Where Fear Meets Hope: Stories from Here and There, by Emily Rose Barr
we grow accustomed to life under lockdown, we are discovering the richness that can emerge from the quiet, contemplative nature of solitude. Hoping to tap into the inner wisdom of our collective attempt to find light amidst darkness, writer Emily Rose Barr asked one simple question of individuals across the globe: What are you doing that's bringing a little extra joy, light, or laughter to your days? As the answers poured in, she realized that perhaps the paradoxes of our time -- hope and fear, connection and isolation, anger and compassion -- are not meant to be reconciled, but simply to be lived. Read more to learn how the discomfort of uncertainty invites us to take care ... posted on Apr 29 2020 (8,000 reads)

COVID Era Shows Gandhi's Ideal of Practical Idealism is Possible, by Michael Nagler
new society can be developed from the inspiring ways people around the world are responding to this unprecedented disaster. April 21, 2020 In Wuhan, China, the Honda factory has returned to full production. People, most of them still masked, go here and there in this industrial city of 11 million, steadily resuming their normal, pre-pandemic lives. We are happy for them, but — at the same time — this is not the “normal” we want. As was seen recently on a wall in Chile: “We Won’t Go Back to Normal, Because Normal Was the Problem.” Joe Biden himself has just said, “When we come out of this, we can’t just go back to business as usual.&r... posted on May 7 2020 (8,001 reads)

Notice the Rage. Notice the Silence., by On Being
Tippett, host: Resmaa Menakem is a therapist and trauma specialist who activates the wisdom of elders and a very new science, about how all of us carry the history and traumas behind everything we collapse into the word “race” in our bodies. He helps explain why vulnerabilities and inequities laid bare by the pandemic have fallen hardest on Black bodies. He illuminates why all of the best laws and diversity training have not gotten us anywhere near healing. We recorded this interview just before lockdown, in Minneapolis, where we both live and work. We offer up Resmaa Menakem’s intelligence on changing ourselves at a cellular level — as, in Minneapolis and... posted on Jun 6 2020 (19,152 reads)

Turning to Face the Dark, by Ariel Burger, Parker Palmer
May of 2019, Rabbi Dr. Ariel Burger sat down with educator and writer Parker J. Palmer for an unscripted conversation. What emerged was a wide-ranging contemplative dialogue on suffering, healing, and joy. Parker is the author of “Five Habits to Heal the Heart of Democracy”, The Courage to Teach, Let Your Life Speak, On the Brink of Everything, and seven other life-changing books. Ariel is the author of “Teaching and Learning from the Heart in Troubled Times” and Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom. Ariel Burger: Parker, thank you for making the time to have this conversation. Parker Palmer: Th... posted on Jun 9 2020 (7,882 reads)

How to Support Antiracism in Yourself & in the World, by Karla McLaren
do we build a more loving and inclusive world? In 2016, when the serious troubles in the United States began to boil and coalesce into ever deepening and blatant racism, I went into a period of study with my friend and colleague Amanda Ball. We read everything that we could get our hands on about race, prejudice, and discrimination, and we educated ourselves from the ground up. There was a lot that we didn’t know, because things are set up so that we don’t know. Luckily, there is a vibrant community of writers and speakers who are sharing valuable knowledge. I have listed some of them below if you want to learn. On the night of the 2016 election, I found many new org... posted on Jun 29 2020 (15,067 reads)

Voting as an Expression of Love and Gratefulness, by The Gratefulness Team
we approach the 2020 election in the United States (US), the Gratefulness Team has been reflecting on the gift of the right to vote here and throughout the world. Over the course of history, many have fought for this privilege with their lives, and we can show our gratitude by embracing the opportunity to vote whenever and wherever we can. This includes not only major national elections but all of the democratic decisions with which we’re presented in our local communities and day-to-day lives. Though we typically think of voting in purely political terms, we can think about every choice we make as a vote and every moment in our lives as an election. We vote with our bodies, ener... posted on Oct 31 2020 (4,697 reads)

