knew to commune with the Earth. Different music, different songs for the seasons, for times of planting and harvesting, for the hunt. The scent of ceremonial tobacco hanging in the night air. And so we need to relearn how to speak to the trees and the rivers and the stars, to whisper our deepest secrets to the still night air, and remember how we are all one family, bonded from the very beginning. And with these words I am trying to tell the story of the early days, of laughter and joy and belonging. I am pointing down pathways of the garden of the soul, flowers and fruit trees, springs of clear water. And look, there children are playing, the moment is present with magic and sa... posted on Sep 20 2020 (6,893 reads)

some horrible thing that happened. And then, “I don’t understand why I’m not calmer because that was horrible.” You have been through a genuine tragedy. And why are you blaming yourself for feeling something about it? I’ve seen a lot of that, too.   TS: Yes. OK. So, I have two more themes I want to touch on and then a very important topic I want to cover too. So, I’m going to keep this train, this train, choo-chooing here, which is allowing joy. This really spoke to me on the path of being a real change maker. You write about how if we titrate, if we don’t just stay with what’s hard, that it enables us to persevere. So, I won... posted on Apr 8 2022 (2,614 reads)

McFerrin: This is what I want everyone to experience at the end of my concert is everyone has this sense of rejoicing. I don't want them to be blown away by what I do, I want them to have this sense of real, real joy from the depths of their being. Because I think when you take them to that place then you open up a place where grace can come in. Krista Tippett, host: Who better to contemplate the human voice — its delights, its revelations, and its mystery — than Bobby McFerrin? He's won 10 Grammys and is as comfortable with Chick Corea as with Mozart. He's also known for drawing thousands of strangers into singing the Ave Maria, beautifully, to... posted on Aug 15 2014 (14,218 reads)

on a website to help couples spend more quality time together. Still not happy, he abandoned that plan and returned to Beijing to sell office furniture. One year and two more moves across two continents later, he admitted to his friends, “I’m harder to find than Carmen San Diego.” Tom made four mistakes that are all too common on the road to happiness. The first blunder was in trying to figure out if he was happy. When we pursue happiness, our goal is to experience more joy and contentment. To find out if we’re making progress, we need to compare our past happiness to our current happiness. This creates a problem: the moment we make that comparison, we shift fr... posted on Dec 28 2015 (20,304 reads)

of a family member or whether she's lighting a candle and sending love to people going through difficulties or just showing up for friends whose ages range from their teenage years to their nineties. She shows up for the people in her lives. That's just the spirit that she carries. Anne we're so excited that you finally agreed to be on this call. We're so glad that the day has finally come to get to hear a bit more of your journey! Anne: Thank you Audrey it's such a joy and a gift for me to be on this call. I can feel all the noble friends all around the world. Each of these calls is such a gift because we get to be in a circle together. It's such a sacred sp... posted on Aug 18 2016 (13,835 reads)

many ways, 2016 was a banner year for books related to our themes of compassion, kindness, empathy, happiness, and mindfulness. Judging from the number of books to arrive at our office, the science of a meaningful life is hitting its full stride, with more and more people recognizing how to apply new insights to our daily lives. Yet, while the number of books was encouraging, many of them seemed to repeat old themes and research, without offering much new in the way of insight. That’s why many of our favorite books of 2016 do something a little bit extra: They take our science to a new level, looking at how schools, organizations, and society at large can appl... posted on Dec 23 2016 (29,567 reads)

week. You were just in Boston and now you are in LA. Next week you are headed to Nepal. It is such a gift for us to get to share space with you for this hour and half. Thank for taking the time to just pause and share your story. Linda, can you share a bit more about how you got started on your current journey? Linda: I married when I was very young, when I was in my early twenties. At the time I was in a career I absolutely adored. I was a nurse and was a nurse for 10 years. It was a joy every single day; I felt that spring in my step to go to work. As life happened, I got divorced at a very young age and I was a single mom with two young children. At that time I realized that ... posted on Aug 3 2018 (4,444 reads)

matter of feeling rather than being it — tends to involve framing our emotional triggers as moral motives, then thundering them upon those we cast in the role of the Wrong, who may do the same in turn. How, amid this ping-pong of righteousness grenades, do we maintain not only a clear-minded and pure-hearted relationship with reality, but also forgiveness and respect for others, which presuppose self-forgiveness and self-respect — the key to unlatching the essential capacity for joy that makes life worth living? That is what the wise and wonderful Anne Lamott considers with uncommon self-awareness and generosity of insight throughout Almost Everything: Notes on Hope (publi... posted on Jan 8 2019 (6,802 reads)

a man who specializes in grief and sorrow, psychotherapist Francis Weller certainly seems joyful. When I arrived at his cabin in Forestville, California, he emerged with a smile and embraced me. His wife, Judith, headed off to garden while Francis led me into their home among the redwoods to talk. I had wanted to interview Weller ever since the publisher I work for, North Atlantic Books, had agreed to publish his new book, The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief. Over the previous few years my father, grandfather, grandmother, father-in-law, and sister-in-law had all died, and I’d also moved across the country and was missing the friends and... posted on Feb 26 2019 (61,075 reads)

breezes. The waves wash and break upon the flowery hedges and the remote horizon, and seem ready to submerge everything in their foamless flood. All solid things are made less solid by motion – so grass looks liquid, trees have an aerial magic when the wind is in them. In summer the willows stroke the smooth water with their long fingers. The supple branches droop until they dip in the stream, and, as they sway, every thin leaf is followed by a vanishing hollow. One of the daintiest joys of spring is the falling of soft rain among blossoms. The shining and apparently weightless drops come pattering into the may-tree with a sound of soft laughter; one alights on a white petal with... posted on Apr 10 2019 (5,798 reads)

