The Skills Necessary to Deal with Anguish
I think many of us have a skewed idea of what "accepting" a catastrophic situation actually is. If you have the idea that coping well should look something like the proverbial "grace under fire," then you think you should summon the sheer grit to plaster a big cosmic grin on your face, no matter what horrors are being visited upon you. I don't think this is helpful. Actually, just the notion of "a... posted on Apr 26 2023, 3,284 reads

How to Grow Re-Enchanted with the World
"Katherine May explores what it takes to shed the cloak of meaninglessness and recover the sparkle of vitality in Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age (public library) a shimmering chronicle of her own quest for a better way to walk through this life, a way that grants us the ability to sense magic in the everyday, to channel it through our minds and bodies, to be sustained by it. May ... posted on Apr 25 2023, 3,794 reads

Irises: Shape-shifters and Magical Reinventors
"In grocery stores iris buds are bundled together, like perfectly sharpened purple-pointed pencils, like slender indigo-edged spears, like a quiver of Spring arrows poised to unbend unhappy bents of mind. Take a sheaf home, place it in a glass vase and by morning, from poised purple-tipped silence, spill sepals and petals frothy with filaments and ruffles, loquacious little fountains self-released... posted on Apr 24 2023, 3,083 reads

The Mongerji Letters
"Since the collapse of one of the last dynasties of the common era and the subsequent end of the era itself, historians have searched for descendants of the Mongerji family, as well as descendants of the scribes who, under their employ, collected samplings of flora and fauna from around the world. The only evidence discovered thus far are the letters that follow. They are from Mr. Mongerji, his wi... posted on Apr 23 2023, 1,756 reads

To Be Made Whole
"Look, we are not unspectacular things.
We've come this far, survived this much.
What would happen if we decided to survive more? To love harder?
What if we stood up with our synapses and flesh and said, No.
No, to the rising tides.
Stood for the many mute mouths of the sea, of the land?
What would happen if we used our bodies to bargain <... posted on Apr 22 2023, 3,248 reads

Deborah Cohan: The Dancing Doctor
"Deborah Cohan is a lifelong dancer, obstetrician-gynecologist, and teacher of embodied medicine. In 2013, moments before undergoing a double-mastectomy, she and the entire operating room team broke out into dance, filmed by the anesthesiologist for Deborahs friends and family. The video found its way into the public sphere and has since been viewed 8 million times. Deborah oversees births at Zuck... posted on Apr 21 2023, 3,710 reads

The Art of Lying Fallow
"I suspect our ability to ask the unanswerable questions that Hannah Arendt knew are the heartbeat of civilization is intimately related to our capacity for dwelling in a particular state of being beyond the realm of our compulsive doing. Bertrand Russell called it "fruitful monotony." Adam Phillips called it "fertile solitude." Walt Whitman called it "loafing." The Buddhist tradition describes it... posted on Apr 20 2023, 4,914 reads

Granddaughter's Eyes: 21-Day Climate Action Challenge
"Granddaughter's Eyes" is a music video that invites us to pay close attention to the Earth, to love her deeply and take action to heal her wounds. The song reminds us that every act of attention is an act of reciprocity, generating wonder and joy, perpetuating the gift. When we fall in love with the living world, a profound intention emerges from our attention, a longing to protect and honor her.... posted on Apr 19 2023, 4,105 reads

When Relishing Joy is A Radical Act
"For Persians, one of our most precious ways to summon joy is with poetry. I remember one night, in particular, in my home city of Shiraz, Iran, during the war. While sirens blared and the electricity was shut off, warning of an imminent attack, my family and I (feeling especially brave) snuck to our rooftop to watch the anti-aircraft missiles shoot into the air. To my 7-year-old eyes, the brillia... posted on Apr 18 2023, 25,857 reads

Mumbai's Improbably Famous Hijab-Wearing Teen Rapper
""I go in an auto even to the fanciest of places," she says. Saniya needs to be in the venue at least an hour in advance to do sound and music checks. "If my father has a customer in his auto already, he has to drop them off wherever they say first," she says, checking the time on her plastic wristwatch. On this spring Sunday, the auditorium is teeming with people from the posh neighborhoods of ce... posted on Apr 17 2023, 1,610 reads