The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
"Have you ever wondered about the lives of each person you pass on the street, realizing that everyone is the main character in their own story, each living a life as vivid and complex as your own? That feeling has a name: 'sonder.' Or maybe you've watched a thunderstorm roll in and felt a primal hunger for disaster, hoping it would shake up your life. Thats called 'lachesism.' Or you were looking... posted on Dec 10 2022, 5,700 reads

Storytelling & the Art of Tenderness
"Like all orientations of the spirit, tenderness is a story we tell ourselves -- about each other, about the world, about our place in it and our power in it. Like all narratives, the strength of our tenderness reflects the strength and sensitivity of our storytelling. That is what the Polish psychologist turned poet and novelist Olga Tokarczuk explores in her Nobel Prize acceptance speech." Maria... posted on Dec 09 2022, 3,846 reads

Shinrin-Yoku: Forest Bathing
Hopefully you have a little piece of green forest--a kind of a heaven on earth-- where you can find peace. If so, you already have experienced the health benefits of soaking up the beauty of nature. Forest bathing, in Japan where the practice originated, is called shinrin-yoku. This is the practice of walking through the forest slowly and quietly as a way to heal body, mind and spirit. This film, ... posted on Dec 08 2022, 2,119 reads

Fishing Before You Know How to Fish
"Through the pines and the one maple I hear her.

I shouldn't have gone fishing if I didn't know how to fish.

I shouldn't have gone fishing if I didn't know how to fish."
Author and activist Courtney Martin shares more in this lovely poem on life, love and our human unpreparedness.... posted on Dec 07 2022, 1,873 reads

I Practice Philosophy as Art
"If we want to understand what kind of society we live in, we have to comprehend what information is. Information has very little currency. It lacks temporal stability, since it lives off the excitement of surprise. Due to its temporal instability, it fragments perception. It throws us into a continuous frenzy of topicality. Hence its impossible to linger on information. That's how it differs from... posted on Dec 06 2022, 2,071 reads

The Middle of Somewhere
At Elizabeth Sproul Ross's Shenandoah Valley farm, "she invites artists and art students to share her rustic studio for weeklong retreats. Her roots here reach back to the 1700s, when Scots-Irish ancestors settled this land. Now paintbrushes replace plows, as it's become a getaway from city life for those seeking new skills. And with each group, this spry 70-plus-year-old still climbs the hill beh... posted on Dec 05 2022, 1,814 reads

The Entangled Activist
"An angry activist isn't easy to listen to, and for years I made dinner table conversation unbearable. Like many other progressive activists I would preach tolerance of all diversity...except for those with whom I disagreed. And people felt that judgment, reacting against the person who made them feel bad: me, 'the activist.' Students of sociology and political psychology know that we are prone to... posted on Dec 04 2022, 1,685 reads

You Don't Know What Your Future Self Wants
"'You are constantly becoming a new person,' says journalist Shankar Vendantam. In a talk full of beautiful storytelling, he explains the profound impact of something he calls the "illusion of continuity" -- the belief that our future selves will share the same views, perspectives and hopes as our current selves -- and shows how we can more proactively craft the people we are to become." Science w... posted on Dec 03 2022, 2,733 reads

The Queen of Basketball
This amazing film, winner of the 2022 Academy Award for Best Documentary (short subject), shares the story of Lusia "Lucy" Harris, a pioneer of women's basketball. Harris talks of her love of basketball from childhood with her characteristic good humor and humility. Criticized for her height, basketball helped her to view that as an asset. She led her college team to three national women's basketb... posted on Dec 02 2022, 1,323 reads

Don't Treat Your Life as a Project
"The idea that we narrate our lives to ourselves, and that doing so is part of living well, is sufficiently commonplace that its most vocal critic, the philosopher Galen Strawson, could describe it as "a fallacy of our age." He lists an impressive roster of advocates, including the neurologist and author Oliver Sacks ("Each of us constructs and lives a 'narrative'...this narrative is us"), the psy... posted on Dec 01 2022, 2,148 reads