disband altogether to become food for the worm and fertilizer for the mycelial wonderland from which bluebells will rise some future spring. None of this we can resist. But maybe — and that is what redeems and consecrates our finite human lives and our limited powers — within those parameters, there is space enough and spirit enough to resist what is poisonous to the ideological soil we call culture and persist in planting, for as long as we have to live and with as much generosity as we have to give, something lush and beautiful. That we might never live to see it bloom might just be okay. To have planted the seeds is satisfaction enough worth living for. Hare... posted on Apr 24 2021 (6,032 reads)

Maurice had been my father’s best friend from infancy. My father had died when I was 14 years old, before I knew the questions I would one day want to ask him about his early years. When I reached out to Maurice 28 years after my Dad’s passing, he answered all of my questions. In gratitude for all that Maurice shared with me and my family, giving my father back to me in such a vivid way through his stories, I made a living memory quilt in gratitude for Maurice’s generosity and friendship. Each block on the quilt represented something from Maurice’s life story, his 4 grandparents from Ireland, his faith, his fellow classmates of the Class of 1935, his fr... posted on Apr 29 2021 (7,108 reads)

reverence to emerge in our heart. Bowing increases goodness because the “self ” shrinks. Things that we do with a reduced sense of self, and we’re not talking about low self esteem, but things we do without the big “ME” in the middle, tend to turn out better. Bowing is the first of the ten practices recommended by Samantabhadra (Universal Worthy) Bodhisattva, one of the four revered bodhisattvas of Mahayana Buddhism. Bowing is a foundational practice, along with generosity, and ethics, for preparing someone for a spiritual life. Loc: Buddhism does emphasize reducing arrogance and pride. Rev. Sure: Bodhisattvas in the Buddhist sutras, no matter how high ... posted on Jun 1 2021 (6,107 reads)

not bring gentle, caring touch directly into healthcare?  Beider would eventually create a new therapeutic approach called Integrative Touch Therapy. ITK would, in addition to providing hands-on therapies for kids, organize large scale retreats, playdates, community events, and support groups at little or no cost to the families. “When a child has special needs,” says Beider, “the whole family has special needs—period.” The organization operates by the generosity of its donors and its volunteers, including young children and teenagers. During Covid-19, the TeleFriend and TeleWellness programs have continued to serve children... posted on Jun 18 2021 (4,512 reads)

has four parts. There’s self-awareness and meditation, definitely improved self-awareness. There’s self-management. And I think being aware of what you’re feeling is the first step in handling a negative feeling or generating positive feelings, as they were just saying. Then, there’s empathy tuning into other people’s emotions. I think the data that we’ve reviewed suggests that lovingkindness practices improve empathy. They also improve actual generosity. They make you kinder. The fourth part of emotional intelligence is the social skill or relationship. I think it supports every part of emotional intelligence, meditation does. TS: Can y... posted on Jun 28 2021 (5,438 reads)

of a value-free account of life prevailed. For a long time, scientists have argued that there is no reality apart from dead matter and that, therefore, all life must be reduced to the blind laws of survival and selection. This approach defines how mankind is treating the planet. The science-based ideology of efficiency recognizes no values apart from egoistical greed, which it elevates to a law of nature. According to this view, everything else, and particularly feelings such as awe, love, and generosity, are viewed as mere illusions invented by our genes for better survival. We tend to banish and ignore that which we know in our hearts is true and to cling to ‘facts’ that we fe... posted on Jun 29 2021 (3,834 reads)

the GGCS’s own Dacher Keltner believe there is something else going on as well: awe.  That’s the feeling we get from encountering something vast and wondrous, that challenges our comprehension. In an awed state, our jaw drops and we get goosebumps. But more than that, we have the same physiological effects we see in forest bathing, where heart rate and blood pressure drop. Beyond the physiological, there are prosocial effects to awe: less concern for self, increased generosity, and more cooperation. This might be why research suggests there is less violence when trees are incorporated into low-income housing developments. What a prescription looks like Rese... posted on Oct 25 2021 (6,686 reads)

