the desert offers no tangible riches, as there is nothing to see or hear in the desert,” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote in his exquisite memoir of what the Sahara Desert taught him about the meaning of life, “one is compelled to acknowledge, since the inner life, far from falling asleep, is fortified, that man is first animated by invisible solicitations.” No one captures this invisible animation of inner life more bewitchingly thanEdward Abbey in Desert Solitaire (public library) — a miraculously beautiful book, originally published in 1968, which I discovered through a passing mention by the wonderful Cheryl Strayed. (How right Laurence Sterne was t... posted on Nov 25 2015 (11,436 reads)

they've given away more than $250,000. That's a lot of money, and it sounds like a big sacrifice. But they insist that it isn't. In her blog, Julia writes, "The things we love most--spending time with family and friends, making music, dancing, cooking, reading--are all things we can do on a small budget. If we gave less, we would spend more on ourselves but probably wouldn't be noticeably happier." She says that giving is one of the most important things in her life, and she does it because she believes that "people--all people, even far-away people--should not have to suffer and die needlessly." I share that belief. My giving is a drop in the b... posted on Dec 5 2015 (10,867 reads)

Ricard, also known as ‘the world’s happiest man’, spent the best part of 25 years in the Himalayas with barely any contact with the Western world he was born into. At 26-years-old he left behind his molecular biology studies and settled into a life of serenity and spiritual training under his Buddhist teachers, high up in the heavens on the other side of the world. However, he is now very much back on the Western scene. When I ask Ricard why he returned, he sighs and says: “When I was in my hermitage I thought, if I can do something useful, maybe I should come down for a bit”. He seems to long for the mountains, but the continued success of his proje... posted on Feb 20 2016 (26,476 reads)

go, patience is a quiet one. It’s often exhibited behind closed doors, not on a public stage: A father telling a third bedtime story to his son, a dancer waiting for her injury to heal. In public, it’s the impatient ones who grab all our attention: drivers honking in traffic, grumbling customers in slow-moving lines. We have epic movies exalting the virtues of courage and compassion, but a movie about patience might be a bit of a snoozer. Yet patience is essential to daily life—and might be key to a happy one. Having patience means being able to wait calmly in the face of frustration or adversity, so anywhere there is frustration or adversity—i.e., nearly ev... posted on Jun 28 2023 (23,507 reads)

poetry of W.H. Auden (February 21, 1907–September 29, 1973) was among Oliver Sacks’s formative books. When the two men eventually became friends in the final years of Auden’s life, Dr. Sacks was still a thirty-something neurologist with little more than a weightlifting record under his belt, a long way from becoming the Dante of medicine. Auden became an invaluable mentor as the young writer was honing the singular voice that would later render him the greatest science-storyteller of our time. In the pages of A Certain World (public library) — Auden’s terrific commonplace book, that proto-Tumblr of fr... posted on May 20 2016 (8,946 reads)

have always had an interest in living a good life – perhaps a natural attraction towards positive psychology. An experience early on in life eventually taught me the value of seeing the self as far deeper than the finely curated fragments of body and mind that we spend a lifetime trying to conquer. It showed me, albeit exclusively, the faint and subtle yearnings of the soul that often went unheard in the noise and clamour of daily life. The Journey to Finding Meaning On an annual trip to my parent’s home in Pakistan, I decided to honor its call and spend my 2 weeks identifying a needy cause to which to contribute a portion of my time and finances. I did not have to look f... posted on Jun 5 2016 (13,864 reads)

