Dignity Village: Homes For Portland's Homeless
"On a frigid January morning in Portland, Ore., a tour through Dignity Village follows the same path its residents are required to travel. All were, or are, homeless. Newcomers to this homeless refuge huddle in the warming station, a small portable with photos of smiling former residents and where they are required to stay during a 60-day probationary period. They hope to graduate to a small makes... posted on Feb 18 2016, 8,623 reads

Our Shortened Attention Span & 3 Ways To Stay Focused
"In the digital age, where the news is limited to 140 characters and conversations take place in the form of emojis, our attention span has shortened. A recent study has found this digital lifestyle has made it difficult for us to stay focused, with the human attention span shortening from 12 seconds to eight seconds in more than a decade....Humans now have less of an attention span than a goldfis... posted on Feb 17 2016, 24,560 reads

Karen Armstrong on Leading from the Heart
"It is difficult not to feel helpless as we witness the widespread cruelty, poverty and injustice that human beings inflict upon one another. It is tempting to harden our hearts or to dwell only upon the suffering that we have endured. But this can no longer be an option. Compassion is not emotional feeling of goodwill; it does not mean pity; it is rather the principled determination to put oursel... posted on Feb 16 2016, 15,663 reads

Sitting By the Well: Stillness in Times of Chaos
"When all is in confusion, when I don't know what to do next or where to find inner quiet, I go and sit down by the well. Usually I'm at a point where nothing else works before I give up and just sit and listen to myself and the world, saying goodbye to all the permutations and combinations of efforts that seem to have brought me relief in similar past situations. There's nothing more to do. Just ... posted on Feb 15 2016, 0 reads

95-Year-Old Musician Gets Band Back Together
"Edward Hardy had played with a jazz quartet for nearly 40 years when dementia took hold. Then he moved into a care facility and lost touch with his ensemble. But now the 95-year-old jazz pianist is reliving his musical heyday in his retirement community. With the help of workers at the UK facility where he lives, Hardy was able to post an online ad looking for volunteers to visit him and jam. The... posted on Feb 14 2016, 6,101 reads

The End of Solitude
Technology is taking away our privacy and our concentration, but it is also taking away our ability to be alone. Today's young people seem to feel that they can make themselves fully known to one another. They seem to lack a sense of their own depths, and of the value of keeping them hidden. So we live exclusively in relation to others, and what disappears from our lives is solitude.... posted on Feb 13 2016, 11,987 reads

Reclaiming the Lost Art of Walking
"There is something about the pace of walking and the pace of thinking that goes together. Walking requires a certain amount of attention but it leaves great parts of the time open to thinking. I do believe once you get the blood flowing through the brain it does start working more creatively," says Geoff Nicholson, author of The Lost Art of Walking."Your senses are sharpened. As a writer, I also ... posted on Feb 12 2016, 13,836 reads

Indiana Jones Meets Florence Nightingale
"One night I was driving home from a sales conference and I went blind -- I later learned it was stress blindness. I managed to pull over to the hard shoulder of the motorway. All the while I was thinking, 'My life is over; I will never see my kids again'. I promised myself then that if my sight came back, I would find my purpose. I was very lucky, and my sight did return...And then I started to w... posted on Feb 11 2016, 12,558 reads

What If Schools Taught Kindness?
"The school environment can be very stressful; in addition to any issues they bring from home, many students struggle to make friends and perform well in class. Being excluded, ignored, or teased is very painful for a young child, and we thought it could be impactful to teach empathy and compassion. When other kids are suffering-- like that boy who split his chin-- can we understand how they might... posted on Feb 10 2016, 32,226 reads

The Anatomy of Gratitude
Brother David Steindl-Rast, Benedictine monk, teacher and author, speaks with Krista Tippett about gratitude -- a practice increasingly recognized as a key to human well-being. An early pioneer, along with Thomas Merton, of dialogue between Christian and Buddhist monastics, he sees mysticism as the birthright of every human being. And his anatomy of gratitude is full-blooded, reality-based, and re... posted on Feb 09 2016, 20,636 reads