The contrast, uncomfortable at first, even painful, becomes a clarifying force. Without the superfluous, the essential is revealed. A century before O’Keeffe’s artistic heyday, Herman Melville (August 1, 1819–September 28, 1891) took up these questions of discomfort as a tool of discipline and contrast as a clarifying force in a passage from Moby-Dick (free ebook | public library) — the 1851 classic he composed as he was falling in love with Nathaniel Hawthorne. Herman Melville. (Frontispiece for the 1921 book Herman Melville: Mariner and Mystic; wood engraving by L.F. Grant from a photograph.) In the chapter titl... posted on May 15 2020 (8,468 reads)

entryway into race. I guess that’s my preamble to the answer. And the answer is that I think you’re right. I think most American families are in one way or another somewhat racially complicated. Mine was maybe especially so. My household when I was growing up was mixed. My stepsister was black, my stepfather was black. So I was exposed to people from a lot of different backgrounds, but I don’t think that that is, in America, all that unusual either. Tippett:One thing I love about this article you wrote and about your writing in general is that you interrogate words, individual words, language that always appears in this conversation that we don’t really know h... posted on Jun 16 2020 (7,694 reads)

of abiding insight in its totality — one of those rare books that illuminate the immense breadth of the human experience while also plumbing its richest depth. Complement this particular portion with Rebecca West on storytelling as a survival mechanism, Pablo Neruda’s touching account of what a childhood encounter taught him about why we make art, and Jeanette Winterson on how art redeems our inner lives, then revisit Iris Murdoch on causality, chance, and how love gives meaning to our existence and her devastatingly beautiful love letters. ... posted on Jul 16 2020 (5,759 reads)

And so many times we think it means indifference, but it really doesn’t. It’s such a huge capacity of our hearts to see what we’re going through, to see what others are going through, and to just have this perspective of, there is change in life. And there is light in the darkness, and darkness in the light. And we’re not avoiding pain, because some things just hurt. That’s fundamental. But we’re holding it in a way that — it’s like the love is stronger than the pain, even. And then we can really be with things, in a very, very different way. Tippett:I’m Krista Tippett, and this is On Being. Sharon Salzberg is the co... posted on Oct 24 2020 (7,517 reads)

everybody, I’m here with you…. Never Give Up. Love Never Fails…. One Family on Earth…. May all beings have enough of everything…. You are, therefore I am…. You Matter…. “Le deseo paz y tranquilidad, amor, paciencia y compasion a todos que mas lo necesiten. Nos tenemos que amar unos a otros.”  (I’m just learning Spanish, but I think this translates to something like: ”I wish peace and tranquility, love, patience and compassion to all who need more of it. We have to love one another.”) You’ve requested that I write your names with hearts and smiley faces and peace signs and paw pr... posted on Nov 7 2020 (4,817 reads)

that it was difficult initially to stay true to the commitment of finding gratitude every day but found an unwavering strength to believe that there is no day without joy and she felt moved to look for one each day. Many of her followers are inspired as she shares, “It’s easy to feel that what we do is so small, but none of us will ever truly be able to grasp the profound impact that our lives will have on one another. Happiness and kindness are just another way to express love and that’s something I think we could all use a little more of right now.” “People are good, people are kind and they want to take care of one another,” she says. To li... posted on Feb 2 2021 (5,876 reads)

us is too intense to hold, integrate or comprehend. The emotional charge that arises saturates our capacity to make sense of the experience, and we become overwhelmed and alone.   We’ve all become familiar with the term PTSD. (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) We hear stories of veterans returning from war carrying the violence they experienced and witnessed within them. Victims of natural disasters, car accidents, school shootings, rape, or the sudden death of someone we love, are all forms of acute trauma. There are other forms of trauma as well. Trauma can also arise in our psyches, not so much from an event, but through erosion; the slow wearing away of the sens... posted on Mar 4 2021 (10,638 reads)

that beneath all of this there is something that’s so primitive and inescapable. And as much as we try to, I actually think that’s one of the things this pandemic has shown us, is as much as we have tried to create so much connection — I’m using air quotes, “connection” — we actually see how insufficient that is. Tippett:And so much has happened, both in the world and in our society and in individual lives and communities. But what I’d love to just have you open up for us, to start, is — [laughs] all of that aside, just the nervous system effect that this virus in the world, the baseline with which we entered into all the thin... posted on Mar 30 2021 (13,825 reads)

from which the entire spectrum of nature unfolds. This understanding provides us with a home in the wilderness again, in the creative natura naturans that so many people are longing for in their private lives, within which they roam and that they seek to protect. How peculiar and sad that within the framework of the mainstream sciences this universal, timeless element of life is seen as a mere curiosity, if it is acknowledged at all. Feeling the Others Nature is not dead. We humans love, seek, and long for it. We feel that walking through a forest fills us with peace, gazing onto the ocean calms us. The nightingale’s song moves us. We need nature and know we must conserve ... posted on Jun 29 2021 (3,716 reads)

on a farm, I repaired clothes for people in exchange for pineapples. They tasted yummy. I recently stayed with a friend and helped my friend with home improvement. In exchange, my friend provided me with food and shelter. This reminds me that before machines, humans used their hands to make everything. That is why I wants to exchange my products with other homemade items. I was very happy when I exchanged my products for mango, peanut, salted apricot, seaweed and even two books (which I love). I hope I will meet more friends who share this path and learn interesting things in sharing and exchange our homemade products. ---------------------------------------- NHAT NGUYEN (Quang N... posted on Jul 8 2021 (3,473 reads)