What Is Solidarity?: Reflections on Justice, by Alnoor Ladha
was born when all I once feared, I could love. – Hazrat Bibi Rabia of Basra, 7th century Sufi saint Survival has become an economizing on life. The civilization of collective survival increases dead time in individual lives to the point where the forces of death threaten to overwhelm collective survival itself. Unless, that is, the passion for destruction is replaced by the passion for life. – Raoul Vaneigem, The Revolution of Everyday Life One of the great crises of our times is the crisis of meaning, which is both a symptom and a cause of the broader polycrisis – the convergence of ecological, political, spiritual and social breakdown. Traditionally held cer... posted on Nov 1 2020 (6,552 reads)

Sustainable Social Change and Philanthropy, by Awakin Call Editors
a professional grantmaker and manager with some of the world's leading foundations, David Bonbright sought innovative approaches to strengthening citizen self-organization in place of prevailing bureaucratic, top-down models. While with the Ford Foundation, David was declared persona non grata by the apartheid government in South Africa for helping fund the liberation struggle. In 1990, in the final years of that struggle, he entrepreneured the development of some key building block organizations for civil society in the new South Africa. He then founded and now runs an international nonprofit dedicated to bringing constituent feedback to social change practice. He had an unexpected i... posted on Dec 8 2020 (3,859 reads)

Praying for the Earth, by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
online in The Huffington Post, 2011 Prayer is the simplest and most natural way to communicate with the Divine. Prayer is the heart speaking. There are the prescribed prayers, the rituals of inner communion. But there are also our personal prayers, our way of being with the Divine, with the sacred that is our deepest nature and that of the world around us. In whatever way we are drawn to pray, there is a pressing need at this time to include the earth in our prayers. We are living in a time of ecological devastation, in which our materialistic culture has had a catastrophic effect on the ecosystem. Our rivers are toxic, the rainforests slashed and burned, vast tracts ... posted on Nov 20 2020 (8,134 reads)

Mark Wolynn: Healing Inherited Family Trauma, 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. 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, veterans, a... posted on Dec 4 2020 (10,162 reads)

Emily's Affirmations: A Valentine's Day Gift to Yourself, by Emily Rose Barr
invitation from a friend was simple: take a picture each day of something that brings you joy. The intention was harder: bring a little light into a year of profound tumult and isolation. In the summer of 2020, I, like many was starting to feel the unraveling of time—my calendar no longer punctuated by social gatherings and grocery shopping, casual exchanges and well-worn routines. The unscheduled hours I’d previously longed for were being delivered in bundles and heaps and had begun to feel alarming and disorienting. Absent of the markers I habitually relied on, Wednesday could now be Monday, Thursday was Blursday, and weekends were as strangely solitary as the rest of ... posted on Feb 14 2021 (7,351 reads)

Fabiana Fondevila: The Many Flavors of Wonder, by Awakin Call Editors
Fondevila is an Argentinian writer, speaker, teacher, and all-around wonder activist. She began her career as a journalist and war correspondent, working for the main outlets in her native country. Returning to spiritual questions, she then spent years interviewing some of the world's top thinkers, mystics, scientists and philosophers in search of a map. And then, life transpired: her older sister took her own life after a lifetime of mental illness, and Fabiana's parents died shortly before and after, undone by the pain. This led Fabiana deeper into the path. But this time, no books or schools or lineages seemed potent enough to shine a light in the darkness. By chance, she ... posted on Apr 17 2021 (6,120 reads)

Joy Harjo: The Whole of Time, by On Being
follows is the transcript of an On Being interview between Krista Tippett and Joy Harjo. Syndicated with permission. You can listen to the audio of this interview here. Krista Tippett, host:Joy Harjo is a saxophone player and performer, a visual artist, a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, and 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States. She’s written, “Though we have instructions and a map buried in our hearts when we enter this world, nothing quite prepares us for the abrupt shift to the breathing realm.” I’m grateful for this hour she gave us to walk alongside her in the breathing realm, and to experience what she knows about how to see and to live. [&ldqu... posted on May 24 2021 (5,734 reads)

