pills’).” Just as important, this culture of violence can be systematically reversed through interlinked, personal and political action. For Rice, Walli and Boertje-Obed, this process ends with “the transformation of weapons of mass destruction to sustainable life-giving alternatives,” but it starts by modeling a radically different set of relationships with other people wherever they are. What shines out from Rice’s writings is always life over death, love over fear, and joyful subversion instead of the passive acceptance of our circumstances. “Dear sisters and brothers,” she begins her letters to her supporters, “united as we ... posted on Oct 1 2014 (33,803 reads)

of inadequacy, but it comes at a price. When our self-esteem rests on the premise of successfully competing against others, we are always precariously teetering on the edge of losing. Social comparison and competition also foster disconnection by causing us to view others as obstacles to overcome in order to keep our position, mark our territory, and vanquish potential rivals. We ultimately feel more separate from others when the primary goal of our desire for success is to belong and to be loved. It is quite simply impossible to be better than everyone at all times. Yet research shows that when we lose, we tend to feel highly self-critical, adding to our misery. Faced with criticism,... posted on Oct 28 2014 (110,714 reads)

because it has no other calling. It has no other work. […] I am interested in what Seamus Heaney calls the meeting point of hope and history, where what has happened is met by what we make of it. What has happened is met midstream by people who are — among the multitude of things we are — spiritual beings and all that that implies of creativity, imagination, crazy wisdom, ancient wisdom, passionate compassion, selfless courage, and radical reverence for life. And love—for one another absolutely, and that love that rises out of us, for something larger than ourselves, call it what you will. I am interested in the place, the places, where history is met by... posted on Dec 15 2014 (22,981 reads)

wonder.” Besides the simple happiness in this experience, it lifted me above the tangled pressures and worries I was stuck to like a bug on flypaper. Amazement is instant stress relief. It also opens the heart: I couldn’t any longer be even a little exasperated with my wife. Perhaps most deeply, being amazed brings you into the truth of things, into relationship with the inherent mysteries and overwhelming gifts of existence, scaled from the molecular machinery of life to the love and forgiveness in human hearts to the dark matter that glues the universe together. Wow. Really. Wow. How? Opportunities for amazement are all around us. I think back to that lo... posted on Jan 13 2015 (25,489 reads)

yet, self-care is what empowers us to give back to the world, fully and joyfully. Start your practice by taking just a few moments each day to affirm your commitment to eat well and live a healthful life.  Each bite of food contains the life of the sun and the earth. The whole universe is in a piece of bread. —Thich Nhat Hanh I choose well so that I can feel well. —Nathalie W. Herrman Preparing fresh, healthy meals instead of processed food is an act of love toward myself and those I cook for. I live healthfully for myself but also for the ones I love so that they may be empowered to improve their health as well. I’m honest with myself ab... posted on Feb 2 2015 (68,981 reads)

children in highly inflected speech. “Oooh, little one.” [demonstrates] RW: That’s so interesting. GN: It’s instinctive. There’s something there. So the pitched speech, which is the beginning of music, modulates the relationship between the infant and the mother—as do the mother’s gestures. There’s this kind of song and dance which is the infant’s first experience of human relationship. And it’s all one thing. Song and dance and love are one thing. Which is why to me it’s such a sorrow that, with the professionalization of music in this culture, so many people think, “I can’t sing.” Mothers are not sin... posted on Jan 18 2015 (28,258 reads)

have tried to distinguish between lives high on happiness and lives full of meaning. By their definition, happiness is a positive feeling or emotion. We say we are happy when things are going well for us, when we are feeling more positive emotions than negative ones, when we feel satisfied with our lives. The time span of happiness is typically short: a good day, a stellar semester, a great year. A wedding can bring us happiness in a moment or a weekend, for example, because of the fun and love involved, because of the good food and good music and good company. But a wedding can also bring meaning to our lives. More than a balance sheet between positive and negative feelings, meaning... posted on Feb 5 2015 (36,364 reads)

want to wish. She wanted to know how to live life with no regrets. Out of Patti’s vision and sense of urgency, the No Regrets Project was born. Between radiation treatments, spinal surgery and a bucket list trip to Alaska, Patti wrote essays, talked with anyone who would listen, dreamed and created. In the end, she developed five simple, personal practices to help herself live life more fully: be grateful every day, trust – take the risk, courage to be me, choose joy, and love myself & share it. While the phrases may be simple, accomplishing them is not. The development of the No Regrets Project is Patti Pansa’s legacy to all of us.  Be Grateful Every... posted on Mar 4 2015 (48,637 reads)

fabulous, old planet of ours." ~Arne Naess Much more than a simple ecology, ecosophy is a wisdom-spirituality of the earth. ‘The new balance’ is not so much between man and Earth, but between matter and spirit, between spatio-temporality and consciousness. Ecosophy is not simply a ‘science of the earth’ (ecology) and even ‘wisdom on earth,’ but the ‘wisdom of the earth itself’ that occurs when a man knows how to listen with love. ~Raimon Pannikar As conscious observers, we tell each other our realities as stories; as conscious actors, we create our realities. It takes time for the new scientific stories of a co... posted on Feb 26 2015 (22,251 reads)

will more likely be able to anticipate the song’s emotional peaks and enjoy it more. The dopamine hit comes from having their predictions confirmed—or violated slightly, in intriguing ways. “It’s kind of like a roller coaster ride,” she says, “where you know what’s going to happen, but you can still be pleasantly surprised and enjoy it.” Salimpoor believes this combination of anticipation and intense emotional release may explain why people love music so much, yet have such diverse tastes in music—one’s taste in music is dependent on the variety of musical sounds and patterns heard and stored in the brain over the course of a... posted on Mar 6 2015 (29,913 reads)

on the streets at night until late hours. RW: So am I right in guessing that you came to no harm? SD: Never came to any harm, ever. Later in life when I went back to the ghetto to work, where it was all black, I was almost raped twice, but I talked them out of it. RW: That's a great skill. SD: Yeah. I know this skill. RW: You’ve grown up with the poor, the destitute and desperate or unhappy people and… SD: There's no bad; they're good. Because I just love people. I knew my life was different and I knew better than to share with my siblings what I was doing. RW: Were the nuns good to you? SD: The nuns were very nice to me, especially this one... posted on Apr 11 2015 (14,037 reads)

