Happy Men, by Winter Miller
me set the scene: I walk up to five men skateboarding by the statue in Prospect Park, they are hanging with each other and I approach and I say, "Hey, I wrote a poem about you, for you, can I read it to you?" All five of them look up at me like, what, what the hell is happening here? And then one by one they say, "Yeah, sure, do it." My phone has 1% battery left. It might die before I even begin. I am a white queer woman in her 40s wearing layers dressed to go running and only my eyes are visible. They are five young men of color, in their 20's, all masked. This scenario is admittedly the kind of thing you'd make fun of. By all means, do. I almost walked... posted on Feb 11 2021 (10,122 reads)

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, by Katherine May
following passages are excerpted from Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, by Katherine May, published by Riverhead Books, Nov 2020  Everybody winters at one time or another; some winter over and over again. Wintering is a season in the cold. It is a fallow period in life when you’re cut off from the world, feeing rejected, sidelined, blocked from progress, or cast into the role of an outsider. Perhaps it results from an illness or life event such as bereavement or the birth of a child; perhaps it comes from a humiliation or failure. Perhaps you’re in a period of transition and have temporarily fallen between two worlds. Some winterings cree... posted on Feb 17 2021 (11,990 reads)

Rising from the Fire: The Art of Transformation, by David Ulrich
can we reconcile the immensely destructive force of fire with its equally limitless creative potential? Forest managers light intentional blazes to clear overgrowth and begin anew the cycle of life. A fireplace becomes a hearth, offering heat, light, and survival for the home’s residents. And fiery volcanic activity can obliterate what stands in its path all the while creating new land in a matter of hours and days that becomes highly fertile soil in thousands or millions of years. The element of fire—and its life-giving results in the form of heat and light—represent both a powerful metaphor and an undeniable fact of organic and spiritual transformation. Evelyn Underhil... posted on Aug 10 2021 (2,886 reads)

The Quest to Understand Consciousness, by ted.com
of Antonio Damasio's 2011 Ted talk. I'm here to talk about the wonder and the mystery of conscious minds. The wonder is about the fact that we all woke up this morning and we had with it the amazing return of our conscious mind. We recovered minds with a complete sense of self and a complete sense of our own existence, yet we hardly ever pause to consider this wonder. We should, in fact, because without having this possibility of conscious minds, we would have no knowledge whatsoever about our humanity; we would have no knowledge whatsoever about the world. We would have no pains, but als... posted on Aug 15 2021 (8,496 reads)

My 94-Year-Old Dad Talks About COVID-19, by Abbey Algiers
7, 2020 Looking to the past for clues on navigating today and beyond… How many of you started the year thinking your biggest concern might be to write out “2020” on important documents instead of abbreviating the year like we did in ‘19, ‘18?  Yeah, I wish that was the worst part of 2020. But it’s dealt us a few more challenges.  Like… this global pandemic and how it’s changed every aspect of our lives.   Beyond the obvious concern of contracting COVID- 19, we’ve had to deal with isolation,  separation from loved ones, and a complete shift in how we interact with the world.  I don’t need to re... posted on Aug 21 2021 (13,322 reads)

Does Your Worldview Affect Your Well-Being?, by Sam Woolfe
worldview, our beliefs about what reality is, our views on what (if anything) has value and meaning, what Aldous Huxley called an ‘individual’s philosophy of life’, contributes more significantly than we often think to our mental well-being. From pessimism to existentialism, might reading certain philosophical ideas actually lead to depression? The connection is not so simple. Philosophy can both depress and inspire us. But, at the end of the day, our worldview matters – it matters what we think, writes Sam Woolfe. The psychology of philosophy is a relatively new field. It refers to the relationship between psychological traits and philosophical beliefs. This f... posted on Nov 13 2021 (5,861 reads)

What Can We Do When a Loved One is Suffering?, by littlewoo
can we do when a loved one is suffering? This question has come up a lot so I wanted to share some thoughts in case it may be helpful to you or a loved one.  First, I acknowledge how challenging it is to witness any kind of suffering, whether it is physical, emotional or existential pain. But let me throw in a specific curveball…  What if they are suffering yet there is not much that you can do about it?  This challenging scenario can arise for many reasons. Sometimes, the solutions are not known or available. Sometimes, your ability to help is limited.  Sometimes, the person cannot receive your help. One of ... posted on Apr 15 2022 (11,814 reads)