Sagar Kabra was a family medicine resident at Jan Swasthya Sahyog (JSS), an organization dedicated to serving the rural poor in Chhattisgarh, India. He was killed in a road traffic accident on May 9, 2016. In rural India, it is not uncommon for a person to pass before their time, their life cut short by the injustices of poverty, hunger, accident, and disease. Often these deaths go unnoticed, and the stories of these lives unheard. Sagar Kabra was familiar with this reality from his time working as a resident physician at Jan Swasthya Sahyog (JSS), an organization through which he and his colleagues provided healthcare to some of the poorest and most marginalized communities in India.... posted on Aug 5 2016 (18,354 reads)

enlightened beings.  If they are enlightened beings, then so are all beings who serve, holding hands, paws, retractors, thermometers, heartaches, and aspirations.  This conspiracy of enlightened beings everywhere invites an even bigger picture.  What if a secret, sacred love waits patiently in everyone and everything?  And what if this love leaves footprints, evidence of its unfolding eternal care for all of us? Savoring the energy of the eternal, I consider my own life and how love’s footprints left trace evidence.  Yes, I can see the footprints when I look.  There was a path that began in a roller skating rink in 1940’s New York&hellip... posted on Sep 19 2016 (14,887 reads)

easiest way for me to find God is in nature,” Sister Ceciliana Skees explains. Born Ruth Skees, she grew up in Hardin County, Kentucky, during the 1930s. It’s a rural place of soft green hills, where her father farmed his entire life. Now just a few months shy of her eighty-fifth birthday, she remembers feeling the first stirrings of a religious calling at the age of 10. Her peasant blouse and smooth, chin-length haircut don’t fit the popular image of a nun, but she has been a Sister of Loretto—a member of a religious order more than 200 years old—since she took vows at the age of 18. Skees’ commitment to social activism goes back almost a... posted on Sep 26 2016 (9,426 reads)

God prefers a determined sinner to someone who’s lukewarm. To inject extra energy into our exchanges, he sometimes instructed us to become “ukesfrom hell,” striking at each other much more aggressively than usual. The Japanese word uke(pronounced oo-kay) doesn’t literally mean “attacker,” though it’s generally understood that way. An Attentive Response     If uke is lucky, he’s had some intimations from life that change is inevitable, that in certain moments he needs to give up an old equilibrium and accept a new balance to suit new conditions. In aikido, it means to be willing to let go and fall. It... posted on Oct 13 2016 (10,722 reads)

rough men standing beside their bicycle rickshaws.And one of them came up and offered to show me around. The price he quoted was outrageous. It was less than I would pay for a bar of chocolate at home. So I clambered into his trishaw, and he began pedaling us slowly between palaces and pagodas. And as he did, he told me how he had come to the city from his village. He'd earned a degree in mathematics.His dream was to be a teacher. But of course, life is hard under a military dictatorship, and so for now, this was the only way he could make a living. Many nights, he told me, he actually slept in his trishaw so he could catch the... posted on Nov 7 2016 (20,237 reads)

fine dessert. The ex-addict looks longingly at the cigarette, the bottle, or the drug, recalling the sweet feelings but also the problems and promises. The man and woman prepare to kiss, warm with alcohol and new intimacy, but are held back by thoughts of their respective spouses back home.  The procrastinator thinks of the tough, worrisome task ahead but notes the deadline is still a week off, so perhaps it is fine to leave it one more day. Such moral and practical dilemmas pervade daily life. Doing what is right requires strenuous effort to resist the alluring temptations of vice. You strive to resist selfish impulses and push yourself to do what moral duty prescribes. Virtue is h... posted on Dec 19 2016 (13,840 reads)

the air, alright. Everywhere we look. Love for Students Loving teachers transform classrooms....and students. No one falls asleep in Jeffrey Wright's high school physics class. Exploding pumpkins, hovercrafts and an experiment involving a bed of nails, a cinder block and a sledgehammer, are some of the crazy stunts that keep the students enthralled. But it is Mr. Wright's experiences as a father of a special needs son, and his teachings about love, family, and the meaning of life that leave the deepest impact on his students. This inspiring short video shares more.  Another school love story is taking place on the other side of the world: tucked away in ... posted on Feb 14 2017 (16,179 reads)

