is hard to hold a grudge against the monkeys. The monkeys that visit our house are curious and alert and when you see the curve of their shoulders as they lean against a wall, or the way the little ones’ hair seems to have perfect middle partings. It is hard not to love them, the monkeys  that come and mess up the garden and break the drainpipes.  The monkeys who steal things and break things and leave suddenly. When they arrive, the monkeys bring with them the joy of the crowd, the thrill of jumping and swinging and not having to listen to anyone.  I believe that all of us, at some point or another in our lives, on a rare family outings with cousins, w... posted on Jun 29 2022 (3,564 reads)

wondered what it really meant to ‘follow one’s heart’. I was very curious to know what it felt like. I was certain it would be extraordinary, with an air of mystery. Something lofty and noble, a higher purpose. It would be a dramatic turning point after which all the pieces of the puzzle would fall neatly in place. I would no longer feel torn, there would be no guilt or self-doubt, no more bad decisions, and no future-anxiety. I was convinced it would bring clarity and peace, joy, fulfillment and perhaps, success. All the good stuff. I finally found my calling around my forty-second birthday, but it wasn’t quite what I had imagined. Just when I'd begun to... posted on Jul 13 2022 (3,925 reads)

Yes. There are a few different facets to it. And as you probably recall from my book, just that instruction to focus on what matters has many different layers of meaning within it. So on the surface level, what I’m referring to there and why it’s so powerful and the key to this is, most of us have been conditioned by our society, our education system, perhaps our culture, our religious background. When something doesn’t work for us, when we don’t enjoy something, when we disagree with it, we tend to experience that by projecting it outward onto others through the lens of blame. So if I don’t like what someone is doing, they are fill in ... posted on Sep 21 2022 (3,443 reads)

after I’d moved into a house on Anchorage’s Hillside. I placed a makeshift feeder on my home’s back deck railings, and within a day or two, black-caps accepted my invitation to dine: “For each, the routine was similar: dart in, look around, peck at the tray, look around some more, and dart back out. Nervous little creatures, full of bright energy, they soon had me laughing at their antics. By the time they moved on, I sensed an all-too-rare upwelling of fascination and joy. “Within days, a whole new world opened up as woodland neighbors I'd never known, or even imagined, joined the black-caps at my feeders: red-breasted nuthatches, common redpolls, pine... posted on Oct 18 2022 (7,275 reads)

But now I’m in a better position to handle a situation like that. The first time somebody broke my trust, it was so much harder. But now I know it’s a part of their journey. I think the children teach us how to hold everything. I don’t know about my own capacity, but everything we experience prepares us for the next experience in life too. But how do I hold the grief and the trauma and the sadness of it all? I think it balances out because there are enough moments of joy and transformation and beauty and resilience. And there’s so much more that’s possible, and that helps hold everything. RICHARD:    Listening to you, Sachi, I can... posted on Jan 9 2023 (2,469 reads)

than a war. People always ask me what it feels like, and my answer is never good enough. All I can do is play music attuned to the moment and the presence of the birds, leaving space for their songs and their silences. Treat them as equals with whom I cannot speak. It was uniquely moving to bring a patient audience out into Treptower Park an hour after the Russian victory festivities had subsided and a strange calm descended on the night. Only then did the birds comply, as if they had enjoyed all that noise and human celebration of the war’s end. They are not afraid of us. They coexist with us, hiding in their nettle fortresses, waiting for the right moment to sing. We honor... posted on Feb 21 2023 (2,574 reads)

separate, I think of something like a need to survive, like just the part of me that wants to make sure that I, the body, survive here. So that’s not really so much about certainty as it is like a survival drive. What do you think about that? DS: Yes. First of all, I’ve just got to say this too, Tami, I love your mind. It’s so wonderful the way you think so deeply about things and see the clarity that is needed for us to go forward. So thank you, it’s such a joy to be with you. What I think about that is when you look—and I’m trying to parse through the different angles to approach this great question. When you look at, let’s say the cor... posted on Mar 10 2023 (2,364 reads)

journalism and personal narrative, weaving in scientists, poets, anthropologists, and naturalists. Through the lens of marine animals, Imbler dissects and identifies the many ways in which humans become complicit in our own limitations, and, perhaps more importantly, how those limitations are foisted onto others, human and non-human alike. Imbler shows us human social patterns reflected in nature, along with our impact. It is a sobering mirror: “We swarm because we are full of the joy of being together, full of anger at the systems that exclude or endanger us, full of hope for the possibilities of the future.” Such writing allows us to trace our own evolution, a reminder ... posted on Mar 30 2023 (1,776 reads)

actually not bound by anything. There’s no line around it. It’s an open-endedness, so that the inner sense of that is freedom. We feel an inner freedom and a lightness of being. It gives us a positivity toward our experience, which is not a negation of difficulty, or sorrow, or sadness. It’s the very positivity that moves toward those things and holds them, again, in compassion.  So that is the great power of the Seven, to move through my life with a sense of freedom, joy, seeing possibilities, bringing forth possibilities, but also helping humanity and creatures too, to be held in light and positivity even when times are tough. That’s a beautiful thing. When... posted on Apr 7 2023 (6,271 reads)

my infinite strength.  Fear and authentic power come from the same source I learned how much energetic power lies beneath deep relaxation once you surrender to it. From this pure source I could now genuinely understand my own pain, as well as the pain of others. I faced my fear, which allowed me to finally tap into my own unique source: a keen eye for that which lies out of sight. My deep fear had transformed into my true power.  Since then I have had the joy and privilege of working with beautiful changemakers around the world. Accompanying them as they face their own unique stories, release the charge from their past, and discover the fuel ... posted on Apr 9 2023 (3,378 reads)