flight, how it might have come to be that life learned to transcend the bounds of gravity. I’m also thinking about energy, its sources, our need for it, and how access to it is integral to the flourishing of all of Earth’s community. These two preoccupations—flight and energy—didn’t rise up in me arbitrarily. The canyon I’m in, part of the Chiricahua Mountains in southeastern Arizona, boasts the highest concentration of bird species in North America. My love for birds is why I came here. And the relationship between flight and energy takes on particular meaning because of my third preoccupation: the bond between hummingbirds and flowers; there are fo... posted on Jul 15 2021 (7,622 reads)

also an active participant in Indigenous Peoples gatherings worldwide, and it was at one of these gatherings—Defend the Sacred in Portugal—that I first met her. I immediately felt the integrity and strength of her presence, and warmed to her open heart and wicked sense of humour. I am privileged to be in conversation and collaboration with such a unique and powerful individual. This story originally ran in issue #63 of Dumbo Feather First of all I’d love to ask you about your childhood and what were some of the experiences that have been significant in shaping who you are. Well so I always say that my greatest gift to the world is being able t... posted on Jul 27 2021 (3,872 reads)

of India, so I got an incredible exposure to the people, the languages, the religions, certainly the arts and crafts, and the history. Somewhere along the line, I wrote another book with a colleague on the cotton industry in India, as kind of a supplement to education, to make the US Civil War understandable from a whole new perspective. That was very important to me, and I’ve been back to India almost every year since, with different projects. I feel very much at home and certainly love the people and the vibrancy of India, and the phrase, “It’s no problem.” It permeates you when you hear it so much and you begin to see the way people interact with one another;... posted on Aug 18 2021 (2,970 reads)

you very much." And I say lots of blessings and prayers. We try to be really careful about waiting for an invitation from the actual patient. Even though the sound of our singing affects everyone in the room, family members, caregivers, staff, we really try to have the invitation from the person in the bed.    works:  That would be primary.   KM:  Yes.    works:  I'm guessing you must have many memorable experiences at bedside and I'd love to hear some of them.   KM:  Okay. The first one that comes to mind involves Claudia here, and it comes very early on. We arrived at a home in Berkeley at the appointed time and the p... posted on Oct 6 2021 (6,680 reads)

out that it’s difficult to make a public defense of one’s private life, but he asks to weigh in (the only time he does in the four days I’m there). “I want to give you a little of my testimony,” he says. Tanya’s role in his writing starts long before he reads that first draft to her, because as he writes he is thinking about her reaction. Knowing he will read it aloud to her—“to somebody I care about and am trying to impress and cause her to love me”—is especially intimidating, he says. “I haven’t worked alone in any sense,” he says. “I’ve been by myself a lot, but I haven’t been alone. I... posted on Nov 24 2021 (5,826 reads)

a beat when asked a question, because he has a ready-made answer. But when dealing with complex systems, like the brain, and brain problems, which vary from person to person, there are no ready-mades, and expertise is best shown by the doctor’s ability to be a student of the patient’s unique problem. One thing you must learn as a psychoanalyst is that when someone walks into your office, and you think you understand them, you probably don’t. They use the word “love” and you think you know what they mean; but with time you realise what they mean by “love” is nothing like what the previous patient meant by the word “love,” o... posted on Nov 10 2021 (11,584 reads)

been attending to it, trying to rewild it, and taking out invasive species. It took at least twenty-five years, but the woodland is making a comeback. The trees are growing, the birds have returned, and there are otters in the water. That makes me feel good—that’s something I was part of. The feeling is more than an idea; it arises because I can smell the fresh air and hear the life around me. I realize, That’s where I belong. I’m on this Earth. There’s love and respect for the natural world, as well as an attitude of restraint toward it. These mental qualities happen naturally through knowing where we are. We’re all in, and form a part of, a l... posted on Dec 3 2021 (4,728 reads)

name is Mícheál ‘Moley’ Ó Súilleabháin. I am a poet from Ireland. These three poems are love letters to presence. That presence we feel when we are close to the source of this life. Gratitude, Wisdom, Determination, and Belief.  All three are excerpted from my poetry book, ‘Early Music’ (Many Rivers Press). The first poem, Turas d’Anam, means ‘journey of your soul’ in the Irish language. This piece is an invitation to grant permission to yourself. To experience a deeper sense of meaning in this life. It reimagines set backs, or conscious retreat, as a strengthening tool. This poem is an invitation to... posted on Dec 16 2021 (7,128 reads)

is my ordinary dissatisfaction with myself. 5. Would I have more sex or less? It would be hard to have less sex than I have now, so quite possibly I’d have more sex, though it’s truly hard to say, since sex seems like something you’d wish you’d done more of when you reached the end of your life, wishing to be free from the pinned to the mattress of your own failing body, the turning of the nurses to avoid the bed sores, the chucks and the cheeks spreading by gloved hands. But maybe not. 6. I think I would go to the places where things are disappearing so that I could kiss them all good-bye before we both go, the barrier reefs of Australia, the polar... posted on Mar 21 2022 (20,138 reads)

to a recording of Chelan Harkin’s poem, called “I no longer pray” the words "I no longer sing with only my voice…” flashed into my head like a stroke of lightning. The qualities in the poem are like the seven synonyms for God, (Love, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Truth, Life, Principle) I learned about in Sunday School, except I only used six of them. I no longer sing with only my voice. I sing with my heart, my love. I no longer sing with only my voice. I sing with my mind, my thought. I no longer sing with only my voice. I sing with my soul, my conscience. I no longer sing with only my voice.... posted on Apr 20 2022 (5,942 reads)