Another one would be Ganshinkei [Ch Yanzhenqing, 709–785], the Tang Dynasty general and imperial bureaucrat; his sho is dynamic and masterful. Among the Japanese calligraphers who I especially like is Ryōkan [1758–1831]. His calligraphy is very, very difficult to—“copy” is not a good word—but to study because of its very delicate lines, but also because it involves quite a bit of breathing rhythm; so one gets to read or breathe, as it were, life into lines. PD:  So it’s not just exemplary technique, but also exemplary moral spirit? RN:  I don’t know if we’d call it “moral spirit,” but somehow... posted on Feb 22 2017 (7,861 reads)

has a popularity rating most teenagers can only dream of. Her main Facebook page has more than 160,000 likes. Her musings about life with her two dads in Ontario, Canada, draw thousands of comments. And while she can’t take selfies, her photos get forwarded around the world. Here’s Esther cuddling with Shelby, one of her two canine roommates. Esther stretched out on the couch. Esther rooting through the laundry. One picture shows Esther sitting in her kiddie pool. The caption reads: “The hardest decision I want to make today is piña colada or strawberry daiquiri.” But Esther the Wonder Pig does more than make people laugh. Evidence of what her human guar... posted on Mar 3 2017 (22,012 reads)

1978 In honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.’s memory we also acknowledge non-violence as a truly powerful weapon to achieve equality and liberation, in fact, the only weapon that Christians who struggle for social change can claim as their own. Dr. King’s entire life was an example of power that nonviolence brings to bear in the real world. It is an example that inspired much of the philosophy and strategy of the farm workers’ movement. This observance of Dr. King’s death gives us the best possible opportunity to recall the principles with which our struggle has grown and matured. Our conviction is that human life is a very special possession given by... posted on Mar 31 2017 (17,804 reads)

stoned/sober; each chapter is independent and autonomous and makes decisions using the consensus process; they are not a charity, but people dedicated to non-violent direct action to change society. Keith McHenry is an actor and activist behind Food Not Bombs. He was one of eight co-founders of Food Not Bombs in Massachusetts and a co-founder of the second chapter of Food Not Bombs in San Francisco. Despite being arrested over 100 times for serving food to the homeless and then facing life in prison, he has persisted in expanding his belief in an alternative model to a capitalistic, exploitive system of government. In 1995, He co-founded Indymedia, a global open publishing network ... posted on Jul 7 2017 (8,404 reads)

knowing the extremes of sadness and joy we can never fully know or feel all that life is.   Melancholy by Edgar Degas. Credit: Edgar Degas [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. “There is something so enchanting in the smile of melancholy. It is a ray of light in the darkness, a shade between sadness and despair, showing the possibility of consolation.” Leo Tolstoy What if melancholy can be passed down through generations, not just culturally but at the level of our DNA? Melancholia has long been seen as a key element in artistic inspiration, along with a way of turning pain and sorrow into healing, and ultimately, an acceptance of life’s ... posted on Jun 26 2017 (12,518 reads)

to Bust Myths About His Faith" from PBS News Hour, Shams travels to 4 western U.S. cities to combat prejudice and open up a dialogue about the fears and prejudices people may have about Muslims and immigrants, often finding common ground with those who stop to talk to him. The more we view each other as people, rather than stereotypes, the more the channels of communication open and fear dissipates.  To truly understand another person, we must try to walk in their shoes, to see life from their perspective.  On this quest, we can look to some remarkable empathy role models from the past: St. Francis of Assisi, the son of a wealthy merchant, exchanged clothes wi... posted on Jul 2 2017 (9,152 reads)

of transformation near the end of their lives. One through which they emerge as someone larger, more expansive, more essential and real than the small, separate selves they had previously taken themselves to be. This is not a fairy-tale happy ending that contradicts the suffering that came before, but rather a recognition that transformation is possible even in tragedy. The discovery of this capacity regularly occurs for many people in the final months, days, or sometimes even minutes of life. “Too late,” you might say. And I might agree. However, the value is not in how long they enjoyed the experience, but in the possibility that such transformation exists. If... posted on Aug 2 2017 (51,501 reads)