Eyes" is a music video that invites us to pay close attention to the Earth, to love her deeply and take action to heal her wounds. The song reminds us that every act of attention is an act of reciprocity, generating wonder and joy, perpetuating the gift. When we fall in love with the living world, a profound intention emerges from our attention, a longing to protect and honor her. This intention transforms into action, and we become agents of change, fueled by our love for our Mother Planet and a compelling sense of well-being for future generations. Explore a lesson plan that was designed to accompany Granddaughter' Eyes as a way to spread clima... posted on Apr 19 2023 (4,105 reads)

to Minnesota, I don’t know, over a quarter century ago, to be this magnificent but quiet, local publisher. And now we have watched it in these 25 years go from strength, to strength, to strength. And now I’ll just say it again: they are the publisher of the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States.  [applause] And I am so thrilled to have this conversation with Ada Limón to be part of our first season. For her voice of insistent honesty and wholeness and wisdom and joyfulness. And also I’m so happy to be together with you in the old-fashioned flesh, which we no longer take for granted. Ada Limón:That’s true. Tippett:I have your books, an... posted on Apr 22 2023 (3,248 reads)

to being a minor apocalypse. But no. Being a heavenly resident doesn’t automatically make you a big deal. Some heavenly deals are apparently bigger than others and if you are others then you are automatically a minor deal. That is how it goes more often than not in the cosmos, at least until we know better (which is hopefully soon). But back to Iris, deemed (for now at least) a minor goddess of the Greeks. Luminous daughter of a marine god, and a cloud nymph, begat by sea and sky, the joy of all who beheld her. In statues, paintings, poems and dreams, Iris is shapely of form, sparkling of eye, pitchered of hand. The ancients believed she used this convenient container to repleni... posted on Apr 24 2023 (3,083 reads)

alive in our stories and memories as well as the rising and setting of the sun. Even when we watch the breath, this moment-by-moment awareness, we are also present in time’s flow, oxygen entering the body with each and every breath, and then flowing out into our body and life.   And as we grow older we come closer to the mysterious intersection of timelessness and time. This is the garden we first knew as children, the “in the beginning” of our own story when play was joy. But now it beckons in a different way with the slowing of our body, with back pains and shortness of breath. There are more spaces in our days when nothing happens, when emptiness can be present,... posted on May 2 2023 (3,401 reads)

easy prayer of simple breathing. This is how a church should be, the joining of warm wood together making walls invisible, calling us to join in, not leave behind the life outside the door. A church vulnerable to fire and water, a prayer vessel floating in the forest. Mesmerized by amber tree lines ringing around me, I knew courageous prayers are said in places like this with wood, not stone listening. I knew utter joy sweeps through places like these, a shelter, not an escape. Unfettered by damp rock and twisted metal hidden behind stained glass, lead lined but a living, breathing wil... posted on May 11 2023 (4,638 reads)

find herself drawing and doing artwork. And after she graduated from the degree as a lawyer, she didn’t want it. She’s now pursuing art and she has some pieces that she sells all over the world. But if she had denied herself to dream, she’ll be sitting in some office and being a lawyer and never be happy. Get out. Find that dream. Chase that dream, because that’s who you are. We are all born to dream. Our purpose is to find that dream. And once we do, we find the joy. TS: I’ve been speaking with Dr. Tererai Trent, educator, humanitarian, and author of the book, The Awakened Woman: Remembering and Reigniting Our Sacred Dreams. Dr. Tererai Tre... posted on May 24 2023 (2,897 reads)

-- I nearly forgot the most important thing: refuse to wear uncomfortable pants, even if they make you look really thin. Promise me you'll never wear pants that bind or tug or hurt, pants that have an opinion about how much you've just eaten. The pants may be lying! There is way too much lying and scolding going on politically right now without your pants getting in on the act, too. So bless you. You've done an amazing thing. And you are loved; you are capable of lives of great joy and meaning. It's what you are made of. And it's what you're for. So take care of yourselves; take care of each other. Thank you. ... posted on Jun 5 2023 (3,810 reads)

all, and not slowly over time like we all do as we age, but swiftly, mercilessly, watching ability after ability fall away like so many loose hairs. I was thirty-five years old, living at Green Gulch Farm, a Marin County wing of the San Francisco Zen Center. It took four months for me to lose everything that meant anything to me: my strong, energetic body; my ability to achieve whatever I focused on and win the admiration of others for it; my pleasure in being a sexually attractive woman; my joy in bestowing the sweet attentions that mark a nurturing mother; my ability to do the required Zen training practices, which were the purpose of living in the community at Green Gulch; and perhaps ... posted on Jun 15 2023 (3,408 reads)

Somehow, human beings are able to intuit the meaning embedded, for example, in a drawn line. The speed or slowness of a line, or the darkness or the lightness of a line, can trigger a response—can be read as an emotion. For example, if we ask students to express anger by using just lines drawn with pencil on paper, with no recognizable images or symbols whatsoever, in almost every case, students will use very dark, rapid, and jagged lines. Then, if we ask them to express joy, the lines they draw are lighter, smoother, circular, and rising. This seems to be a basic ability in humans—humans untrained in the art of drawing—to draw and to “read”... posted on Jul 9 2023 (2,610 reads)

about this kind of setup: a child who lives in constant suffering as the cost of utopia. If there’s nothing but this life, how do we generate our accountability to all the life that will follow us? I was very young when I started to pull at the threads of the story. In the same way I slowly outgrew the delightful carrot-stick mythology of Santa Claus, I have slowly outgrown the idea of a punitive god waiting in a future heaven, and that my access to eternal peace and joy is predicated on my Earthly behavior. That story felt and feels like a narrative for people who want to judge but not be judged, who want peace without the rigor of practice, who want heaven wi... posted on Jul 12 2023 (4,895 reads)