Kabul's For Women, By Women, Pop Up Cafe
Savory smells waft out of the cloth-walled pop-up restaurant in Kabul. Banowan-e-Afghan is a dine-in restaurant for women, run by women, a rarity in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. While many restaurants have designated family areas where men can only enter if they're accompanying female relatives, a whole restaurant dedicated to serving and employing women is rare. Many of the women who work here... posted on Jun 08 2023, 1,220 reads

How to Make Stress Your Friend
Stress. It makes your heart pound, your breathing quicken and your forehead sweat. But while stress has been made into a public health enemy, research suggests that stress may only be bad for you if you believe that to be the case. Psychologist Kelly McGonigal urges us to see stress as a positive, and introduces us to an unsung mechanism for stress reduction: reaching out to others. She shares mor... posted on Jun 07 2023, 14,908 reads

Christopher Titmuss: Adventures of the Spirit
"We must remember we are exhaustible. We need renewal. Silence, quietude, time alone, naturally gives that. Then we can come back in to serve others in small ways. That we do. Then we take time for renewal. Jesus, the Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi and all the great sages recognize the importance of connection with others to serve, then step back from that into quietness, then renewal, and then serve. Thi... posted on Jun 06 2023, 2,234 reads

Let Us Commence
"I bet I'm beginning to make your parents really nervous -- here I am sort of bragging about being a dropout, and unemployable, and secretly making a pitch for you to follow your creative dreams, when what they want is for you to do well in your field, make them look good, and maybe also make a tiny fortune. But that is not your problem. Your problem is how you are going to spend this one odd and ... posted on Jun 05 2023, 3,696 reads

India's Intrepid Women Seaweed Divers
"Early on a warm February morning, a group of ten women, ranging in age from 50 to 60, sit on the sandy shores of Akkal Madam beach on India's Pamban Island, carefully bandaging their fingers. Wearing colorful blouses and saris, they wind thick strips of cloth over each digit and secure the ends with string. It takes them over 20 minutes.The bandages, they've found, are the best way to protect han... posted on Jun 04 2023, 2,028 reads

The Quid for Which There is No Quo
"When one considers the facts, it appears undeniable that the human capacity to earn affects the human capacity to yearn. Purchasing power renders us prey to the sales pitch. And sales pitches befuddle the soul's longing. Animals have no purchasing power. They cannot easily be manipulated into yearning for things that are not aligned with their essence. This is why advertisers leave them alone. A... posted on Jun 03 2023, 3,491 reads

Interbeing : Nico de Transilvania
Interbeing is a project which utilizes music and art to showcase the interconnectedness of everything: people, nature, and the whole ecosystem. Through indigenous songs, traditional instruments and the exquisite sounds of nature, traditions are passed on to younger generations, including the life giving value of forests. Interbeing lays a path for regenerating and recreating some old ways of livin... posted on Jun 02 2023, 1,874 reads

A Primordial Covenant of Relationship
"In this talk given at St. Ethelburgas Centre for Reconciliation and Peace in London, Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee speaks about what it looks like to live in an unfolding apocalyptic reality and the creative possibilities that are waiting to be embodied. In this time of deep uncertainty, he reminds us of the ancient, primordial covenant of relationship with the living world that can give us a ground to st... posted on Jun 01 2023, 3,129 reads

The Hidden Joy of Waiting in Line
"Americans spend an estimated 37 billion hours waiting in line each year, much to our individual and collective distaste. Few things inspire as much universal frustration and ire as long queues and lengthy wait times -- many of us even struggle to wait for a sluggish web browser to load." Why do we dislike waiting so much -- and what can we do to transform that familiar feeling of frustration? Thi... posted on May 31 2023, 25,085 reads

Off By an Inch in the Beginning...
The Venerable Master Hua, famously and pithily recounted: "Off by an inch in the beginning, off by ten thousand miles at the end." I have to say -- Christopher Columbus might have benefited from that advice in 1492 when he missed India by nearly 10,000 miles. I wonder what that says about the scope of our compounding trajectory 530 years later. But luckily the NASA engineers working on getting Apo... posted on May 30 2023, 2,740 reads