The Intelligence of Plants
Plants are intelligent; perform complex mathematical computations; plan for the future; and even interpret meaning. Stephen Harrod Buhner came to this conclusion by opening his understanding up to the...
View ArticleSmall Graces by Kent Neburn
Pause just long enough in your busy day to sit in a patch of sunlight. Now breathe deeply. Then, in the small space you just opened, read this profound reflection on the quiet graces that make up a...
View ArticleHow I Became an Entrepreneur at 66
When Paul Tasner was laid off at 64, he was not in a position to remain unemployed. For several years after, the engineer pursued a career in consulting but realized he had no passion for it. So, at...
View ArticleSpirit of the Earth: Indian Voices on Nature
It is indigenous communities who often bear the biggest brunt of environmental crisis -- and who continue to put their bodies on the frontline to protect the Earth, and all of us. Samuel Bendeck...
View ArticleWhen Things Fall Apart
Just when we think we've escaped and found firm ground to stand on in a painful moment, Pema Chodron suggests that we let go into the difficulty of our situation and rest there with an open mind...
View ArticleLiterature's Legacy of Honorable Failure
Somewhere between a critic's necessary superficiality and a writer's natural dishonesty, the truth of how we judge literary success or failure is lost. It is very hard to get writers to speak frankly...
View ArticleWild Faith
"Sometimes the nearly unbearable beauty of the world overwhelms me. I tremble with a felt-sense that the magnificence that saturates the cosmos surely reflects the possibility, even now, of human...
View ArticleHow Do We Respond? A Question to Artists
To some, the creative process needs no justification or rationale; yet there are times of upheaval in history that seem to ask the artist: Why are you creating this? What is your purpose? What social...
View ArticleThe Butterfly Child
At 14 years old, Jonathan Pitre appears to have a superhuman ability to deal with the constant pain of epidermolysis bullosa, the rare disease that has been a part of his life from infancy. In this...
View ArticleSeneca on the Antidote to Anxiety
With elegant rhetoric the great first-century Roman philosopher Seneca examines worry, both real and imaginary, and the mental discipline of overcoming fear. In Letters from a Stoic, he points out to a...
View ArticleA Winter Walk: An Excerpt
Henry David Thoreau sings praises of winter, "the wonderful purity of nature ...(when) the dead leaves of autumn, are concealed by a clean napkin of snow... A cold and searching wind drives away all...
View ArticleThe Sacred Ordinary in Healthcare
Sacred acts. This is how Dr. Venu Julapalli would describe the seemingly mundane, at times unglamorous, services performed by a team of caregivers looking after his mother who, after the sudden rupture...
View ArticleTeach Me To Be WILD
Teach Me to Be WILD is a film that explores the work of Wildlife Associates, a sanctuary in Northern California, where injured, non-releasable wild animals become Wild Teachers and are helping heal...
View ArticleNo Better Place to Meet Yourself
Moussa Ag Assarid, an avid and gifted storyteller, was born in the Sahara desert in a nomadic camp of Touaregs in the north of Mali, where for generations his family has lived the simple desert life of...
View ArticleBetsy Damon: Living Water
"Water is Betsy Damon's passion, living water -- water, as the Chinese say, that has gone up and down the mountain ten thousand times. After many years of studying water her question became, "How can...
View ArticleA Fifty-Year Friendship Catalyzed By Kindness
"My parents came to the U.S. in the 1960s, along with the first wave of immigrants from India. My father came to Kansas, which is where he was getting his Ph.D. Six months later, my mother came with...
View ArticleRemarkable Beings
Where would you turn to learn about familial love, cooperative community and walking through life with peace and gentleness? Expand your horizons and understanding in this essay on what the desert...
View ArticleWaiting for the Thaw
"It's about this time in the long stretch of winter that I begin to ache for spring. By March, I tend become a bit dulled to the beauty of winter. Though my prayer and meditation keep my heart open to...
View ArticleBryan Stevenson Beats the Drum for Justice
The great-grandson of slaves, Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer, author, activist, and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. Having been shaped by his experiences as a young...
View ArticleWhat the Dolphin Said
Judith Simon Prager, PhD, is a writer, teacher, and clinical hypnotherapist. She has lived all over the world working as a novelist, screen writer, and journalist. However, Judith is probably best...
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