For example, better health insurance (resource in the world) could help with a chronic illness (issue in the body), and more self-confidence (resource in the mind) could help with the need to assert yourself at work (issue in the world). I’m going to focus here on resources in your mind: what I call inner strengths. These include:    *  Capabilities like mindfulness, emotional intelligence, resilience;    *  Positive emotions, such as gratitude, love, self-compassion;    *  Attitudes like openness, confidence, determination;    *  Somatic inclinations like relaxation, grit, helpfulness); and    ... posted on May 20 2015 (16,236 reads)

for art, life is difficult, hard to understand, useless, and mysterious." “As a person she is tolerant and easygoing, as a user of words, merciless,” the editors of The Paris Review wrote in the introduction to their 1992 interview with poet, short story writer, educator, and activist Grace Paley (December 11, 1922–August 22, 2007). Although Paley herself never graduated from college, she went on to become one of the most beloved and influential teachers of writing — both formally, through her professorships at Sarah Lawrence, Columbia, Syracuse University, and City College of New York, and informally, through her in... posted on Jul 31 2015 (12,444 reads)

And although poetry itself exerts a singular power over the human spirit, as one of the greatest poets of all time observed, it is hardly a power that comes easily to the poet: “Writing poetry is an unnatural act,” Elizabeth Bishop wrote when she was only twenty-three. So how, then, does one come to master this unnatural power — how does one become a Poet? That’s what the wise and wonderful Wendell Berry (b. August 5, 1934) — a man of great wisdom on solitude, love, and our “rugged individualism” — explores in a marvelous poem titled “How to Be a Poet (to remind myself),” found in his New Collected Poems (public library). We... posted on Oct 17 2015 (14,486 reads)

But for all I know, some of these kids could grow up to develop serious mental or physical health issues, or just turn out to be not very nice people! There’s no child who’s perfect, and no parent who doesn’t go through some form of hardship or challenge with their children at one time or another.” And at that moment, my feelings of intense isolation turned into feelings of deep connection with the other mothers at the park, and with all parents everywhere. We love our kids, but damn—it’s tough sometimes! As odd as it may sound, by practicing self-compassion as we muddle through, we don’t feel so alone. Fortunately, this isn’t jus... posted on Oct 19 2015 (29,074 reads)

by practice, and sharing gifts and resources. What differences in the definitions of "gift" and "gift economics" have come up in your research for the film? Any surprises? I think, at least initially, I started looking for more outward examples and manifestations of gift culture. As I started researching, I was excited to realize the gift economy is in the zeitgeist these days—along with the sharing economy, the collaborative economy. There is a line I love from The Gift: “There are interior economies and invisible economies.” Hyde uses fairytales and dreams to illustrate these kind of inner gift economies, and how they operate. I starte... posted on Nov 1 2015 (12,501 reads)

Frank has remembered decades later are the ones she will never really pay back. How could she—to the ancients, to the sky? The question of repayment doesn’t compute. These were the debts that called on her to be better and whose traces kept showing up in her art. They connected her to people. They also involved no collection agencies, no tarnished credit scores. To imagine what a financial system worth having looks like, we can begin with how we lend to and borrow from those we love. (It is written in the Book of Romans: “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another.”) In those circumstances, the chief reason for lending and borrowing isn’t profit for ... posted on Dec 7 2015 (8,787 reads)

do we feel shame and how does shame change us? According to Brené Brown, a researcher at the University of Houston, shame is an “intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging.” It’s an emotion that affects all of us and profoundly shapes the way we interact in the world. But, depending on how we deal with it, shame can either shut us down or lead us to a new sense of bravery and authenticity. Brown’s research involved interviewing thousands of people about difficult, sensitive experiences in their lives, in order to uncover common themes around shameful experiences. Almost single-h... posted on Feb 25 2016 (20,584 reads)

who have no one,” she says with a lot of affection. You can see flashes of her life as she talks about her journey and how she became the “mother”. Being an unwanted child, she was nicknamed “Chindhi” which means a torn piece of cloth. Though her father supported her and was keen on educating her, she could not continue her studies after fourth grade due to family responsibilities and early marriage. The 68-year-old Sindhutai’s story is all about love, compassion and devotion as she has dedicated her life to the orphans. Born on born on 14 November, 1948 at Pimpri Meghe village in Wardha district of Maharashtra, she was keen on completing h... posted on Mar 13 2016 (28,701 reads)

bother to look. Nevertheless, someone sits quietly somewhere inside us and bears witness to all that goes on, without judging. It may take days, months or years after an event for us to realize what the witness has seen, but it’s a knowledge we can rest in even if we may flinch from it. The living truth helps us to be more wholly ourselves as it reshapes us into better persons. Here’s one truth I’ve uncovered. Although I want to be perfect and long to have everybody love me, I am sometimes an angry lady, a guilty lady, a self-pitying lady and a varsity self-attacker. But why attack the person who forgets her keys at home or leaves a low fire burning on in the sto... posted on Mar 26 2016 (16,209 reads)