A Whetstone to the Spirit: An Interview with Barbara Kingsolver
"I'm reluctant to give advice to people Ive never met. Every relationship is unique. I can only say whats worked for me as a parent, and to boil it down to its essence, its this: I trust my animal instincts. Regardless of our myriad plans, were hardwired for reproduction. Pregnancy is the most natural of processes, not a medical condition, and parenting follows from there. All this hard work is ba... posted on Apr 30 2023, 1,869 reads

Rustling Roots: Engaging Ecological Education
Is there a place in today's society where you can live in harmony with the Earth? How far would you have to travel to find it? Rustling Roots lies hidden inside Louisa County, VA, close to Charlottesville, Richmond, and Washington, DC and within 500 miles of half of the US population. There you can find a community striving to live in peace with the world around them.... posted on Apr 29 2023, 1,444 reads

Barbara McAfee: Voice as Vocation
A master voice coach, author, and singer/songwriter, Barbara McAfee has worked 25+ years midwiving voices across thresholds. Whether it is an individual seeking to express deep truth, or a group looking to embrace its power, she guides them on an intimate journey to find their unique voice, sound by primal sound. Your voice is how you get the gift inside of you out. Nothing much happens in the wor... posted on Apr 28 2023, 2,541 reads

The Men of Rice: A Conversation with Eduardo del Conde
"They were working with big baskets. They would cut a few rice plants at a time and hit them on edge of the basket so the rice seeds would shake out. It was like a dance. It was a very beautiful place. It was one of those days when you feel completely overwhelmed." So recounts photographer Eduardo del Conde, telling of his first encounter with field workers harvesting rice south of Mexico City. Li... posted on Apr 27 2023, 1,200 reads

The Skills Necessary to Deal with Anguish
I think many of us have a skewed idea of what "accepting" a catastrophic situation actually is. If you have the idea that coping well should look something like the proverbial "grace under fire," then you think you should summon the sheer grit to plaster a big cosmic grin on your face, no matter what horrors are being visited upon you. I don't think this is helpful. Actually, just the notion of "a... posted on Apr 26 2023, 3,301 reads

How to Grow Re-Enchanted with the World
"Katherine May explores what it takes to shed the cloak of meaninglessness and recover the sparkle of vitality in Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age (public library) a shimmering chronicle of her own quest for a better way to walk through this life, a way that grants us the ability to sense magic in the everyday, to channel it through our minds and bodies, to be sustained by it. May ... posted on Apr 25 2023, 3,803 reads

Irises: Shape-shifters and Magical Reinventors
"In grocery stores iris buds are bundled together, like perfectly sharpened purple-pointed pencils, like slender indigo-edged spears, like a quiver of Spring arrows poised to unbend unhappy bents of mind. Take a sheaf home, place it in a glass vase and by morning, from poised purple-tipped silence, spill sepals and petals frothy with filaments and ruffles, loquacious little fountains self-released... posted on Apr 24 2023, 3,091 reads

The Mongerji Letters
"Since the collapse of one of the last dynasties of the common era and the subsequent end of the era itself, historians have searched for descendants of the Mongerji family, as well as descendants of the scribes who, under their employ, collected samplings of flora and fauna from around the world. The only evidence discovered thus far are the letters that follow. They are from Mr. Mongerji, his wi... posted on Apr 23 2023, 1,759 reads

To Be Made Whole
"Look, we are not unspectacular things.
We've come this far, survived this much.
What would happen if we decided to survive more? To love harder?
What if we stood up with our synapses and flesh and said, No.
No, to the rising tides.
Stood for the many mute mouths of the sea, of the land?
What would happen if we used our bodies to bargain <... posted on Apr 22 2023, 3,258 reads

Deborah Cohan: The Dancing Doctor
"Deborah Cohan is a lifelong dancer, obstetrician-gynecologist, and teacher of embodied medicine. In 2013, moments before undergoing a double-mastectomy, she and the entire operating room team broke out into dance, filmed by the anesthesiologist for Deborahs friends and family. The video found its way into the public sphere and has since been viewed 8 million times. Deborah oversees births at Zuck... posted on Apr 21 2023, 3,730 reads