space for quite some time, imploring for donations. This could have been another trivial occurrence of the day, another detail soon forgotten, except the person standing there — that was me . . . As a development executive at a film studio, I am fortunate to work at a great company, surrounded by incredibly talented individuals. We make movies. Movies that everyone in the world wants to see (or at least, that’s the goal). My life has a paycheck, a house, nice car, and people who love me and I can count on in any circumstance. My biggest fear is that I lose my ability to see, to connect, to be in touch with the world around me. If this were to happen, I would not be able to... posted on Aug 4 2013 (43,715 reads)

carefree child was a gift to my Type A, task-driven nature—but I didn’t see it. Oh no, when you live life distracted, you have tunnel vision—only looking ahead to what’s next on the agenda. And anything that cannot be checked off the list is a waste of time. Whenever my child caused me to deviate from my master schedule, I thought to myself, “We don’t have time for this.” Consequently, the two words I most commonly spoke to my little lover of life were: “Hurry up.” I started my sentences with it. Hurry up, we’re gonna be late. I ended sentences with it. We’re going to miss everything if you don&rsq... posted on Sep 13 2013 (131,758 reads)

change is possible and 100% achievable in my lifetime.  I see this every day in front of my eyes.  I am convinced that we can end world poverty for good and we can do that by educating and caring for our world’s children. 3. What do you get from giving?   I get a bursting heart and 300 of the happiest most amazing little kiddos in the universe; hugs every day,  lots of laughs, family games of capture the flag,  too many Birthday parties to count, and more love than I could have ever imagined. 4. Who is a living hero and what would you ask them if given the chance?   I love Melinda Gates and everything she is doing to change the world fo... posted on Sep 17 2013 (70,760 reads)

as trace memories of what we have repressed in the name of our technical mastery. They are the ecological unconscious. So, of course, they show up in poetry. "I do not know much about gods," T. S. Eliot wrote, who grew up along the Mississippi in St. Louis, "but I think that the river is a strong brown god." "Under various names," wrote Czeslaw Milosz, who grew up in Lithuania along the Neman, "I have praised only you, rivers. You are milk and honey and love and death and dance." I take this to be the first stirrings, even as our civilization did its damming and polluting, of the recognition of what we have lost and need to recover. When human p... posted on Oct 20 2013 (21,752 reads)

exposure to a certain way of thinking that can change our brain. And you also mentioned that there is a technique that helps people to develop their altruism: it’s through meditation… The term meditation is mystical, exotic, but its meaning is to educate oneself, to become familiar with a new way of thinking and acting while developing one’s qualities. Let’s consider the altruistic behavior. It’s obvious that throughout our life we feel unconditional love for our children, for someone else, or even for an animal, and that feeling doesn’t require any effort in showing altruism: wishing they were healthy and happy in their lives. The problem i... posted on Jan 27 2014 (7,816 reads)

lived and gardened at Green Gulch Farm for twenty-five years, settling my life, practicing Zen, and deepening my understanding of the earth under my fingernails. Green Gulch has a second name, one woven out of poetry and meditation practice: Soryu-ji, or Green Dragon Zen Temple. I love this name that so deftly describes the sinuous valley of Green Gulch, which uncoils between high, dry hills like an ancient green dragon with its tail stirring the sea and its fire-breathing head held high in the mysterious clouds that rise like primordial vapor from the coastal mountains. I now make my primary garden at my home a scant mile north of Green Gulch, almost where the dragon's tail lashes ... posted on Jan 30 2014 (20,764 reads)

criticisms of policy, the assertions of dogma, the declarations of fact that you hear every day — and just imagine if all of these could be infused with the proper intellectual humility that comes from appreciating the amount unseen.” Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, who authored one of the best psychology books of 2011, contemplates the “focusing illusion” — or tendency to misjudge the scale of impact certain circumstances, from a pay raise to the death of a loved one, will have on our actual well-being. Marketers exploit the focusing illusion. When people are induced to believe that they “must have” a good, they greatly exaggerate the diff... posted on Jan 14 2014 (34,886 reads)

civil rights issue of our day.” Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud. […] The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is upon us. In his 1995 autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom (public library), Mandela speaks to the conditioning that produces both love and hate: No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taug... posted on Dec 6 2013 (40,558 reads)

a weird time to be a photographer. I love being a photojournalist. But I don’t love that everybody with an iPhone thinks it’s OK to photograph and post anything, anytime, anywhere,” says Feldman. “There are boundaries. It’s a recording device. When young people ask me ‘How did you get to photograph these people?’ I say it’s partly earned trust. Knowing when not to shoot is important. Sensitivity with a camera is essential.”  “I may not have the most wonderful bank account, but my spiritual bank account is overflowing,” says Jane Feldman of her career as a social justice photojournalist and aut... posted on Feb 3 2014 (18,466 reads)

the chasm between the human realm and the wild world of nature. In every program, the animals and their stories are used to teach children not just about the biology of life but also about empathy, caring and the profound interconnections that link all of us together.        One of the most important animal companions in Steve’s life was Susie Bear, a 330-pound American black bear. He says simply that Susie Bear was his most powerful teacher and a beloved friend. One of the most extraordinary stories about Susie Bear began many years ago at an elementary school in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. —Anne Veh Steve Karlin:  ... posted on Jan 6 2014 (52,641 reads)

