Marie Howe: On Matters of Life and Death
"Marie is the kind of poet whose accomplishments are too many to mention, so I'll keep it short and say that she's the author of four collections of poetry, the recipient of a Guggenheim, and a former poet laureate of New York. While in that role, she made it her mission to make poetry as ubiquitous as a Gap ad, and she succeeded in bringing poetry to the streets and the subways of New York. And s... posted on Mar 23 2023, 1,856 reads

Hidden Teachings on Life & Death
Neil Douglas-Klotz is a renowned teacher, scholar, author, and musician who specializes in the native traditions and ancient Semitic languages of the Middle East. His most recent book, Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus: The Hidden Teachings on Life and Death, is the culmination of his life's work over 40 years. By examining the "heart talks" of Jesus -- the Lord's Prayer and the Beatitudes -- he ad... posted on Mar 22 2023, 3,622 reads

The Seven Types of Rest Everyone Needs
"Have you ever tried to fix an ongoing lack of energy by getting more sleep -- only to do so and still feel exhausted? If that's you, here's the secret: Sleep and rest are not the same thing, although many of us incorrectly confuse the two. We go through life thinking we've rested because we have gotten enough sleep -- but in reality we are missing out on the other types of rest we desperately nee... posted on Mar 21 2023, 14,573 reads

Myth in the Age of the Anthropocene
"Is it naive to say that the world as we know it wont end if we keep telling stories? Maybe not, if we reconsider the kinds of stories we tell. Ancient stories, myths, old talesthese kinds of stories hold something powerful. Call it bone memory, call it the deep, primordial part of ourselves, call it the voice that gossips with the wild, across species and across time. If we listen, we hear it cal... posted on Mar 20 2023, 1,926 reads

The Power of Brain Training
"Dr Michael Merzenich walks 40 minutes a day around the parks, streets and hills near his home in San Francisco, while making a mental map of all that he sees. He takes his dog on a different route each time, taking note of the homes, people and plants they pass. It's just one way that the world-renowned neuroscientist trains his brain to remain fast and nimble. How nimble? The 74-year-old equates... posted on Mar 19 2023, 3,052 reads

2000 Years of Kindness
"'Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you're already in heaven now,' Jack Kerouac wrote in a beautiful 1957 letter to his first wife turned lifelong friend. 'Kindness, kindness, kindness,' Susan Sontag resolved in her diary on New Year's Day in 1972. Half a century later, the Dalai Lama placed a single exhortation at the center of his ethical and ecological philosophy: 'Be ... posted on Mar 18 2023, 4,369 reads

The Sounds of Silence
"When I was a sixteen-year-old naturalist in training, we were instructed to sit in the forest and wait for the return of something called the baseline symphony. The baseline symphony was the music of a landscape at ease--the confluence of insect, bird, and animal song, underscored by wind and water. The dynamics of that symphony shifted as day progressed into night. There were brief caesuras, but... posted on Mar 17 2023, 1,802 reads

Shay Beider: Resilience is Rooted in Source
Over the last two decades Shay Beider has done pioneering work in integrative medicine through her non-profit organization, Integrative Touch, that enhances well-being, minimizes suffering and facilitates healing for children with special medical needs and their families."Essentially, our entire role as a team is to listen with every little bit of our capacity. And so that's not just listening wit... posted on Mar 16 2023, 2,579 reads

Separation Without Separateness: A Day That Changed My Life
"I had been living in London. It was Sunday, July 27, 1980...a day that changed my life forever. I got up before dawn and went for a long, slow, easy run in Hyde Park. When I returned, I picked up the Sunday Times and went into my flat. After showering, I was thumbing through the newspaper, and when I got to page fourteen, I saw a headline in the education section: "How the Universe Hangs Together... posted on Mar 15 2023, 3,774 reads

On Writing More Clearly
"Here, in short, is what I want to tell you.

Know what each sentence says,

What it doesn't say,

And what it implies.

Of these, the hardest is knowing what each sentence actually says."

Verlyn Klinkenborg teaches creative writing at Yale and is a former member of the editorial board of the New York Times, he shares more in ... posted on Mar 14 2023, 2,471 reads