What We Nurture, by On Being
follows is the syndicated transcript of an On Being interview between Krista Tippett and Sylvia Boorstein. You can listen to the audio of their interview here. Krista Tippett, host:A few years ago, I was invited to do an event in Detroit — a city in flux, in an age of flux — on the theme of raising children. The conversation that resulted with the Jewish-Buddhist teacher and psychotherapist Sylvia Boorstein has accompanied me from that day forward. Here it is again, as an offering for Mother’s Day — in a world still in flux and where the matter of raising new human beings feels as complicated as ever before. I remain so grateful for Sylvia’s gift of tea... posted on May 8 2022 (4,489 reads)

Everything Happens for A Reason & Other Lies I've Loved, by Kate Bowler
is some medical news that nobody, absolutely nobody, is prepared to hear. I certainly wasn't. It was three years ago that I got a call in my office with the test results of a recent scan. I was 35 and finally living the life I wanted. I married my high school sweetheart and had finally gotten pregnant after years of infertility. And then suddenly we had a Zach, a perfect one-year-old boy/dinosaur, depending on his mood. And having a Zach suited me perfectly. I had gotten the first job I applied for in academia, land of a thousand crushed dreams. And there I was, working at my dream job with my littl... posted on Nov 7 2022 (7,822 reads)

What Happens in Mindfulness, by Cynthia Bourgeault
HAPPENS IN MINDFULNESS JOHN TEASDALE. GUILFORD PRESS (WWW.GUILFORD.COM), 2022. PP. 268.  Reviewed by Cynthia Bourgeault Like mom and apple pie, mindfulness has an unassailable reputation for virtue and wholesomeness. But what actually goes on in the brain and the psyche to deliver the goods? What are we actually signing up for when we embrace a path of mindfulness? In this important new book John Teasdale deftly weaves a course between the Scylla of cognitive science and the Charybdis of classic spiritual teaching to create a clear and compelling understanding of how mindfulness actually works to support the deep, unitive transformation of mind and heart traditionally know... posted on Mar 13 2023 (3,527 reads)

The Skills Necessary to Deal with Anguish, by Darlene Cohen
have had rheumatoid arthritis, a very painful and crippling disease, for 22 years. For the first year of the disease, I was an invalid in bed. Because of my pain and extreme weakness, changing my posture was a dramatic event. I needed to heed every little sensation in my legs and feet in order to go from sitting to standing. Getting out of my bed and going to the bathroom took the same kind of focus and attention as going on safari. The people in the zen community where I lived put up a sign-up sheet for volunteers to clean my room, do my laundry, and wash my hair. At first my conscious life was all pain. Swept up by the power of the pain, overwhelmed and consumed by it, I couldn't ... posted on Apr 26 2023 (3,436 reads)

Albert Camus on Writing, Creativity and Stubborness, by Maria Popova
years after he became the second-youngest laureate of the Nobel Prize, awarded him for literature that “with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience,” Albert Camus (November 7, 1913–January 4, 1960) died in a car crash with an unused train ticket to the same destination in his pocket. The writings he left behind — about the key to strength of character, about creativity as resistance, about the antidotes to the absurdity of life, about happiness as our moral obligation — endure as a living testament to Mary Shelley’s conviction that “it is by words that the world’s... posted on Sep 1 2023 (3,522 reads)

An Awe Walk, by Dacher Keltner
gives you a sense of awe? That word, awe—the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world—is often associated with the extraordinary. You might imagine standing next to a 350-foot-tall tree or on a wide-open plain with a storm approaching, or hearing an electric guitar fill the space of an arena, or holding the tiny finger of a newborn baby. Awe blows us away: It reminds us that there are forces bigger than ourselves, and it reveals that our current knowledge is not up to the task of making sense of what we have encountered. But you don’t need remarkable circumstances to encounter awe. When my colleagues and I as... posted on Dec 31 1969 (30 reads)

