Fondevila is an Argentinian writer, speaker, teacher, and all-around wonder activist. She began her career as a journalist and war correspondent, working for the main outlets in her native country. Returning to spiritual questions, she then spent years interviewing some of the world's top thinkers, mystics, scientists and philosophers in search of a map. And then, life transpired: her older sister took her own life after a lifetime of mental illness, and Fabiana's parents died shortly before and after, undone by the pain. This led Fabiana deeper into the path. But this time, no books or schools or lineages seemed potent enough to shine a light in the darkness. By chance, she ... posted on Apr 17 2021 (5,923 reads)

1924 Postcard Photograph of Giuseppe Benincasa, taken in Canada A genealogy search can yield many things and go down many paths, but at its core, it is a story waiting to be told and a person to tell it. My grandfather, Giuseppe Benincasa’s story began 10 years ago, when my cousin Helen Salfi Gorday gave me a charred book of Italian love poems. She said that it belonged to our grandfather and that I should have it. The book is, “Postuma” by Lorenzo Stecchetti, an author who didn't exist, yet became a leader  of the Veristi Literary movement in Italy after it was published in 1877.  The Veristi were the anti-Romantic, Bohemian new reali... posted on May 16 2021 (4,525 reads)

Nations News · 'Lament for Syria': a teenager's poetic cry for her homeland Syrian doves croon above my head their call cries in my eyes. I’m trying to design a country that will go with my poetry and not get in the way when I’m thinking, where soldiers don’t walk over my face. I’m trying to design a country which will be worthy of me if I’m ever a poet and make allowances if I burst into tears. I’m trying to design a City of Love, Peace, Concord and Virtue, free of mess, war, wreckage and misery. Oh Syria, my love I hear your moaning in the cries of the doves. I hear your screaming cry. I left your land and... posted on Jun 24 2021 (3,509 reads)

follows is the transcript syndicated from an OnBeing interview between Krista Tippett, Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows. You can listen to the audio version of the interview here.  Krista Tippett: If you have listened to On Being for any period of time, you have probably heard me invoke Rainer Maria Rilke. His works of prose and poetry are enduringly beloved — the Sonnets to Orpheus; the Duino Elegies; the Book of Hours. But none of his words have carried more persistently across time than his Letters to a Young Poet. It’s a small volume of ten letters Rilke wrote between 1903 and 1908 to a young military cadet and would-be poet, named ... posted on Jul 9 2021 (4,369 reads)

we spend our days,” Annie Dillard wrote in her timelessly beautiful meditation on presence over productivity, “is, of course, how we spend our lives.” And nowhere do we fail at the art of presence most miserably and most tragically than in urban life — in the city, high on the cult of productivity, where we float past each other, past the buildings and trees and the little boy in the purple pants, past life itself, cut off from the breathing of the world by iPhone earbuds and solipsism. And yet: “The art of seeing has to be learned,” Marguerite Duras reverberates — and it can be learned, as cogn... posted on Aug 11 2021 (6,059 reads)

is the second in a series of articles: Enduring Wisdom in Times of Great Change. In the spring of 2013, during my decade+ journey with chronic fatigue and vertigo, I stumbled across the work of Francis Weller, a grief therapist and self-described “soul activist,” who facilitated daylong grief workshops. Though wrestling in the muddy realm of the soul with strangers was hardly how I wanted to spend one of my weekends, I imagined there were invisible, inaccessible stresses I had to contend with. Stresses that made me unpleasantly reactive instead of thoughtfully responsive. Stresses that kept me in a fearful state rather than a healing one. What is chronic fatigue, any... posted on Oct 7 2021 (12,119 reads)

talk given by Roshi Joan Halifax on October 25, 2021, as she received the Sandy MacKinnon Award from Covenant Health, Edmonton, Canada I want to open this talk with a haiku by the 18th century Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa, whose baby daughter suddenly died, and this after multiple losses. Struggling to come to grips with her death, utterly devastated, he wrote: The dewdrop world Is the dewdrop world And yet, and yet Hearing his words, we might sense that Issa hasn’t been released by anguish and sorrow; he can’t comprehend how his baby girl’s life could be as fleeting as the tiny, perfect world in a drop of morning dew. Yet even in this haiku, in these few words... posted on Feb 21 2022 (11,171 reads)

