Rethinking the Bucket List
How would you live every day as if it were your last? Go skydiving? Attempt to ride a bull for 2.7 seconds? Kathleen Taylor has spent over 20 years as a counselor and community engagement facilitator for the dying and has found that in the last chapter of their lives, most people become their authentic selves. They become courageous - they change their minds, apologize, forgive... they find joy i... posted on Aug 23 2013, 9,234 reads

Teens Deliver 33,000 Burritos to the Homeless
In a world where the younger generation is pulled toward the newest gadgets and accumulating more of them, a father responded to his son's ambitious Christmas wish list with a simple act of service. In an attempt to have his son realize how much they already have and to feel gratitude for it, they made breakfast burritos and drove out to share them with the local homeless people on the street. T... posted on Aug 22 2013, 39,231 reads

Balancing the Brain Toward Joy
You might call her an "evangelist for a balanced brain": Twelve years ago, at the age of 37, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard-trained neuroanatomist and spokeswoman for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center, had a stroke that traumatized her left hemisphere. After eight years of recovery, she recounts her experience of losing a former life and opening up to another of deep presence and laughter... posted on Aug 21 2013, 44,150 reads

The Poetry of Childhood
Richard Lewis shares the poetry of children to illustrate how their imagination creates an incandescent moment. Children are at ease with both the visible and invisible, what we know and don't know -- the pure sense of expectation and delight in the mystery of what is happening and about to happen, and they sometimes express it in poetry. Read some of their poems and join in their delight.... posted on Aug 20 2013, 12,416 reads

The Power of Enough
A beautiful reflection unfolds when this writer explores a simple Balinese tradition that points to the power of enough. With wisdom and eloquence she invites us to "to keep our desires and aspirations in proper proportion with our gratitude and good intentions" so that you "can experience a sense of ease between your wishes for what might be and your gratitude for the beauty of what is."... posted on Aug 19 2013, 34,222 reads

How 365 Thank You Notes Changed My Life
At just 52 years old, and after having lost nearly everything, John Kralik found himself in a desperate search --a search for just one thing for which he might feel thankful. His search led him to a walk along a mountain road, where his mind sifted through the details of all of his most recent troubles. It was then that John realized, that he should find gratitude for all that he had, instead of f... posted on Aug 18 2013, 99,040 reads

7 Billion Others
We share this planet with seven billion others. What is our relationship with them? Are we a single unity? Do we belong to one of many tribal divisions? Are we individuals in a planet full of individuality? There is, of course, no single answer to these fundamental questions. Our sense of identity and diversity depends on context. But the way we conceive of our place among the people of the world ... posted on Aug 17 2013, 3,551 reads

The Mango Girls: Saved By Trees
"In India where traditionally boys have been preferred over girls, a village in Bihar state has been setting an example by planting trees to celebrate the birth of a girl child. And this practice is paying off." For the people of the Dharhara village, planting trees provides much more than agricultural benefits, it's their solution to some of the serious challenges that plague their population. ... posted on Aug 16 2013, 7,824 reads

Can You Learn To Control Your Mind
Why should we control our minds? The wisdom of the ages and now, modern neuroscience, shows that "a human mind is a wandering mind and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind." On the other hand, being in the "flow", or being completely present to the moment, is linked to greater happiness. And achieving this state of mind isn't as ambiguous as one might think. It simply involves effectively controlli... posted on Aug 15 2013, 61,381 reads

Not Your Ordinary First Grade Ocean Project
Every year, Joan Wright-Albertini leads her first-grade students in transforming their classroom into a virtual rainforest, a desert, or an ocean -- whatever ecosystem interests her students the most. In recent years, she has also added to the months-long study of habitats an unusual, daring twist. Students come to class one day to find their ecosystem covered in a messy "oil spill." Deciding they... posted on Aug 14 2013, 46,462 reads