A Turtle's Silver Bead of Quietude
"One day in the fall, as water and air cooled, at some precise temperature an ancient bell sounded in the turtle brain. A signal: Take a deep breath. Each creature slipped off her log and swam for the warmer muck bottom. Stroking her way through the woven walls of plant stems, she found her bottom place. She closed her eyes and dug into the mud. She buried herself. And then, pulled into her shell,... posted on Aug 07 2023, 3,633 reads

It Takes Brokenness to Find It
"My father was 67 when he died, and that's too young, but lately, as I stare at some hard realities of aging and mortality, I begin to appreciate the fact that he didn't have to endure a long period of frailty, pain, and dependence. My father was himself to very the end, brilliant and good and a force of nature, the most important person in my world, and I miss him terribly even now. Maybe espec... posted on Aug 06 2023, 3,620 reads

Creating a Healthier Sense of Attribution
"At the heart of attribution theory is the question of control, or what factors contribute to outcomes: internal factors within our control (often referred to as dispositional) and external factors (also called situational or contextual) that are outside our control. Generally speaking, we often succumb to "fundamental attribution error," which is a tendency to overemphasize the role of internal f... posted on Aug 05 2023, 2,613 reads

Cultivating Wisdom: The Power of Mood
Do you believe that what you see influences how you feel? Actually, the opposite is true: What you feel - your "affect" -- influences all our senses -- what you see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. Psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett shares the groundbreaking discovery that you experience the world through affect-colored glasses. She also reveals how affect can be a source of wisdo... posted on Aug 04 2023, 2,317 reads

Parenting Advice from Mister Rogers
"Being responsible for ourselves, knowing our own wants and meeting them, is difficult enough -- so difficult that the notion of being responsible for anyone else, knowing anyone else's innermost desires and slaking them, seems like a superhuman feat. And yet the entire history of our species rests upon it -- the scores of generations of parents who, despite the near-impossibility of getting it ri... posted on Aug 03 2023, 4,584 reads

The Spiritual Awakening of a World-Class Drunk
"In 1940, Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, a man who knew sin and failure like he knew the back of his hand, was living with his wife, Lois, in a tiny room at the Alcoholics Anonymous "clubhouse" in downtown Manhattan. Wilson was in despair, unsure of the state of his soul, of his role in life, and of the future of A.A. Just then, at his nadir, a Jesuit priest from S. Louis, Father... posted on Aug 02 2023, 6,205 reads

Alison Benis White: Light on the Page
"Chaos--confusion, bewilderment--these are things I'm always working against and within as a writer. Frost famously argued that a poem is a "temporary stay against confusion"--and by "stay," within the context of 'The Figure a Poem Makes,' he means clarification--a temporary clarification of life. This resonates with me, although I don't know if I agree with the certainty of his claim. I think poe... posted on Aug 01 2023, 948 reads

Seth Godin: The Song of Significance
When Seth Godin made an exception to his no-flying for work rule to help run a conference for entrepreneurs working on climate, issues, it was at the request of a man named Dan in Australia whose 10-year-old daughter was born with health issues. The day before the conference the man let him know his daughter wasn't feeling well, so he wouldn't be there in person. Seth ended up running the conferen... posted on Jul 31 2023, 2,630 reads

When Elves Took Over an Abandoned Gas Station
"I'm a sucker for enchantment, , especially when it arises from unlikely places. By a year and a half into the pandemic in the fall of 2021, I had become increasingly frustrated by the incursion of scientific measurement into daily life, from never-ending COVID testing to forehead thermometer readings. As valuable as such tools can be, I longed for my daily life to be filled with more of the unqua... posted on Jul 30 2023, 2,391 reads

A Cloud Never Dies
A Cloud Never Dies is a biographical documentary of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Narrated by actor Peter Coyote, "it weaves together original film and photographic archives, telling the story of a humble young Vietnamese monk and poet whose wisdom and compassion were forged in the suffering of war. In the face of violence, fear, and discrimination, Thich Nhat Hanh's courageous path of engaged actio... posted on Jul 29 2023, 4,524 reads