living. So you bought some land, 40 acres at the confluence of the Mississippi and the Ohio rivers. You must have been in your mid to late forties when you bought the land. Hoinacki: I was exactly 50 years old. RW: A series of very atypical decisions. Remarkable decisions. This is part of why I said it seemed to me that your life has been truly a search. I realize I’m trying to cover a lot of ground here. Maybe the question is, what can you say about this propensity you have, the courage to make such unusual life decisions? Hoinacki: Of that I don’t know. You mention the word courage. That never occurred to me. I can’t recall exactly what I was thinking. It seem... posted on Feb 3 2015 (17,085 reads)

had mothers who told them to be nicer to their sisters and they haven’t become the “love warrior” you have become. Ramos-Stierle: Hmmm…In my tradition, which is secular, it’s a long story, sister Leslee–a 13.7 billion-year-old story, our cosmic age–and we better act accordingly. Some people call us atheists. I remember my dad used to tell me “You do not have religion so you have to be an even better example of love, kindness, respect and courage. You have even more responsibility than other people.” I used to roll my eyes, of course, like most teenagers, thinking, “Here’s my dad lecturing me again.” But it&rsqu... posted on Aug 23 2016 (17,303 reads)

contradicted them. For Tina, an up-and-coming African-American woman and associate professor at a prestigious private university, one of those moments came just after she had earned a coveted administrative post.  I met Tina at a five-day Multi-Cultural Competence workshop. Tina was the one who skillfully voiced the racial and gender bias that was occurring in the room, most challengingly by the famous founder and facilitator of the workshop.  As one of the most courageous women I know, she’s a perfect example of how easy it is for any of us to betray important values in challenging situations at work. And paradoxically (but not uncommonly), it was Tina... posted on Oct 1 2016 (17,442 reads)

distress is no ordinary stress, and preserving social trust requires more than just taking a bath, watching comedies, or even meditating. Rather than turn to the usual stress-reduction strategies of distraction and self-soothing, it’s important to recognize what makes this election’s stress so toxic—and what we can do to turn that poison into good medicine. For ourselves, and for others. This requires more than mindfulness. It calls for heartfulness—the courage to stay engaged, with an open heart and a determination to hold onto your faith in what connects us. In this spirit, I offer three strategies for transforming moral distress into moral courage... posted on Nov 6 2016 (37,690 reads)

I can always catch it as helpful energy -- I get to develop this redirecting skill. You know, this reminds me of another pivotal event that happened in my early childhood. And it might have been what triggered a lot of this shift. When I was in junior high school, a person I knew ended up getting pregnant. And it was shocking, and so sad. She had the baby and I believe, had great difficulty with her family. And I remember my neighbor saying, “You know, this girl needs our support, our encouragement and our help; she does not need our judgment.” So even that insight came from an external source. I really pondered that for a very, very long time. Preeta: Your theory, your prac... posted on Apr 11 2017 (15,420 reads)

first into the body, in through these practices, like the body scans. I have for example, a standing meditation. I call it "the skeletal scan." It's all about the elemental self, and really looking inward, inward, inward. Over and over again, and looking for the words there. Not looking for the words in Mary Karr, or Walt Whitman, or Emily Dickinson, or wherever. But looking inward to your own body, and finding language there. Which takes a tremendous, tremendous amount of courage. Not that you won't also go to Emily Dickinson, and Mary Karr, and Walt Whitman, and whoever else gets you to the page, as Ted Berrigan used to say. Read those writers that get you to the ... posted on Sep 20 2018 (10,556 reads)

cut the cord to those who are broken, not wanting to sit with a friend who can't find tomorrow, not wanting to be saddled with someone who will slow them down, not wanting to face what is broken in themselves. In this lies the challenge of compassion. For when we dare to hold those forced to the ground, dare to hold them close, the truth of holding and listening sings and we are carried into the wisdom of broken bones and how things heal. "These are quiet braveries we all need. The courage to wait and watch with all of who we are. The courage to admit that we are not alone. The courage to hold each other to the ear of our heart. And the courage to care for things that are broken... posted on Feb 1 2018 (14,230 reads)

in their social justice work? How do they operate differently than other organizations?  How does practicing love change the outcome?   Anne:  I look for organizations that clearly state that they are values-based and that are consciously doing good work in ways that are transformative. These might be organizations that are working with women to help produce income, but they also talk about the way they work with these women, which has to do with mutual empowerment, trust, courage, respect, and compassion.       An example of an organization that puts the values of love and compassion at the center of its work is Mahnav Sadhna, a group in Ahmed... posted on Apr 4 2018 (13,061 reads)

professionally that you really didn’t? If you’re anything like me and most of the people I know, you could easily answer yes to some of these questions. However, to truly succeed in today’s business world, we must be willing to bring our whole selves to the work that we do. This means showing up authentically, leading with humility, and remembering that we’re all vulnerable, imperfect human beings doing the best we can. It’s also about having the courage to take risks, speak up, ask for help, and connect with others in a genuine way, allowing ourselves to be seen. Of course, it’s not always easy to show up this way, especially at work... posted on Sep 30 2018 (8,158 reads)

everybody's way of doing it will be different so what I've done is sketch out the kind of things that have been useful to my colleagues and me. Aryae: I'm curious in using conflict as an opportunity. How does that work? Scilla: Most of us view conflict as a problem. It's scary to be in conflict with somebody and we tend to run away from it, or hope it will go away. What I found is that if we walk towards what most scares us, that is the way to transform it. It does take courage but if we are willing to walk towards, accept and really look deeply into what this conflict is about, and our feelings about it, that is often half the battle. Aryae: Do you mean that in a... posted on Feb 15 2019 (7,581 reads)

