Parenting Advice from Mister Rogers
"Being responsible for ourselves, knowing our own wants and meeting them, is difficult enough -- so difficult that the notion of being responsible for anyone else, knowing anyone else's innermost desires and slaking them, seems like a superhuman feat. And yet the entire history of our species rests upon it -- the scores of generations of parents who, despite the near-impossibility of getting it ri... posted on Aug 03 2023, 4,617 reads

The Spiritual Awakening of a World-Class Drunk
"In 1940, Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, a man who knew sin and failure like he knew the back of his hand, was living with his wife, Lois, in a tiny room at the Alcoholics Anonymous "clubhouse" in downtown Manhattan. Wilson was in despair, unsure of the state of his soul, of his role in life, and of the future of A.A. Just then, at his nadir, a Jesuit priest from S. Louis, Father... posted on Aug 02 2023, 6,292 reads

Alison Benis White: Light on the Page
"Chaos--confusion, bewilderment--these are things I'm always working against and within as a writer. Frost famously argued that a poem is a "temporary stay against confusion"--and by "stay," within the context of 'The Figure a Poem Makes,' he means clarification--a temporary clarification of life. This resonates with me, although I don't know if I agree with the certainty of his claim. I think poe... posted on Aug 01 2023, 960 reads

Seth Godin: The Song of Significance
When Seth Godin made an exception to his no-flying for work rule to help run a conference for entrepreneurs working on climate, issues, it was at the request of a man named Dan in Australia whose 10-year-old daughter was born with health issues. The day before the conference the man let him know his daughter wasn't feeling well, so he wouldn't be there in person. Seth ended up running the conferen... posted on Jul 31 2023, 2,668 reads

When Elves Took Over an Abandoned Gas Station
"I'm a sucker for enchantment, , especially when it arises from unlikely places. By a year and a half into the pandemic in the fall of 2021, I had become increasingly frustrated by the incursion of scientific measurement into daily life, from never-ending COVID testing to forehead thermometer readings. As valuable as such tools can be, I longed for my daily life to be filled with more of the unqua... posted on Jul 30 2023, 2,407 reads

A Cloud Never Dies
A Cloud Never Dies is a biographical documentary of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Narrated by actor Peter Coyote, "it weaves together original film and photographic archives, telling the story of a humble young Vietnamese monk and poet whose wisdom and compassion were forged in the suffering of war. In the face of violence, fear, and discrimination, Thich Nhat Hanh's courageous path of engaged actio... posted on Jul 29 2023, 4,556 reads

The Constant Gardener
The garden is a space defined not by its physicality but by the emotions it evokes and the connections it provokes. And the act of gardening can change the way we relate to the world around us for the better, giving us perspective and teaching us lessons about life. Our souls are gardens. Our hearts are flowers. They need to be watered, tended, fertilized and loved. Happy gardening!... posted on Jul 28 2023, 2,281 reads

Adrian Arleo: Metaphors for Interdependence
Writes Adrian Arleo, "For 40 years, my sculpture has combined human, animal and natural imagery to create a kind of emotional and poetic power. Often there's a suggestion of a vital interconnection between the human and non-human realms; the imagery arises from associations, concerns and obsessions that are at once intimate and universal. The work frequently references mythology and archetypes in ... posted on Jul 27 2023, 1,472 reads

The Sound of the Genuine
"There is in every person something that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine ... There is in you something that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. Nobody like you has ever been born and no one like you will ever be born again -- you are the only one.

If you cannot hear it, you will never find whatever it is for which you are searching and if you h... posted on Jul 26 2023, 2,273 reads

The Donkey & the Meaning of Eternity: A Love Letter to Life
"Beneath our anxious quickenings, beneath our fanged fears, beneath the rusted armors of conviction, tenderness is what we long for -- tenderness to salve our bruising contact with reality, to warm us awake from the frozen stupor of near-living. Tenderness is what permeates Platero and I (public library) by the Nobel-winning Spanish poet Juan Ramon Jimenez (December 23, 1881-May 29, 1958) -- part ... posted on Jul 25 2023, 4,052 reads