘The social distanced girl’ , which now tugs at my heartstrings, speaking volumes about how my little girl ... posted on Jun 5 2021 (4,746 reads)

Echoes of the Invisible, by Jesse La Tour
resident Steve Elkins has spent most of his adult life as a musician and filmmaker. His first feature documentary “The Reach of Resonance,” which took him ten years to complete, won the prize for “Best Film Essay” at Montreal’s International Festival of Films On Art. Elkins has recently completed his latest film, “Echoes of the Invisible,” which took him literally around the world and into the lives of scientists, monks, artists, and journalists to explore the search for silence in an increasingly noisy world. Steve Elkins in Tuva. I caught up with Steve recently (before the coronavirus pushed us all indoors) at Dripp Coffee in do... posted on Jun 27 2021 (6,956 reads)

Returning to the Village, by Hang-Mai and friends
those of us who live in urban areas, what does returning to a life in the village really mean? What is the impulse that moves folks to reverse the direction of migration of their recent ancestors to the city? What can living on the land, growing your own food, and using your hands to make clothing and shelter offer souls hungering for a real connection to the Earth? Here, Hang Mai, a Vietnamese natural farmer and social entrepreneur, who together with her partner Chau Duong mid-wifes those wanting to make this transition to the village, reflects on this question. I belong to the baby-boomer generation in Vietnam after the end of the war in 1975. My generation experienced the difficult... posted on Jul 8 2021 (3,622 reads)

Ceasing to Be Caught in the Waters of the Mind, by Tami Simon
natural state of the mind is like calm, still water, teaches Michael Singer. The practice of spiritual surrender—to “relax and release” our resistance to whatever arises in our experience—is the pathway to enjoying serenity of mind no matter what the universe throws your way. In this podcast, Michael Singer uses the analogy of an aquatic bird maintaining its balance on rough water to illustrate what to do and what not to do if we want to stay poised and upright when life gets turbulent. [You can listen to the audio of this podcast here.] TAMI SIMON: Welcome to the Michael Singer Podcast. Michael Singer is the author of two widely influential New ... posted on Dec 31 1969 (146 reads)

Re-inhabiting the World, by Fabiana Fondevila
plants that grow out of pavements have a history longer than our own. Birds communicate their news in songs and calls. Insects tunnel their way through the earth. The clouds draw the geography of the sky and the stars speak the language of light. We are surrounded by a living and vibrant universe that we barely know, and that we rarely feel as our own. On any given day, you may connect with nature at some random moment. Perhaps you take a quick look at the sky, admire the moon when it draws a perfect arabesque in the darkness, or stop to admire some blooms on a flower stall. On holiday, you may allow yourself to live a fleeting love affair with the sea, a river, or the green silence o... posted on Sep 5 2021 (4,749 reads)

Nature is a Jazz Band, Not a Machine, by Jeremy Lent
July 2021 From genetic engineering to geoengineering, we treat nature as though it’s a machine. This view of nature has deep roots in Western thought, all the way to Descartes and Hobbs, but it’s a fundamental misconception with potentially disastrous consequences, argues Jeremy Lent. Climate change, avers Rex Tillerson, ex-CEO of ExxonMobil and erstwhile US Secretary of State,  “is an engineering problem, and it has engineering solutions.” This brief statement encapsulates how the metaphor of the machine underlies the way our mainstream culture views the natural world. It also hints at the grievous dangers involved in perceiving nature in this way... posted on Sep 12 2021 (4,754 reads)

Two Simple Ways to Release Grief, by Cynthia Li
is the second in a series of articles: Enduring Wisdom in Times of Great Change. In the spring of 2013, during my decade+ journey with chronic fatigue and vertigo, I stumbled across the work of Francis Weller, a grief therapist and self-described “soul activist,” who facilitated daylong grief workshops. Though wrestling in the muddy realm of the soul with strangers was hardly how I wanted to spend one of my weekends, I imagined there were invisible, inaccessible stresses I had to contend with. Stresses that made me unpleasantly reactive instead of thoughtfully responsive. Stresses that kept me in a fearful state rather than a healing one. What is chronic fatigue, any... posted on Oct 7 2021 (12,304 reads)

Threshold Choir: An Interview with Kate Munger, by Richard Whittaker
27, 2010 Inverness, California As I drove up to Inverness on a Saturday morning a light rain fell intermittently and as I neared town, the clouds began to break up a little. Turning off Sir Francis Drake soon I was on Vision Road. Following my jotted notes, the roads became smaller and then the pavement ended. I faced a steep dirt road and wondered if the car could manage it in the rain. And where was I? The car did climb the road and it wasn't long before I was walking up a driveway hidden among the moss-covered trees.       I first heard about Kate Munger and the Threshold Choir from artist Jane Baker. Jane's stories of singing at the bedside... posted on Oct 6 2021 (6,956 reads)

Radical Self-Care for Survivors of Suicide Loss, by Nandini Murali
admit it. Self-care is hardly a priority for most people. This isn’t surprising though—we overvalue caring for others and downplay or minimize caring for ourselves. Worse, self-care is perceived as selfish or self-indulgent! What does self-care mean, and what does it involve? Simply put, it implies— physical, emotional, psychological, social and spiritual care. The very idea of survivors of suicide loss practicing self-care can seem radical. The stigma, shame, secrecy and silence that a survivor faces invisibilizes, erases and marginalizes any of their valid concerns. Equally relevant, most survivors  themselves feel they are not entitled to any form ... posted on Nov 27 2021 (4,445 reads)