Raise Your Children to Be Happy, Healthy, Complete, by Ariane de Bonvoisin
children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.” —Kahil Gibran Parents today are overwhelmed with demands on how to raise their kids. We want the very best for our kids. We want them to be smart, athletic, healthy, kind, happy, polite, disciplined, creative and more. We want to give them everything! And before everything, we focus on getting them into good schools so that they can have the best possible education. Kids on the other hand, are growing up bombarded by technology, needing to compete in every way, comparing themselves with others, trying to be perfect and please their parents, wanting to fit in... posted on Oct 15 2018 (40,614 reads)

Why Activism Must Be More Generous, by Frances Lee
want to be a member of a thriving and diverse social movement, not a cult or a religion. Occupy Love, Hella Love Oakland March, February 14 2012. Credit: Flickr/Glenn Halog. CC BY-NC 2.0. As an intersectional activist who is concerned about the future of our movements, I’m really worried that social justice activism in the West is stuck in a dangerous state of disrepair. Ideological purity has become the norm. Social justice movements, which were originally about freeing marginalized people from oppressive institutions and social structures, have become imbued with their own narrow framework of morality. Our knowledge base is made up of reactionary think-pieces, self-rig... posted on Oct 24 2018 (8,384 reads)

The Dinner Party, by Lennon Flowers
with a gathering of friends in 2010, The Dinner Party (TDP) has grown to include thousands of people engaged in the mission of transforming life after loss, from an isolating experience into one marked by community support, candid conversation, and forward movement. Today, in over 90 cities and towns worldwide there are 234 Dinner Party tables bringing together people mostly in their 20s and 30s who have experienced significant loss. TDP helps to create space for supportive, in-person connections, at local potluck gatherings by recruiting and training members of their community to be hosts, matching guests with available tables, and serving as a resource for powerful, enriching, an... posted on Oct 10 2018 (9,732 reads)

9/11 BroughtThem Together. They'veBeen Preaching Love Ever Since, by Sarah van Gelder
story from the YES! Media archives was originally published in the Winter 2007 issue of YES! Magazine. A rabbi, a minister, and an imam walk into a bar. No, really. Since 9/11, three religious leaders in Seattle have been meeting for sometimes “vigorous” discussions, lecturing together, and even doing joint spiritual teaching. Rabbi Ted Falcon is founder of Bet Alef Meditative Synagogue, Reverend Don Mackenzie is minister and head of staff at the University Congregational United Church of Christ, and Jamal Rahman is a Muslim Sufi minister at the Interfaith Community Church. And that time they walked into a bar? It was to discuss a book they co-authored, Getting to th... posted on Oct 13 2018 (6,026 reads)

The Abundance of Less, by Andy Couturier
The Abundance of Less: Lessons in Simple Living from Rural Japan by Andy Couturier, published by North Atlantic Books, copyright © 2017 by Andy Couturier. Reprinted by permission of publisher. Introduction to the 2017 Edition Much of what you will read in this book was originally published in 2010 under the title A Different Kind of Luxury. This revised version with its new format and many new photographs has been updated at the end of each person’s profile with how their lives have changed in the intervening years. Given the book’s setting in Japan, and the environmental activism of the people in it, I felt it important to write about how they have understood and... posted on Nov 28 2018 (9,030 reads)

Nuggets of Wisdom from 10 Everyday Heroes, by Gayathri Ramachandran
this year winds to a close, volunteers suggested that it might be fun for me to do a post with excerpts/nuggets from 10 memorable Awakin Calls of this past year. The idea resonated, so here is my list. Needless to say, these 10 were rather difficult to choose since there is something resonant or meaningful in almost every call we’ve had. And as all members of the Awakin Calls scribe and editing team can attest -- as we spend a lot of time soaking in these calls, even the calls that first seem to be at the outer limits of our sphere of interest unveil some talisman, that we then hold on to, for nourishment. So with that caveat in place (and the invitation to please spend... posted on Jan 21 2019 (7,064 reads)