decided that 2020 was a great year for me. It was filled with so many tremendous professional and personal wins. Wait… scratch that. Actually, 2020 was a horrible year. It was filled with tragic losses and enormous amounts of rage and grief. I have to choose one or the other, right? Surely our capacity for joy and pleasure is contingent on how much sorrow and anger is held at any given moment, right?  Actually, no. I don’t think it is. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. It’s always both/and. I’ve been longing to talk about all the ways in which these last couple of years have been so much of a gift for me. And yet I struggle wit... posted on Jun 8 2022 (2,613 reads)

from Let’s Not Polarize Into The Science Camp and the Anti-Science Camp, by Lissa Rankin, MD. Sometimes we get sick, and conventional medicine can cure us lickety-split. And thank God for those cures and for the doctors who deliver them. I was once one of  those doctors, and it felt so satisfying when one of  those medical cures could ease the suffering of  someone in distress. But if  you practice medicine long enough, you wind up treating lots of  patients with illnesses conventional medicine simply doesn’t know how to adequately treat. Sure, we can keep some diseases at bay with daily medication or intervene surgically to improve symptoms t... posted on Jul 7 2022 (7,175 reads)

following is the syndicated transcript of a SoundsTrue Insights at the Edge interview between Tami Simon and Jonathan Foust. You can listen to the audio version of the interview here.  Tami Simon: You’re listening to Insights at the Edge. Today my guest is Jonathan Foust. Jonathan is a senior teacher and former president of Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, as well as a guiding teacher with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, DC, and a founder of the Meditation Teacher Training Institute in Washington, DC. A workshop and retreat leader for more than 20 years, he’s been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journa... posted on Aug 1 2022 (4,286 reads)

the introduction to Gold by Rumi, translated from the Farsi by Haleh Liza Gafori, published by NYRB Classics. Rumi was a preacher before he was a poet. Born into a line of Islamic theologians, he was a celebrity delivering sermons to hordes of followers by the time he was thirty-eight. Eloquent and magnetic, dressed in a crown turban and silk robe, he evangelized in mosques and theological institutions throughout Konya. Disciples and admirers from Nishapur to Damascus to Mecca called him Molana—our Master. He was growing weary of fame. It was a trap, he would later suggest in his writings, as was dogma, as were the obsessions with title, rank, a... posted on Aug 12 2022 (4,050 reads)

follows is the transcript of an Awakin Call with Matthew Fox. You can watch the video recording of the call, or listen to the audio here. These transcripts, as with all aspects of Awakin Calls, are created as a labor of love by an all-volunteer team located around the world. ]   Host: Aryae Coopersmith Moderator: Rahul Brown Guest: Matthew Fox Rahul Brown:  Matthew Fox really needs no introduction. He's regarded as one of the foremost influential spiritual figures of modern day. So, Matthew, if it's OK with you, I would just love to just jump right into our conversation. Thank you so much for joining us. It's a real honor to have you here to... posted on Sep 8 2022 (3,091 reads)

follows is the transcript of an interview between Tami Simon of SoundsTrue and James Hollis. You can listen to the audio version of the interview here. Tami Simon: Welcome to Insights at the Edge produced by Sounds True. My name is Tami Simon, I’m the founder of Sounds True, and I’d love to take a moment to introduce you to the new Sounds True Foundation. The Sounds True Foundation is dedicated to creating a wiser and kinder world by making transformational education widely available. We want everyone to have access to transformational tools such as mindfulness, emotional awareness, and self-compassion regardless of financial, social, or physical challenges... posted on Oct 1 2022 (4,295 reads)

