The Daily Opportunity in Randomness
"The physicist Leonard Mlodinow changes how we think about the agency we have in shaping our own destinies. As a scientist, he works with principles like Brownian motion, by which Einstein helped...
View ArticleHow a Simple Human Smile Saved His Life
In a creative sandbox for what would become Saint-Exuperys most famous line in The Little Prince-- 'What is essential is invisible to the eye.'-- he writes: "How does life construct those lines of...
View ArticleEquanimity, Mindfulness and Politics
While contemporary society praises the benefits of mindfulness in domains from schools to workplaces, open, non-judgmental awareness is far from a panacea for solving the world's most pressing...
View ArticleUncomfortable Place of Uncertainty
"We weren't trained to admit we don't know. Most of us were taught to sound certain and confident, to state our opinion as if it were true. We haven't been rewarded for being confused. Or for asking...
View ArticleUnexpected Art in Unexpected Places
What happens when we look more closely, whether with the naked eye or equipment? Incredible details come into focus, bringing with them the possibility of beauty and interest we might never have...
View ArticleShekinah Elmore: From Hospital Gown to White Coat
"Shekinah Elmore was not yet a physician when she gave her own second opinion. After a year of cancer treatment -- including lung surgery, chemotherapy, and a double mastectomy --she was hell-bent on...
View ArticleCreating Welcoming Space
"Hospitality means creating welcoming space for the other. Henri J. Nouwen notes that the Dutch word for hospitality, gastvrijheid, means 'the freedom of the guest.' It entails creating not just...
View ArticleThe Work that Reconnects
In this hour-long tribute to "The Work the Reconnects," Pat van Boeckel explores the stories of activists who have used Joanna Macys writings to enhance and support their service and their lives. Van...
View ArticleWhen Old and Young Connect
"Forty years ago, the eminent Cornell University professor and child psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner famously concluded, Every child needs at least one adult who is irrationally crazy about him or...
View Article5 Scientists on the Heroes Who Changed Their Lives
Every hero and innovator stands on the shoulders of the giants who came before. But sometimes the power of influence one has on another is subtle or indirect. Perhaps it is a life spirit shared by...
View ArticleHow to Have Difficult Conversations
What if collective introspection would help us to better persuade, to better advocate for a more beautiful world? What are the tools we need to disagree better? How can we improve our ability to listen...
View ArticleVesuvius at Home: The Power of Emily Dickinson
"For years I have been not so much envisioning Emily Dickinson as trying to visit, to enter her mind, through her poems and letters, and through my own intimations of what it could have meant to be one...
View ArticleSoft Power: A Magnetic Approach to Practice
"The desire to be in control is a normal survival response, but what I love about the art of aikido is that we can move beyond survival to a vast and universal perspective in which all life is...
View ArticleHow Doctors Use Poetry
While doctors are educated to focus primarily on medical science, some are beginning to expand their outlook and focus on something greater: language, in particular, poetry. While the Hippocratic Oath...
View ArticleA Gathering of Men with Robert Bly
In this interview between Bill Moyers and poet Robert Bly, they explore the confusion men feel about their roles in society and in their inner lives. In retreats like A Gathering of Men, their sense of...
View ArticleThe Teachings of Grass
How do we relate to the land that sustains us--as a source of belonging or as a source of belongings? As the planet teeters on the brink of environmental collapse, botanist, teacher, and author Robin...
View ArticleFinding a Way Back
Breast cancer does not ask you if it is part of your plan for life. When the diagnosis comes, your plans must change to accommodate. And how do women find their way back into life without cancer as...
View ArticleThe Lost Words: Reclaiming the Language of Nature
"In early 2015, when the 10,000-entry Oxford children's dictionary dropped around fifty words related to nature -- words like fern, willow, and starling -- in favor of terms like broadband and cut and...
View ArticleWild Wisdom
Jenny Cullinan dedicates her time to studying and learning from bees in the wild. Spending time with any species in the wild over time leads to understanding of that species as it truly is. She calls...
View ArticleWild Imagination
"Anguish over the diminishment of our world, the destruction of Earths life support systems, and the extinction of species is deep in our shared human psyche, though largely unexpressed. So many of us...
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