how do you empower yourself so you stay centered in who you are and be able to generate the best possible self, the best possible me? I did a little course last week with a group of women, some of whom are having a downer about Christmas, Hanukkah, whatever it applies to. Because the holidays can be dark for some people who grew up in a divorced family where people were fighting at the table, or they were so sad when their mom or dad left or someone died. This time, sometimes it’s not a joyful time for them. And we were looking at, what is it that people in those situations can do to use the levers and dials of conversation to have a holiday season that starts to change that mood, th... posted on Dec 31 2022 (3,967 reads)

the out-of-print treasure that gave us the beloved writer and Nobel laureate on the three types of readers and why the book will never lose its magic. More than a century before our present whirlpool of streaming urgencies, Hesse writes: Great masses of people these days live out their lives in a dull and loveless stupor. Sensitive persons find our inartistic manner of existence oppressive and painful, and they withdraw from sight… I believe what we lack is joy. The ardor that a heightened awareness imparts to life, the conception of life as a happy thing, as a festival… But the high value put upon every minute of time, the idea of hurry-hurry as ... posted on Jul 2 2023 (5,762 reads)

Let’s start. Everyone has turning point events in their life. Something happens and your life is never the same. Now you’ve had your share of life-changing events. But let’s start with the fire. Can you tell us a bit about yourself before the fire, and what is the Bear’s Grass Church?   Jennifer: Well back around 2008 or so when I was about to turn 40, I was working at a job for about 15 years and realized that it wasn’t filling my heart with joy.  So I just completely quit. No plan, I just packed up my bags and headed East back to the family farm and I started planting flowers, because it made my heart happy. I just planted flowers. ... posted on Nov 20 2023 (2,480 reads)

steadily, humbly, and with great integrity, the Brussats have added to the legacy of the world's knowledge centers. In a world that's so far-reaching and lightning fast, we need centers of depth to ground us -- in both spiritual practicality, but also in the mystery of life that has always been our fuel and our source.I encourage you to drink from the wellspring of this wisdom to use its abundance of practices and to support this enormous resource in any way you can.”Mary Ann, it is a joy and a privilege to welcome you to this time and this conversation where we can paddle around together in that ocean of abundant wisdom. Welcome.Mary Ann: Thank you. And, thank you for sharing Mark... posted on May 5 2024 (1,978 reads)

isn’t. And to some extent, this is true. If you measure how many hours you spent writing, it’s very possible that that number will increase, simply because you are measuring it, more aware of it, more focused on it, and motivated for that number to increase. If you measure miles run, that number will likely improve (until you get injured or burnt out). But how do you measure the hills you ran during those miles, or the spurts of speed you occasionally threw in, or the enjoyment of the view? How do you measure the great conversations you had with your wife as you did those runs? How do you track the ideas you had on the run, the health benefit of the runs, the new pla... posted on Nov 20 2012 (16,920 reads)

and I was again in a quandary. Should I give him accurate translation and explain that this is just another German idiom and is not intended as a cultural insult to a Pakistani Muslim? Or should I just skip the whole alcohol bit? Translation between languages is tough enough, but translating and showing cultural sensitivity was more than I could handle. My Urdu was not very good to begin with, and all I could come up with the rather silly Urdu translation “It is an opportunity for great joy”. My grandfather gave me a puzzled look, but did not ask any questions. ***** On the day after my grand-father’s eye surgery, the ophthalmologist and the residents came by fo... posted on Jan 18 2014 (33,904 reads)

do children know that adults seem to have forgotten? Children are more confident, more courageous and enjoy life far more intensely than adults. Sometimes it feels that we spend our entire lives trying to return to who we were as children. Here's what we can learn from our younger selves to bring more clarity and joy into adulthood. 1. Every day is a fresh start. "Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?" - L.M. Montgomery. Wasn't it always amazing how the end of a school day always felt so final, so finished? The break between June and September seemed like a lifetime. Because when you are young, every day feels li... posted on Jul 25 2014 (74,526 reads)

my dad. I am distressed about Melissa, worried about her 3-year-old son. We check in at the hospital, and dad is promptly whisked away to pre-op. Mom and I are shown to a waiting room. We try to choose a seat where we don’t have to watch a television blaring weather reports, pharmaceutical ads, and sports scores. Like passengers waiting for a bus, we sit with our bags in our laps, unsure how long we will be in this space. She begins to cry. There will be moments in life when his joys will unveil sorrow, and in their unveiling he will realize the fortune he enjoys. I push my bag to the floor and grab her hand. It has been years since I have held my mother’s hands. I m... posted on Sep 7 2014 (17,715 reads)

right. Ultimately, koans change who’s looking to to solve the problem. Most of us, I think, get committed to our worldviews and become extremely attached to our problems. “Without my problems, how would I know who I was?” an attorney said to me once. But what if we are willing to step into a space where we don’t know who we are? Then we don’t know that we have any problem. Perhaps you say, “I’m always bad with math” or “I don’t enjoy music” or “my enemy hates me” and you’re quite sure that it’s true. But you can show kindness to yourself by disbelieving it. This is why Zen is not a path of belief.... posted on Jul 6 2016 (17,569 reads)

by Frank McKenna We long to find more joy in our daily pursuits even though life has taught us it’s not so easy. New discoveries in neuroscience offer insight into how we can develop a brighter state of heart and mind. The First Step on the path to finding happiness is to open the mind to alternative ways of thinking about life. While much of our focus in the West has been toward comfort and the acquisition of worldly goods, in Eastern countries your status as a human being traditionally comes first. So instead of being greeted by “What are you up to these days?” or “How’s it going with your to-do list?” you may be asked in Muslim cou... posted on Aug 29 2017 (19,824 reads)