Building Belonging: Being an Ambassador to the Earth, 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, vet... posted on Aug 31 2021 (3,513 reads)

Valentina Suzukei and the Music of Tuva, by Steve Elkin
follows is Part 7 of an interview series with the diverse musicians whose music is heard in the feature documentary "Echoes of the Invisible," directed by Steve Elkins. This interview was conducted in Kyzyl, Tuva in March 2014.  Tuva is the epicenter of a rare form of throat singing, in which our ears seem to “magically” hear multiple pitches and melodies emerging all at once from a single note sung in a drone. Valentina Süzükei is the world’s leading expert on Tuvan music, especially the variant known as Xöömei. Unfortunately, her research and preservation of Tuvan culture has never been translated into English, despit... posted on Sep 2 2021 (3,829 reads)

Inhabiting the Ground of Being, by Awakin Call Editors
Judith Blackstone is the founder of the Realization Process, a contemporary method of spiritual awakening that includes embodied, psychological and relational healing. Over the past 40 years, she has developed and taught this process to thousands of people across the world. Among her thousands of clients and students are people from wide- ranging cultures, faiths and backgrounds. Her trainings are sought out by many who work in healing professions themselves, and she's worked extensively with survivors of trauma. Judith's explorations of Eastern traditions include studies in Tibetan Buddhism, a year in a Zen monastery and a 23-year connection to the ashram of a Hindu teacher... posted on Oct 19 2021 (3,137 reads)

The Woman Beside Wendell Berry, by Unknown Yet
in her modest kitchen, Tanya Berry explains that a bit of arthritis has made it harder for her to scramble up hills to pick flowers. But she’s expecting black-eyed Susans will soon gather on her walks along Cane Run, and “I’ll get them,” she assures me. This talk of aging knees is interrupted when she gestures to the vase on the wood stove, between the two rocking chairs that form a snug back-of-the-kitchen sitting room, as the late afternoon sun pours through the window onto the wildflowers. “Here’s my daily thing—this happens once a day. Whatever’s there gets lit,” she says, chuckling about the pleasure she gets. “For ... posted on Nov 24 2021 (6,120 reads)

The Anatomy of Anxiety, by Kira M. Newman
is “that hypervigilant feeling that escalates swiftly to a sense of catastrophe and doom,” writes Ellen Vora, M.D., in her new book, The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body’s Fear Response. Anxiety is “as grounded in the body as it is in the mind.” Too often, she argues, we turn to only mental solutions for what is in part a physical problem. That resonates with me. When I feel anxious, some solutions I try—like talking to a friend or watching TV—are hit or miss. Over the years, the only foolproof remedies I’ve found have to do with the body: A good high-intensity workout is bound to make me feel better, ... posted on Apr 7 2022 (8,961 reads)

Talking with Kids About What's Going On in the World, by Shauna Tominey
I’m feeling nervous,” my 12-year-old daughter shared one night as I tucked her into bed. “Are you just having nervous feelings or are you thinking about something?” I asked. “Ukraine,” she replied. I asked if she wanted to talk about it. She didn’t. “I just want you to tell me a story—a happy story—to help me fall asleep.” In that moment, I found myself going through the eternal parenting struggle—the struggle of wanting to do or say the right thing and not knowing exactly what that was. I wanted to know if she had talked about Ukraine at school or if she had heard something in the news. I w... posted on May 25 2022 (4,411 reads)

Stretch Your Heart and Say What You Mean, 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 Sounds True Foundation. The goal of the Sounds True Foundation is to provide access and eliminate financial barriers to transformational education and resources such as teachings and trainings on mindfulness, emotional awareness, and self-compassion. If you’d like to learn more and join with us in our efforts, please visit SoundsTrueFoundation.org. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, my guest is Oren Jay Sofer. Oren teaches mindfulness meditation and Nonviolent Commu... posted on Sep 21 2022 (3,544 reads)