David Foster Wallace's Speech for the Ages
O, the maddening tedium of the everyday responsibilities of adult life! It plagues us because the "default setting" of our mentality is to feel victimized by circumstance. We place ourselves in the center of the universal narrative, making the plot-line all about ourselves. In his 2005 commencement address, novelist David Foster Wallace speaks refreshingly about personal empowerment. The freedom c... posted on May 16 2013, 4,037 reads

The Soul of Teamwork
Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson -- by percentage (.738) the winningest coach in NBA history -- is renowned for his ability to turn megastars into team players. And his secret is spiritual. "The most effective way to forge a winning team," he writes in Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior, "is to call on the players' need to connect with something larger than themselves." He ... posted on May 13 2013, 6,097 reads

The Science of Love
"We now know that a steady diet of love -- of these micro-moments of positive connection --influences how people grow and change, making them healthier and more resilient. And we're beginning to understand exactly how this works, by tracking the complex chain of biological reactions that cascade throughout your body and change your behaviour in ways that influence those around you as you experienc... posted on May 10 2013, 8,348 reads

Life On A Farm
"Yes, we are part of the world, and the world is within us as we are within an alive and enormous network of being that looks back at us. To perceive this is at once so profound and also simple. It begins with the most obvious everyday things around you." Luanne Armstrong has been living on the same farm for sixty years. Wandering this land each day, she has come to realize that the more she knows... posted on May 09 2013, 7,282 reads

We Have Everything We Need Already
"My grandmother never went to school, she never knew how to read or write, and she was such a wise and brilliant woman. She was incredibly creative, could come up with songs and dances and games right on the spot. She had tons of practical knowledge on herbal remedies and healing practices, and she was the most environmentally conscious person I know. Nothing ever went to waste; she would always m... posted on May 08 2013, 7,852 reads

Julia Cameron on the Creative Life
"Time is like a river. We wash our bones like stones. Time is not the answer. Time is not the quest. Time is where we journey while we learn the rest. Washing in the river of the self." Over twenty years after publishing "The Artist's Way", a bestseller guide to bringing out one's creative self, author Julia Cameron has taken many risks. In this interview with Sounds True, she speaks courageously ... posted on May 07 2013, 15,473 reads

How Imagination Shapes Reality
Have you ever imagined something so vivid, so profoundly tangible and seemingly a part of you, that you weren't sure if it was a dream or reality? Well, it may just be both! Novelist and writing teacher, Gabriel Cohen, unites science and spirituality, and provides insight on how "a growing body of research supports what spiritual contemplatives have known for millennia -- that the human capacity... posted on May 06 2013, 24,909 reads

Trees: The Alternative Cathedral
When I feel off-balance, shaken by the blows of life or mired in the inertia of not caring, I seek contact with nature, which I call a primary source of re-centering. Contact with nature offers a gift of presence, helping us to open up to the world around us, rather than pursue distracting thoughts or emotions. Even for an urban dweller, walking in a park fills one with a sense of one's roots in t... posted on May 05 2013, 13,680 reads

Caught on Russian Dashboard Cameras!
In Russia, many motorists have dashboard cameras to record their driving and ensure justice in accident claims. Every so often though, they capture something unexpectedly beautiful -- like people helping others to cross the street, or get up from a fall or out of a jam -- despite rain, snow, and traffic. Some even put their own lives at risk. Check out this video of Russian drivers expressing the... posted on May 04 2013, 7,302 reads

A Poem of Kindness That Traveled The World
Some years ago Arab-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye wrapped a poem around an unexpected experience of both distress and kindness that she encountered at an airport in Albuquerque. She sent it off to exactly two friends, who passed it on to friends, who passed it on to friends. And in this way it circled the globe. Nye later remarked that this spontaneous series of people passing the poem on had res... posted on May 03 2013, 47,009 reads