Matthew Sanford Transforms Loss, by Nathan Scolaro
Sanford says deepening the connection between mind and body is more than a personal health strategy; it is a practical shift in consciousness that can transform the world. Everything he does flows from his daily yoga practice—an opportunity, as he sees it, to bring awareness to his inner world and feel into the sensations within. It’s inevitable, Matthew says, that from this consciousness, a more compassionate path follows, because we become more attentive to the connections that sustain us. Matthew has been paralysed from the chest down since 1978 when he was in a devastating car accident at just 13 years old. For a long time, he was taught by his caregivers to concen... posted on Jan 30 2019 (9,208 reads)

Xiuhtezcatl Martinez: Break Free, by Kari Auerbach
IN WINTER 2018 For the last 11 years, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez has been in the public eye for his activism, movement building, work with Earth Guardians, and youth empowerment. In 2013, President Obama awarded Xiuhtezcatl the United States Community Service Award. Xiuhtezcatl was the youngest of 24 national change-makers chosen to serve on the president’s youth council.  He is the recipient of the 2015 Peace First Prize; the 2015 Nickelodeon Halo Award;  the 2016 Captain Planet Award; the 2016 Children’s Climate Prize in Sweden; and the 2017 Univision Premios Agente de Cambio Award. He has addressed the UN General Assembly, given TED Talks, been ... posted on Jan 22 2019 (6,815 reads)

Drinking the Tears of the World: Grief as Deep Activism, by Francis Weller
have written often of the value and importance of grief. In the context of this section on resistance, I would like to amplify the essential importance of this often-neglected emotion and situate It squarely in the heart of our capabilities to respond to the challenges of our times. Denise Levertov has a brief, but illuminating poem about grief. She says, To speak of sorrow works upon it moves it from its crouched place barring the way to and from the soul’s hall. It is our unexpressed sorrows, the congested stories of loss, when left unattended, that block our access to the soul. To be able to freely move in and out of the soul’s inner chambers... posted on Oct 22 2023 (50,701 reads)

A Hyperrealist Artist Draws The Dying To Understand Life, by Katherine Brooks
BICEN, DANIEL - PENCIL ON DRAWING AND TISSUE PAPERS - 30” X 22” “Introduced through Hospice by the Bay, Daniel and I met weekly in his room in a high-rise SRO block in San Francisco’s SOMA. A graduate of Harvard University and friends with Spanish royalty, Daniel lost all of his wealth when he was cut out of his father’s business empire and struggled with mental health issues. Now sharing hallways with the city’s most disenfranchised residents, Daniel would still go for caviar and champagne once a week using money from his estranged son. Daniel was adamant that death did not trouble him and that he was simply letting the “gentle flow o... posted on Apr 9 2019 (13,287 reads)

A Good Death: An Interview with Stephen Jenkinson, by Leslee Goodman
master’s degree in theology from Harvard University and a master’s in social work from the University of Toronto, Stephen Jenkinson was the director of counselling services in the palliative care department at a major Canadian hospital  in  Toronto for several years, where he encountered the deep “death phobia” and “grief illiteracy” that most of his patients and their loved ones brought to their deathbeds. This work motivated Jenkinson to encourage people to prepare for their death well before its arrival so that they might be free to “participate emotionally in their deaths as they participate in other major life even... posted on Apr 26 2019 (21,879 reads)

This Library Takes an Indigenous Approach to Categorizing Books, by Sydney Worth
than a century, the Dewey Decimal Classification system has dictated the way libraries organize their collections. And the way they organize and sort information says a lot about what kind of information is prioritized—and what’s left out. Books on Indigenous communities often get looped into the history section. As a result, information on Native peoples literally gets left in the past. Xwi7xwa Library (pronounced whei-wha) at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, is working to change that. The library aims to counter Western, colonial bias and better reflect the knowledge of Indigenous peoples. By offering an alternative to the widely ... posted on Apr 19 2019 (5,913 reads)

If Life Wins There Will Be No Losers, by Ruth Gordon
never change things by fighting against the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.” Buckminster Fuller In recent years there's been a global awakening to the momentous choice humanity now faces: do we cling to the old system and choose extinction, or create a new system that grants us a future worth living? Movements such as Standing Rock, Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future are giving voice to the widespread longing for a tenable alternative to capitalism – our urgent need for new, regenerative ways of living: systems of life that use clean renewable energy, restore... posted on Jul 2 2019 (6,904 reads)