delving into the moment before it would perish forever. I knew she was dying and very close to leaving us. After a long hard struggle over nine years with cancerous peptic ulcer and a range of other complications, my mother had become too fragile to continue her fight. Frail and weak, she nevertheless kept her smile, and her tenacity with which she had brought us up against so many odds showed still. But I could tell she was scared; she didn’t want to die and not only because she loved us all so much. She was someone who enjoyed life and talking with people. She had battled cancerous tumor enough to see all of us married, and held and hugged all her grandchildren during her il... posted on Feb 19 2014 (39,784 reads)

math and science courses. Assigning students to learn material in order to help another—i.e., perhaps to tutor a younger student in math—would improve academic learning too, he argues. But perhaps most importantly, we need to understand how vital our social connections are to our happiness and health. Lieberman points to research that shows having social connection is as important to health outcomes as not smoking. Our experience of pain is lessened by the presence of those we love and our sense of worth is connected to our social standing more than to our monetary wealth. He cautions against working so hard or remaining so isolated that we eschew social ties.  Inst... posted on Feb 24 2014 (20,491 reads)

pure-blood, half-blood, and muggle-born wizards, as well as non-magical people; werewolves forced to conceal their true identities from a culture that shames them; house elves that are enslaved and inherited down through generations; prisoners tortured in Azkaban, the wizard prison; and the use of consolidated media to control public opinion. Most of all, says Slack, Rowling created a world that made "fun of normalcy as an aspiration" and believed that "the weapon we have is love." Just as Hermione Granger started the activist Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare (SPEW) to try to end the slavery of house elves and Harry started Dumbledore's Army to figh... posted on Feb 25 2014 (30,174 reads)

thankful,” writes Robert Emmons, co-director of the GGSC’s Gratitude project. “Counting blessings will be ineffective because grievances will always outnumber gifts.” The antidote to entitlement, argues Emmons, is to see that we did not create ourselves—we were created, if not by evolution, then by God; or if not by God, then by our parents. Likewise, we are never truly self-sufficient. Humans need other people to grow our food and heal our injuries; we need love, and for that we need family, partners, friends, and pets. “Seeing with grateful eyes requires that we see the web of interconnection in which we alternate between being givers and recei... posted on Mar 19 2014 (180,759 reads)

These people were, he argued, the "original affluent society." In the Western tradition of simple living, the place to begin is in ancient Greece, around 500 years before the birth of Christ. Socrates believed that money corrupted our minds and morals, and that we should seek lives of material moderation rather than dousing ourselves with perfume or reclining in the company of courtesans. When the shoeless sage was asked about his frugal lifestyle, he replied that he loved visiting the market "to go and see all the things I am happy without." The philosopher Diogenes—son of a wealthy banker—held similar views, living off alms and making his h... posted on Mar 14 2014 (42,922 reads)

new possibilities in life. "A lot of people are able to use that as the fuel they need to come up with a different perspective on reality," says Kaufman. "What's happened is that their view of the world as a safe place, or as a certain type of place, has been shattered at some point in their life, causing them to go on the periphery and see things in a new, fresh light, and that's very conducive to creativity." They seek out new experiences. Creative people love to expose themselves to new experiences, sensations and states of mind -- and this openness is a significant predictor of creative output. "Openness to experience is consistently the stro... posted on Mar 24 2014 (178,799 reads)

he believed, gave him the freedom to shape his own life by controlling his thoughts. Life may not give you what you want, but it will give you what you need. Aurelius accepted that trials and challenges were an unavoidable part of life, but his belief that life and the universe were fundamentally good helped him to accept the tough stuff. The argument goes like this: Because life as a whole is as good as it can be, the parts of life are as good as they can be, so we should love, or at least accept, every part of life. But Aurelius took it even one step further, arguing that obstacles are actually our greatest opportunities for growth and advancement. They force us to... posted on Mar 29 2014 (105,514 reads)

letting go of past hurts, we can heal not only ourselves, but our families, our communities, and our world. There were so many nights when I, as a young boy, had to watch helplessly as my father verbally and physically abused my mother. I can still recall the smell of alcohol, see the fear in my mother’s eyes, and feel the hopeless despair that comes when we see people we love hurting each other in incomprehensible ways. If I dwell in those memories, I can feel myself wanting to hurt my father back, in the same ways he hurt my mother, and in ways of which I was incapable as a small boy. I see my mother’s face and I see this gentle human being whom I loved so very much a... posted on May 6 2014 (50,132 reads)

us. Here’s my conversation with the very lyrical David Whyte. Welcome, David, to Insights at the Edge. I want to share with you a little bit about what happens behind the scenes here at Sounds True, which is: our copywriters listen to new programs that we’re putting out and they take notes on them and then they write the package copy. And before this conversation, I asked our copywriter Grayson if I could read his notes. And he said, “Yeah, sure. You’re going to love this program, Tami, it completely blew my mind.” And I was like, “Okay. Let me read the notes.” And I’m reading his fourteen pages of detailed notes on What to Remember Wh... posted on Jul 7 2014 (40,164 reads)

make public policy decisions, and think about our personal relationships. […] Our modern conception of human excellence is too often impoverished, cold, and bloodless. Success does not always come from thinking more rigorously or striving harder. In the rest of Trying Not to Try, Slingerland further explores the social and spiritual dimensions of wu-wei, how to better cultivate them in our daily lives, and why spontaneity is central to our ability to trust, play, and love. Complement it with Oliver Burkeman on how over-planning limits our happiness and success and Alan Watts on why living with uncertainty is the secret to a full life. ... posted on Jun 3 2014 (13,882 reads)