Arun-dada: I Just Love Thy Silently
Arun Bhatt, lovingly called "Arun-dada", dedicated his life to simplicity, service, and nonviolence. Born as the son of freedom fighters, Arun-dada spent parts of his childhood in jails, an unlikely setting where he encountered remarkable forces of love. At 19, he walked across India with Gandhi's spiritual successor, Vinoba Bhave, as part of the Bhoodan (Land Gift) Movement. His untiring equanimi... posted on Sep 03 2024, 2,820 reads

Conversation with Bebe Barrett: Seen and Unseen
"Walking around a turn, I couldn't believe what I saw. A house, and its car parked in front, wildly decorated in hand-painted, blue script with a mystical flavor. The sight could not have been more surprising. I suddenly understood the woman's question: was I the man who had photographed her house?" What follows is an account of a remarkable encounter between two strangers -- an art magazine publi... posted on Sep 01 2024, 1,597 reads

Crafting Gives Greater Life Satisfaction, Survey Finds
Arts and crafts have long been recommended for improving mental health. New research suggests that everyone could benefit from creative projects such as painting, pottery, and photography. The studies “revealed that people who engaged with creating arts and crafting had greater ratings for happiness, life satisfaction and feeling that life was worthwhile than those who did not…”... posted on Aug 28 2024, 1,350 reads

How ‘Pollinator Pathmaker’ Can Help Us See Like a Bee
British artist Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg was asked to design a sculpture to raise awareness about declining populations of pollinators. After intensive research, she decided: “Instead of making a sculpture about pollinators, I thought it would be better to make a sculpture for pollinators.” She designs gardens to please birds, bats, moths, wasps, and beetles. Ultravi... posted on Aug 26 2024, 2,232 reads

Five Ways to Tap Into Other People’s Wisdom
People are “walking around with valuable insights and information that could help us personally and professionally.” Yet, for many reasons, we may not tap into that vast knowledge, and that failure is costly in terms of relationships, teams, and organizations. Author Jeff Wetzler suggests a tolerance for “not knowing,” and offers five steps to help transform relationships, ... posted on Aug 23 2024, 1,858 reads

The Art of Healing: How Creativity is Changing NHS Mental Health
Artist Tim Shaw and his partner, Niamh White, a curator, visited a close friend in a mental health unit in South West London. They described it as a “really inhumane, cold, clinical space.” They set about to bring creativity, color, joy, and fantastic landscapes that bring the outdoors inside to the unit. In the ten years since, they have created a mental health charity “collabor... posted on Aug 21 2024, 1,401 reads

Spiral Dance – A Conversation with Mary King
Mary King's journey into art was indirect. At Bryn Mawr, she majored in medieval, religious philosophy and also studied dance with Martha Graham. In art, she discovered a vehicle for giving form to her deepest inquiries. "I'm interested in the question," she says. "If you get the question right, then that leads to the next experience, which may lead to another question." It was like a spiral, more... posted on Aug 18 2024, 1,849 reads

A Listening Room in Munich for a Restless Urban Society
A tiny kiosk of a building is open in Munich – not for consumption or business, but simply for listening. “Deep Listeners” welcome passers-by to do “nothing more and nothing less than to start a conversation.” A listener’s business card reads: “We’re listening. Everybody’s story. Every joy. Every sorrow. Every human being.” It is yet anot... posted on Aug 15 2024, 2,851 reads

Iris Murdoch: How to See More Clearly and Love More Purely
Maria Popova explores essays by Iris Murdoch around self-knowledge and relationships. She stresses that self-knowledge is a lifetime journey. When we do not see progress, or fail in our strivings, we may become anxious “where we feel the discrepancy between our ideals and our personality.” The discrepancies may show up as hurtful to others, and create more anxiety. She writes, “f... posted on Aug 13 2024, 2,656 reads

Circles in the Sand
Denny Dyke is a sand artist who creates elaborate sand labyrinths on the coast of Southern Oregon. He explains that he began creating them as a solo meditation practice “that I started years ago of kind of living in the now.” Over time, the freehand designs became quite a tourist attraction with hundreds showing up to enjoy them. He used to work alone, but now has a circle of volunteer... posted on Aug 11 2024, 2,476 reads