Say Wow: A Conversation with Poet Chelan Harkin
At the age of 21, on a pilgrimage to Israel, Chelan Harkin found herself sitting alone in the same cell that some 140 years earlier had confined the founder of the Baha'i faith. The quietude was...
View ArticleThe Rights of All Beings
"The UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, inspired by Franklin D Roosevelt's four freedoms, outlines the rights to which humans are equally and inalienably entitled: of speech and religion, from...
View ArticleA Lost Mariposa Garden
"I got a phone call one morning. The woman was distraught. Her friend's garden -- thirty five years in the making -- was being destroyed. The larger pieces-- a griffin, a couple of horses and two large...
View ArticleBilly Collins on the Beauty of Short Poems
Says former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins, "Whenever I pick up a new book of poems, I flip through the pages looking for small ones. Just as I might have trust in an abstract painter more if I knew he...
View ArticleFour Ways We Avoid Our Feelings & What to Do Instead
"We are always vulnerable, with limited control over the things that matter to us. Maybe you want your brother to quit drinking or your kids to get along or your boss to stop being so critical, or you...
View ArticleThe Dragonfly Incident
"I suppose this could be considered a 'wildlife encounter' story of sorts, though it presents some unusual twists. For one thing, the animal at the heart of this tale is a subarctic insect (and yet has...
View ArticleThe Enneagram: Nine Pathways to Presence
"Russ Hudson is one of the world's foremost teachers and developers of the Enneagram personality typology system, having coauthored (with Don Richard Riso) five bestselling books on the subject...In...
View ArticleInstructions on Not Giving Up
"I think, as poets, we are in the odd position of constantly defending our art form. Which is funny and also sort of invigorating, too. No one really says, "Oh you're a lawyer? I've never understood...
View ArticleI Am Not Afraid
Barbara van Lodensteijn is a business psychologist and the founder of Vision Align. Her passion is working with leaders across the world who are making a positive difference. With a background in...
View ArticleDandelions
"As new homeowners early in our marriage, I obsessed over making our yard dandelion-free. Every dandelion clock, or white blowball about to burst and blow into the wind, was a guilt-inducing sign that...
View ArticleIt's Not A Thing You Do. It's A Thing You Are
"I think people just want to feel like they're home like there's no one they have to be and there's nowhere else they have to be. Here we are. It's enough. You belong. There was never any condition to...
View ArticleHow Did You Become A Writer?
"How did you become a writer? Is a question asked of me surprisingly often when I visit schools, which I much enjoy not only as part of my overarching subtle devious plan to get on the good side of the...
View ArticleMighty in Contradiction: Love Powerfully
"I used to think the opposite of love was hate. But life experience tells me that's not true. Hate is so tinged with other emotions, including love! No. In my understanding the opposite of love is...
View ArticleVivek Murthy: To Be a Healer
"We need a modicum of vitality to simply be alive in this time. And were in an enduringly tender place. The mental health crisis that is invoked all around, especially as we look to the young, is one...
View ArticleThe Red Dress
The Red Dress is a multi-year, award-winning, global, collaborative embroidery project. It was conceived by British textile artist Kirstie Macleod, who began the Red Dress in 2009. Initially exhibiting...
View ArticleHow Long Has It Been Since You Smelled a Flower?
"For forty years I have worked at the nexus where language intersects with the lives of prison inmates, and it has proven to be one of the most exciting intersections imaginable...Since 1974 I have...
View ArticleMumbai's Improbably Famous Hijab-Wearing Teen Rapper
""I go in an auto even to the fanciest of places," she says. Saniya needs to be in the venue at least an hour in advance to do sound and music checks. "If my father has a customer in his auto already,...
View ArticleWhen Relishing Joy is A Radical Act
"For Persians, one of our most precious ways to summon joy is with poetry. I remember one night, in particular, in my home city of Shiraz, Iran, during the war. While sirens blared and the electricity...
View ArticleGranddaughter's Eyes: 21-Day Climate Action Challenge
"Granddaughter's Eyes" is a music video that invites us to pay close attention to the Earth, to love her deeply and take action to heal her wounds. The song reminds us that every act of attention is an...
View ArticleThe Art of Lying Fallow
"I suspect our ability to ask the unanswerable questions that Hannah Arendt knew are the heartbeat of civilization is intimately related to our capacity for dwelling in a particular state of being...
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