Coastal Communication: A Mother and Son's Moving Collaboration, by Jane Jackson, Aaron M.P. Jackson
follows are selected excerpts from 'Coastal Communication', by Jane Jackson, Aaron M.P. Jackson Introduction On June 2, 2006, my husband Blyden’s 70th birthday, I had a life altering experience. After arriving home from an exhausting day at work, I was suddenly unable to speak or move my arm. I just wanted to lie down and sleep, which would have been the worst possible thing for me to do. Blyden, a former Emergency Medical Technician, immediately recognized that I might be having a stroke of some kind because of my inability to speak and the pupil of one of my eyes being dilated. He and our daughter, Gail, rushed me to the Bayonne, N.J. Medical Center, near where we ... posted on Jun 29 2019 (9,417 reads)

From the Rink to the Research Lab: How a Former Olympian is Transforming the Mental Health Landscape, by Emily Rose Barr
not every day you find yourself chatting with a former Olympian, let alone one whose discipline and determination on the ice has translated effortlessly into shifting the mental health landscape as we know it. Last month, I was privileged to speak with Rachael Flatt, a former competitive figure skater who took seventh place at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Down-to-earth and deeply insightful, it’s no surprise that the 26-year-old, aptly known as “Reliable Rachael”, has already made quite a name for herself. At the time of our call, Rachael had just completed the first year of her Ph.D. program in Clinical Psychology at the University of North Carolina... posted on Jul 1 2019 (4,538 reads)

Mercy Needs to Be Where the Need is Greatest, by Awakin Call Editors
follows is the transcript of an Awakin Call interview with Sr. Marilyn Lacey in August of 2019. You can listen to the recording of the entire call here.  Mercy Beyond Borders Micro-Ent moms in Uganda grateful for their business loans Pavi Mehta: Now it's my pleasure to introduce Sister Marilyn, who just flew in from Haiti six hours ago and graciously joined us this morning. Sister Marilyn Lacey is the Founder and Executive Director of Mercy Beyond Borders, a nonprofit organization that partners with displaced women and children overseas to alleviate their poverty. She's been a Sister of Mercy since 1966 and holds a Master's degree in Social Work from ... posted on May 6 2021 (3,584 reads)

Where Climate, Architecture and Kindness Intersect, by Stephanie Van Hook
to “Nonviolence Radio” on Apple Podcasts, Android or via RSS. The following is a transcript of “Nonviolence Radio’s recent interview with architect, educator and climate activist Pete Gang. Today’s show is going to be about climate coping, and the ways that different professions can shed light on constructive avenues that we go in, in order to build a more just and resilient and sustainable future that improves human thriving and incorporates the human being with all the rest of life in a way that deeply addresses what the true crisis is at the root of climate disruption. And this will be the first in a series tha... posted on Oct 18 2019 (2,678 reads)

The Deep Heart, by Tami Simon
December 10, 2019 TS: 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, p... posted on Dec 23 2019 (8,971 reads)

Teaching & Learning from the Heart in Troubled Times, by Rabbi Ariel Burger
is quiet as I write this. It is so quiet that I can imagine the cries of those who suffer: the pangs of hunger in Yemen, the hundreds of Rohingya who continue to flee Myanmar to the world's largest refugee camp, children pining for their parents at the U.S. border, and so many more. Our earth cries out for relief as its trees burn and its glaciers melt. News of yet another school shooting, this one in Santa Clarita, California, has just appeared on my newsfeed. When I read the news, I am filled with frustration at the endless cycles in which we appear to be caught, and humanity's seeming inability to grow and change. Many of the structures of society appear to be organized to m... posted on Mar 23 2020 (7,063 reads)

16 Teachings from COVID-19, by Marian Brehmer
try to re-create ourselves when things fall apart. We return to the solid ground of our self-concept as quickly as possible. (…) When things fall apart, instead of struggling to regain our concept of who we are, we can use it as an opportunity to be open and inquisitive about what has just happened and what will happen next. That is how we turn this arrow into a flower.” — Pema Chödrön A lot is being said these days. Clarity can be hard to come by, silence even more so. Overwhelmed by the cacophony of voices, I sat down to synthesize some perspectives that shine light on the corona crisis. Most of you will already have come across some of thos... posted on Apr 5 2020 (64,498 reads)