typical American life in 2022 might include spending 50 hours a week mostly alone in a cubicle, riddled with chronic stress but on track for a promotion. Evenings pass isolated in a tower, where a doorman ensures strangers and even neighbors are kept at bay. You swipe down into the bowels of Instagram until you fall asleep. Something on Netflix plays in the background, but only so you don’t have to listen to your own thoughts. Typical, perhaps. But none of that should be accepted as natural, argues Dr. Gabor Maté in his new book, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture. Our cardiovascular systems were not built for the stress of a Wall Street... posted on Oct 2 2022 (6,117 reads)

through the ages, a traditional form has evolved for this type of speech, which is: Some old fart, his best years behind him, who, over the course of his life, has made a series of dreadful mistakes (that would be me), gives heartfelt advice to a group of shining, energetic young people, with all of their best years ahead of them (that would be you). And I intend to respect that tradition. Now, one useful thing you can do with an old person, in addition to borrowing money from them, or asking them to do one of their old-time “dances,” so you can watch, while laughing, is ask: “Looking back, what do you regret?” And they’ll tell you. Sometimes, as you ... posted on Feb 11 2023 (49,994 reads)

Sabrina Imbler was in college, they enrolled in a class they thought was about whales, but which turned out to be about whaling. In one of 10 brilliant essays in their new book, Imbler recalls the class, which focused on “the systematic hunting and harvesting of the animals that brought human populations to the verge of unimaginable prosperity and whale populations to the brink of extinction,” with their ex, during the denouement of their relationship. Contemplating the necropsy of a whale and how this might be a way to analyze the death of a relationship, Imbler was reminded of “all the ways we shoehorn distinctions between ourselves and other animals, often harming b... posted on Mar 30 2023 (1,752 reads)

follows is the syndicated transcript of an On Being interview between Krista Tippett and Vivek Murthy. You can listen to the audio recording of the interview here.  Krista Tippett:We need a modicum of vitality for what simply being alive in this time asks of us. And we’re in an enduringly tender place. The mental health crisis that is invoked all around, especially as we look to the young, is one manifestation of the gravity of the post-2020 world that each of us is carrying. Even as we try to power through in the face of ungrieved losses and unnerving change. I’m longing for us to find ways to name and honor this more openly. Because it is showing up sideways in our... posted on Apr 14 2023 (3,932 reads)

following is the transcript of the Awakin Call with Barbara McAfee, hosted by Aryae Coopersmith, and moderated by Mia Tagano Aryae: Welcome, everyone. My name is Aryae, and I'll be hosting today's Awakin Call. Thanks for joining us from wherever you are in the world. The intention behind these calls is to plant seeds of awareness and transformation within ourselves and our communities through conversations with individuals whose journeys and work inspire us. Awakin Call is an initiative of ServiceSpace — a distributed, global, all volunteer community committed to the principle that, by changing ourselves, we change the world. Behind each of these calls is an en... posted on Apr 28 2023 (2,505 reads)

must remember we are exhaustible. We need renewal. Silence, quietude, time alone, naturally gives that. Then we can come back in to serve others in small ways. That we do. Then we take time for renewal. Jesus, the Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi and all the great sages recognize the importance of connection with others to serve, then step back from that into quietness, then renewal, and then serve. This is the great rhythm of life." Christopher Titmuss, a former hippie turned Theravada Buddhist monk turned social critic, is Britain's senior Dharma teacher. Having once lived on 39 British pounds per year for ten years, he has sat beneath The Tree of Enlightenment in Bodhgaya, Indi... posted on Jun 6 2023 (2,248 reads)

certain dreams in life just don’t pan out, like if all you wanted growing up was to fly, but fate saw fit to furnish you with bad eyes, complete with a shot of red-green color-blindness—the sum of which can disqualify you from becoming a pilot. Grounded by such shortcomings, you may find yourself commiserating with the ratites, a motley clan of birds that includes the emu and the kiwi and the cassowary, most born sans a keel bone upon which to hang their aerial ambitions. Unlike them, you can flunk your vision test and still be cleared for takeoff; all that is required is a statement attesting to your demonstrated abilities to soundly operate an aircraft. But ... posted on Jul 10 2023 (2,635 reads)