remember that whatever discipline you are in, whether you are a musician or a photographer, a fine artist or a cartoonist, a writer, a dancer, a designer, whatever you do you have one thing that's unique. You have the ability to make art. And for me, and for so many of the people I have known, that's been a lifesaver. The ultimate lifesaver. It gets you through good times and it gets you through the other ones. Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do. Make good art. I'm serious. Husband runs off... posted on May 21 2023 (4,331 reads)

two categories — the be-sought, and the besotted. Amaryllis was besotted– with a disinterested shepherd. She turns, as the spurned in Greek legends often do, to the Oracle of Delphi– that dispenser of non-linear advice, who excels at keeping things interesting. Oracular wisdom suggests Amaryllis adopt a 30-day regimen of piercing her heart with a golden arrow while standing at the cottage door of her crush. She complies, and on the final day of this rather risky business, the crimson drops of blood splattered on the ground are transformed into ruby red flowers. The theatrical alchemy of it all melts the shepherd’s indifference. As he embraces his self-h... posted on Jun 3 2023 (3,463 reads)

the end goal. The yellow underwing moth ruins itself upon candle flame not through an innate love of heat, but by conflating it with heaven’s light by which it steers its life’s course. What is it we truly seek when we dream of flying? If it is unfettered freedom, then this most universal of desires may prove to be an unexpected trap, as the aforementioned birds in this essay have ascertained, at least on an energetics level. Laughing at gravity for any length of time is a tiring business, not so much in the face but more with the incessant flapping, necessitating an incessant munching of bugs or fish or sticks of butter, the latter of which might be platonic perfection in cal... posted on Jul 10 2023 (2,616 reads)

eyes, God used a humble instrument to restore the deflated and depressed Bill to a state of grace. At least, that is how Bill saw it; he referred to his first meeting with Father Ed as his “second conversion experience.” Father Ed planned his trip to New York City as a one-night stopover on his rail journey to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he was to address a meeting of the Proportional Representation League on November 18. His calendar does not indicate that he had any business in New York; it seems his only reason for spending the night there was so he could visit the Alcoholics Anonymous clubhouse and, he hoped, meet Bill Wilson. It was eight p.m. on November 1... posted on Aug 2 2023 (6,250 reads)

the page moment. I’m curious, when you reflect on this poem going viral during our time right now 2016 and then all of the repeated ways when there’s a tragedy in the world that people bring up Good Bones and send it through social media. What do you think is in the poem that has landed so powerfully for people? MS: It’s almost not for me to say, and in some ways when I write a poem and then I send it into the world or a memoir or an essay it sort of stops being my business what other people think about it. But what I hear from people about why they share it is that it acknowledges the difficulty and darkness in the world. It doesn’t have a Pollyanna outlo... posted on Aug 10 2023 (2,888 reads)

for the sole purpose of slowing down. to savor stillness. to allow myself the gift of being. *** LATE BLOOMER Most successful thirty under thirty. Wealthiest forty under forty. We can’t all be burgeoning poppies, bursting forth, robust and colorful. Show me those who are more tortoise than hare. The actress who gets her first starring role at forty. The writer who publishes his first novel at fifty. The entrepreneur who launches a business at sixty. The painter who opens a gallery at seventy. Recount the stories of those who bloom like the agave americana, slow and steady, maturing over decades until flowers rip... posted on Oct 2 2023 (5,178 reads)

as a producer, and I would even say kind of a midwife to bringing art and music and beauty into the world. But I would like to ask you, just — I mean you started Def Jam, was that in high school or college? I’ve seen both. Rubin: That was in college. Tippett: In college. What was it that you felt needed to be in the world that wasn’t in the world, that was in that impulse to create that for you? Rubin: Well, I didn’t know anything about the music business or how to do anything professionally. Just, I was in a punk rock band and I made recordings of my own band. And then I hung out in record stores because that’s where you could learn the... posted on Nov 30 -0001 (26 reads)

you don’t get it, or your hard work does not pay off. Faced with a sense of loss and disappointment, we have no choice but to respond. In his famous work Man’s Search for Meaning, psychiatrist Viktor Frankl wrote that every person is questioned by life and can only answer to life by being responsible. In each of us, he proposed, we have a responsibility—or the ability to respond. Whether you are a leader who lost a job or an opportunity, an entrepreneur starting a new business, or simply facing a personal challenge, your ability to respond (and how likely you are to bounce back) is partly shaped by the way you talk with and to yourself. Below, we share three easy-t... posted on Apr 3 2024 (3,593 reads)

what’s an individual to do? When the great Naomi Klein gets asked this question, she answers: “Stop thinking of yourself as an individual.” I would add to that one small word: “only.”Stop thinking of yourself only as an individual.Second shift: there’s no one right way to be a changemakerHonour what makes you, you. Instead of judging it as imperfect, see how you might use it in a way that connects to something bigger: to community, to democracy, to business and finance, culture, education… to whatever and with whomever you belong. Who can you team up with to learn, divest, inspire, re-imagine, include? Who can you listen to, and how can y... posted on Apr 10 2024 (1,740 reads)

Sarvodaya was first used by Gandhi to describe his own political philosophy: “Universal uplift.” Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne (center) has scaled a national movement. Credit: Sarvodaya Photo Archive Since its inception, Sarvodaya has grown to include more than 15,000 villages and has energized these communities to build more than 5,000 preschools, community health centers, libraries, and cottage industries. It has also established thousands of village banks and more than 100,000 small businesses — all without any government support. Their slogan characterizes the relationship between spiritual and economic development: “We build the road, and the road builds us.” ... posted on May 7 2024 (1,111 reads)