How The Luddite Teens Of New York Changed My Perspective On Social Media, by Natalie DeVille
gained access to social media around age 9 or 10. Social media and the internet have always been there. It feels natural. I hadn’t ever questioned what it would be like if I stopped using social media altogether. I was aware of the negative effects of Instagram, but I thought I could handle it; that I was above it. After a year of using TikTok, I started thinking more critically about my media consumption. Why is it so compelling to spend hours looking at a screen when half the time I’m not paying attention or following investing, meaningful content? Social media is designed to draw you in and keep your eyes glued to the screen. If you’ve ever told yourself you will st... posted on Jun 15 2024 (2,788 reads)

Love and Philosophy Between Prison Walls and Ivory Towers, by Awakin Call Editors
1987, while teaching a class at MIT [the Massachusetts Institute of Technology] on nonviolence, philosophy lecturer Lee Perlman had a novel idea: Why not take the students to a prison, to talk with men who had committed extreme forms of violence?  Needless to say,” an MIT publication reported, “the experience was an eye-opener for students — a powerful way to help them understand, at a visceral level, the nature of violence. And it also sparked Perlman’s lifelong professional and personal interest in the prison system.” What follows is the edited transcript of an in-depth Awakin Calls interview with Dr. Perlman. You can listen to the recording ... posted on Dec 28 2019 (7,017 reads)

Integrative Touch Therapy: A Catalyst for Healing, by Awakin Call Editors
Saturday, Cynthia Li and I had the privilege of hosting an incredibly inspiring and illuminating Awakin Call with Shay Beider. Shay Beider had a moment of clarity while still a pre-med college student at UCLA. Shadowing doctors at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and watching a girl tremble with fear before surgery, she suddenly awakened: “It doesn’t have to look like this.” Shay realized she could serve children and their families with something she’d already been delivering—healing touch. To put herself through college, Beider had been working as a massage therapist. Why not bring gentle, caring touch directly into healthcare? Beider would ev... posted on Dec 31 1969 (185 reads)

The Core of Belonging, by Tami Simon
Simon:  Welcome to Insights at the Edge, produced by Sounds True. My name’s 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, v... posted on Jan 18 2022 (4,125 reads)

Shay Beider: Resilience is Rooted in Source, by Awakin Call Editors
follows is the transcript of an Awakin Call with Shay Beider. You can watch and/or listen to the recording of the conversation here. Cynthia Li:  I am delighted to introduce you all to Shay Beider. She feels like a soul sister. Shay is the founder of the nonprofit organization, Integrative Touch for Kids. She is a true visionary in pediatric integrative medicine for the past 15 years. Integrative Touch for Kids was born from a moment of clarity when Shay was a college student at UCLA. She was a pre-med major at the time, focused on becoming a pediatric surgeon. And one day when she was shadowing doctors at Children's Hospital, she watched a young girl freeze in terro... posted on Mar 16 2023 (2,752 reads)

Parker Palmer on the Heart of a Teacher, by Parker J. Palmer
text is an adaptation of the first chapter in The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life (Jossey-Bass, 2007) by Parker J. Palmer. We Teach Who We Are I am a teacher at heart, and there are moments in the classroom when I can hardly hold the joy. When my students and I discover uncharted territory to explore, when the pathway out of a thicket opens up before us, when our experience is illumined by the lightning-life of the mind—then teaching is the finest work I know. But at other moments, the classroom is so lifeless or painful or confused—and I am so powerless to do anything about it that my claim to be a teacher seems a tra... posted on Oct 3 2016 (34,559 reads)

How to Fight Racism Through Inner Work, by Jill Suttie
meditation may hold the key to grappling with interpersonal racism, says Rhonda Magee, because it helps people tolerate the discomfort that comes with deeper discussions about race. And it can help cultivate a sense of belonging and community for those who experience and fight racism in our everyday lives. For more than 20 years, Magee has worked to address issues of race, racism, and identity-based conflict while teaching law at the University of San Francisco. Over the years teaching hundreds of students about the many ways that racism affects law and justice, she came to realize that we can’t just think our way out of racism or other biases—we need to go de... posted on Jun 10 2020 (10,322 reads)