Shrine
Tracey Schmidt performs her poem Shrine, an evocative poem about love, about self, and about fitting into the world. Her whole being becomes a shrine through which divisions between herself and the...
View ArticleZen & the Art of Poetry
"It's my nature to question, to look at the opposite side. I believe that the best writing also does this. Great literature does not take sides with the small-minded. It's not partisan or narrow. It...
View Article5 Tips on How to Live Like a Lichen
"I. Bow down.Bring your face, your heart, your hands, your belly, down, down, close to the groundto the rock of the world, the dirt, duff, sand. Let surface meet surface, warm cheek meet cool stone. Go...
View ArticleWhy We Can & Should Listen to Other Species
Listening closely for what her nonhuman neighbors are communicating, Melanie Challenger considers what it would take to expand the democratic imagination to include and represent animal voices in the...
View ArticleThe Middle Way in Medicine & Healing
Dr. Akil Palanisamy is the Department Chair for Integrative Medicine at the Sutter Health Institute for Health and Healing, and has treated thousands of people living with chronic diseases. A widely...
View ArticleThe 8 Kinds of Humility to Help You Stay Grounded
"I'm wary of those who counsel deferential or pious humility to contain and admonish those who have strong opinions and perspectives. For example, the stereotype of humble Asians and Asian Americans...
View ArticleA Zen Life: DT Suzuki
Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki (1870~1966) was a prolific Japanese-American philosopher, writer and translator. He is considered by many to be Zen's unofficial "apostle to the West." He traveled and lectured...
View ArticleLost Together
"Love is what we are all looking for in life, isn't it? To love as our true selves and to be loved for who we truly are. Yet so many of us struggle to be our authentic selves, so we end up being unable...
View ArticleTo Converse Well
"Good conversation mixes opinions, feelings, facts and ideas in an improvisational exchange with one or more individuals in an atmosphere of goodwill. It inspires mutual insight, respect and, most of...
View ArticleBone, Breath & Gesture: Practices of Embodiment
Edited by Don Hanlon Johnson, "Bone, Breath and Gesture," was first published in 1995. Alternating in-depth interviews, lectures and writings, its contents introduce and explore the principles and...
View ArticleJanet Adler: Into the Light
Janet Adler (1941-2023) is the founder of the Discipline of Authentic Movement, and the author of "Offering from the Conscious Body. A book that delves into the, "theory and practice of a unique...
View ArticleAn Antidote to the Age of Anxiety
In his 1951 book, "The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety," Alan Watts writes, "There is a contradiction in wanting to be perfectly secure in a universe whose very nature is...
View ArticleHummingbirds & the Ecstatic Moment
"Birds have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, and hummingbirds have held a special place in my heart for the simple reason that they, early on, became personal to me. On some level,...
View ArticleBeyond Beauty: A Conversation with Paul Reynard
"My own experience is that there are moments when suddenly, after I've been working a long time at painting, I'm no longer trying to make or do something. I begin to be led, as if my brush were just...
View Article3 Steps to Build Peace & Create Change
As the child of Holocaust survivors and a World War II refugee herself, peace builder Georgette Bennett was stunned by the human toll and tragedy of the Syrian civil war. She got to work, bringing...
View ArticleWilling to Be Dazzled
"I decided to visit my friend Aristotle, who lives in a house on a hill at the west end of the ranch. We sampled various kinds of cookies and sipped decaffeinated green tea, and we vented, kvetched,...
View ArticleJeffrey Bale: The World Needs Beauty
"Jeffrey Bale received his degree in landscape architecture from the University of Oregon back in 1981. He quickly landed a job at a Portland architecture firm -- but he only lasted 20 minutes behind a...
View ArticleRelational Neuroscience & Art: A Love Story
"I want to tell you a love story. It spans 20 years. A woman exploring tide pools was approached by a 24-legged sunflower sea star who came out of the sea grass, touching her shoe and exploring her...
View ArticleSaying Hi to the Moon
"Lots of times I talk with him. Especially when he gets big and I can see the expression on his face. 'Hi, Moon!' I say, so happy to see him always, 'What's up?'" Jane Wodening is an American artist,...
View ArticleTouch at A Distance: Language, Music, Sound
This 2007 Radiolab episode takes the listener, "on a tour of language, music, and the properties of sound. We look at what sound does to our bodies, our brains, our feelings and we go back to the...
View Article