Uncommon Gratitude
"When I consider the places I've loved and lost, I long to bring them comfort...I who have been gifted by a place wish to figure out some way to return the gesture. But what kind of gift would be right for a scraped hillside slated for fracking? For calves confined to life in crates? For all the polluted rivers, clearcut forests, diminishing wildernesses, and smoldering dumps?"... posted on Jul 19 2015, 7,310 reads

Where Children Play: Photographs of Playgrounds of the World
Photographer James Mollison captures the sacred spaces of childhood around the world in Playground. He became fascinated by how the great diversity of playgrounds around the world has shaped the experience of childhood, calling them "a space of excitement, games,bullying, laughing, tears, teasing, fun, and fear."This post shares more.... posted on Jul 18 2015, 0 reads

The Art Pioneer Once Expelled for 'Doodling'
Adarsh Alphons rose to success from relative obscurity. After 'doodling' got him kicked out of one school,his diehard love of art soon led him to the chance of a lifetime: an opportunity to present his work to Nelson Mandela. It's no wonder then, that Adarsh has dedicated his life to giving other kids a chance to discover themselves and transform their world through art.... posted on Jul 17 2015, 5,088 reads

Spirit Carver: A Conversation with Zoshi
Hidden away north of San Francisco there's a special artist. He's been called a spirit carver. An artist friend of mine, who is also a Buddhist priest, told me about Zoshi. When Zoshi lived in Japan he was studying to become a Buddhist monk. Zoshi told me, "I didnt show any carving to my teacher for a long time. Then one day I brought him a carving. He said, 'Okay, you dont have to be a monk. You ... posted on Jul 16 2015, 5,005 reads

Cartographer of Meaning in a Digital Age
"The only way to glean knowledge is contemplation. And the road to that is time. There's nothing else. It's just time." Maria Popova's Brain Pickings started as a weekly email to seven friends in 2006. Now, it's a website read by hundreds of thousands across the globe. In this conversation with Krista Tippett, Maria shares a bit of her history, and the philosophical underpinnings of her "human-pow... posted on Jul 15 2015, 11,462 reads

Pablo Neruda's Greatest Lesson from Childhood
As a child the renowned poet Pablo Neruda discovered a hole in a fence board from which, suddenly, appeared a tiny hand of a boy about Neruda's own age. The hand just as soon disappeared, and in its place there was a marvelous white toy sheep -- a gift to Neruda. This isolated incident would spark something deep in the poet and influence his work in all the years to come. In this beautiful passag... posted on Jul 14 2015, 17,443 reads

19 Uplifting Photos That Capture The Human Spirit
There are certain images which instantly bring a smile to all who see them. They are uplifting, heart-filling reminders of goodness, of love, of hope. Like this series of images that shows everything from a young blind woman experiencing 'horse' for the first time, to the everlasting bonds of sisterhood. Take a moment to enjoy these 19 special photographs here.... posted on Jul 13 2015, 139,312 reads

Unlikely Mechanic Gives the Needy a Lift
Take a moment to reflect on the pivotal role cars play in many of our lives. They get us to and from work, they get us to the grocery store, to our doctor's appointments and so much more. Now imagine what a car breakdown means to someone who can't quite afford to pay for the high cost of repairs. The domino effect can be devastating. And that's where the heroic story of Cathy Heying begins.... posted on Jul 12 2015, 5,851 reads

Do We See Reality As It Is?
Thomas Huxley once proclaimed that the fact that human consciousness results from something as mundane as irritating nervous tissue is as mysterious as the fact that a genie appears after Aladdin rubs his lamp. Professor of Cognitive Science, Donald Hoffman, believes that we have been unable to understand the mystery of consciousness not because we are incapable of comprehending it, but because we... posted on Jul 11 2015, 28,005 reads

Pico Iyer on Bringing Calm Into the Motion of the World
"Pico Iyer is not a spiritual teacher or even, he says, a spiritual person per se. But he has become one of our most beloved and eloquent translators of the modern rediscovery of inner life. As a journalist and novelist, he travels the globe from Ethiopia to North Korea, and he lives in Japan. But he also experiences a remote Benedictine hermitage as his second home, retreating there many times ea... posted on Jul 10 2015, 20,013 reads