powerful institutions or well-tested solutions alone. "It's imperative that we start paying attention to the work that's happening not only in the center of things but also in the periphery," she says. Maya develops peace education curricula in public high schools and for teachers, and is co-founder of Ceeds of Peace, which offers tools and practices for children and adults to develop daily practice in the key "C's" of peacebuilding: critical thinking; courage; compassion; conflict resolution; commitment; collaboration; community-building; and connection. Here are some of the highlights from the call. Influence of her mother and a global child... posted on Feb 24 2019 (5,788 reads)

cut the cord to those who are broken, not wanting to sit with a friend who can't find tomorrow, not wanting to be saddled with someone who will slow them down, not wanting to face what is broken in themselves. In this lies the challenge of compassion. For when we dare to hold those forced to the ground, dare to hold them close, the truth of holding and listening sings and we are carried into the wisdom of broken bones and how things heal. These are quiet braveries we all need. The courage to wait and watch with all of who we are. The courage to admit that we are not alone. The courage to hold each other to the ear of our heart. And the courage to care for things that are broken... posted on Jul 26 2019 (8,955 reads)

Card for every one of you before you leave the conference.” NC: Wonderful. NM: Right? It was a beautiful moment, but the kid was right. It’s hard. It sounds so simple, but it’s not as simple as just willing it. There’s a lot of new science about how it takes a community. If your friends are kind and generous, you’re more likely to be kind and generous. Yeah, it’s contagious. NC: Actually our previous issue of Dumbo Feather was all about courage. So when you were talking then I was thinking, Oh maybe it takes courage to be kind. Because he’s talking about all of these inner resistances that he’s going through tha... posted on Nov 19 2019 (7,613 reads)

a larger identity than the person who was first hurt,” poet and philosopher David Whyte observed a generation later in considering the measure of maturity — an observation as astute on the scale of individuals as it is on the scale of society. How few of us are capable of such largeness when contracted by hurt, when the clench of injustice has tightened our own fists. And yet in the conscious choice to unclench our hearts and our hands is not only the measure of our courage and our strength, not only the wellspring of compassion for others, but the wellspring of compassion for ourselves and the supreme triumph of personhood. “As we develop love, appreciatio... posted on Jul 21 2020 (8,939 reads)

of ecology, Joanna Macy. Joanna Macy:In his letter that he wrote — he wrote an amazing letter, Rilke did, from Sweden. And he starts out saying, “I’ve been thinking.” He’s not responding so much to the cadet, but he’s speaking about: there’s something going to happen. It is enormous. It is huge. “We must accept our reality in all its immensity. Everything, even the unheard of, must be possible within it. This is, in the end, the only courage required of us: the courage to meet what is strangest and most awesome.” [music: “Seven League Boots” by Zoë Keating] Tippett:I’m Krista Tippett, and this is... posted on Jul 9 2021 (4,391 reads)

committed genocide against Indigenous people, a nation that enslaved Black people for two and a half centuries, a nation that tolerated mob lynchings for nearly a century, a nation that created apartheid and segregation laws throughout most of the 20th century, can also be more than that racist history suggests. Tippett:That worst thing we did. You always say that none of us is defined by the worst thing … Stevenson:Exactly. And that’s the reason why we ought to find the courage to acknowledge the wrongfulness of those things, so that we can then embrace what’s right, what’s corrective, what’s redemptive, what’s restorative. And I do want that ... posted on Nov 20 2021 (2,752 reads)

this week I was rendered speechless by the power of unexpected generosity. The first was an actual gift from someone I barely knew, and the second was a story of survival that took such courage to write that I experienced it as a gift.  The gift was brought by one of my students, from her mother who I only met once. It was her mother’s way of saying thank you to me for loving her daughter so well, and I literally could not speak when I unwrapped it. A weaver, she raises sheep for wool which she shears, cards, cleans, spins and dyes with plant dyes before weaving it into blankets and shawls.  She made a shawl for me, determining my colors from that one time we met ... posted on Feb 2 2022 (4,051 reads)

of Meaning: Exploring Our Deepest Questions and Motivations. All right, I’m going to tell it to you as it is. In my work at Sounds True, one of the greatest privileges I feel I have, one of the greatest joys for me is to get to speak with someone who has the depth, the life experience and the ability to help so many people like Jim Hollis. He puts us in touch with—I’m just going to say it how I experience it—with the deepest longings of our soul, and how to have the courage to act on those longings. Here’s my conversation with someone who I find is a terrific help for making meaning, James Hollis. It’s personally meaningful for me, Jim, to have thi... posted on Oct 1 2022 (4,317 reads)

for the Pachamama Alliance. My colleague Sara Vetter came over and was with her video camera and set up a whole thing and I said, “I’m too crabby, I can’t do it.” So what we did was, she sat with me, across from me on a stool, and I sat on the other side of the stool. We did this process where I complained and complained and complained and complained and complained and complained and said, “I know I’m right about this, and this makes me mad, and I’m discouraged about this, and this made me upset, and I didn’t like this about this and this when someone said this.” She sat there, she said, “I got it, thank you. What else? I got it, t... posted on Dec 31 2022 (4,023 reads)

to be addressed. Everything from the need to be reunited with family, the need for education, legal support, help with employment or vocational training -- all of that.           But whether a child has committed a crime, or been abandoned, or sexually abused-- the problems faced are the same: the lack of self-worth, lack of space for expression, feeling lost. And the needs are the same: love, attention, belonging and just a space to express courage, freedom. RICHARD:    That’s a beautiful way to frame this. It’s so important to hear this articulated so clearly - that it’s the same thing we need: love, ... posted on Jan 9 2023 (2,460 reads)