ancient white pines. I watch the dawn light play on the surface of the water. I come face to face with the same white-tailed deer, watch bald eagles fly upriver, and witness beaver at her breakfast. This land, these waters are teaching me a deeper story. There are songs in my bones, won’t leave me alone Calling for creation And some that fly on the whispering wind Seeking incarnation. Whenever my attention reaches out into the world it is met by a blast of lavish generosity. Whenever I look, I see something wondrous. Whenever I listen, I hear music all around me. Whenever I breathe deep, I smell the exhalations of creation in my nose. It happens ev... posted on Nov 16 2021 (5,687 reads)

radishes, crimson, white, and dark purple, laid out in worm-eaten decrepitude on a chipped platter. “Life is one continuous mistake,” Shunryi Suzuki Roshi, the founder of the San Francisco Zen Center, used to remind his students. When he shopped he sought out the rattiest vegetables at market, all the discarded and maimed culls, and his meditation grew strong, nourished by the continuous mistakes of human life. 7. Be Generous with the Harvest My seventh principle is generosity with the harvest. In the biblical book of Leviticus, one of the laws of Jewish life was not to cut the corners of the fields after the main harvest but to leave them standing so there would... posted on Nov 19 2021 (5,205 reads)

been reflecting on the environmental crisis, and as I do, I find myself in the darkness, as I imagine we all are to some degree. And that says something, something we shouldn’t brush aside or try to make go away. This is a place for sharing truth—and the truth right now is darkness. I sometimes reflect on how I’ve been practicing meditation, morality, restraint, generosity, sharing, and simplicity for more than forty years with as much integrity as possible. I shouldn’t have to feel this bad, this hopeless, this guilty. Yet when I look at this crisis, I’m in the dark. Recently I’ve been on retreat in the woods at Cittaviveka Monastery. Back i... posted on Dec 3 2021 (4,825 reads)

imagination is a magical garden where all plants and creatures find their Eden. Her stories, detailed images, and colours reveal a hidden depth, a reflection of a timeless soul, rich with experience, empathy, love and generosity.” —Paul Destrooper, Artistic Director, Ballet Victoria All photographs by Stefan Cremers.  My winter garden is quiet and lovely, with snow piled onto the shrubs and outlining the trees. For me, this is a time for resting and reflection, reading, drawing, and planning next year’s garden. Gardening has always been a part of my life. As a child, I spent summers playing in my grandfather’s stately and formal gar... posted on Dec 9 2021 (6,256 reads)

only have so many minutes here, but I want to leave you with a thought. Perhaps the economic system is a subset of the ecological system in which we live. Just imagine that. That it’s merely a subset of the ecological system in which we live. Rather than the economy is about taking the ecology and turning it into money. Maybe it’s the other way around. Maybe, and I want to suggest you think about this, that the fact that we even have an economy is given to us by the extraordinary generosity, the infinite bounty of the ecology. The economy is an opportunity to be economical with how we use the gifts of that extraordinary ecological system.” I remember it was like &hell... posted on Mar 12 2022 (2,991 reads)

forever. “I’m your neighbor from down the street, your neighbor from two towns over, I’m an Iowan, an American, I’ve been meaning to tell you that I’m very interested in whatever yard sign or bumper sticker or t-shirt you’ve placed to let strangers know something about you. I’ll bite, I’m biting and asking you please will you tell me more, why don’t you tell me more? I’m here to listen. 9. I think the relationship between my generosity and my greed would flip, and I would give away as much as I possibly could (instead of saving as much as I could) and save as little as I needed to survive. What getting and saving, what sa... posted on Mar 21 2022 (20,475 reads)

over me. And you say, I’m terribly sorry, I can’t do anything about that. And they say, But it’s not fair. And here you are, the people who have said it’s about fairness, and sometimes you have to say, It’s not fair, and we can’t do anything about it. But in the larger sense, when we as adults occupy ourselves with what’s not fair in the world, and we take our children with us and they hear and see and take part in the expressions of our own generosity, our own kindness, our own social activism — when I think about parenting, I think you said it before, about parenting as a spiritual practice. I think of social activism as a spiritu... posted on May 8 2022 (4,381 reads)

to presence — not a deferral of life but a celebration of it, of the myriad marvels that come alive as soon as we become just a little more attentive, a little more appreciative, a little more animated by our own elemental nature as “atoms with consciousness” and “matter with curiosity.” â„–5: hugging a friend Sophie began sharing the illustrated meditations on her Instagram (which is itself a rare island of unremitting delight and generosity amid the stream of hollow selfing we call social media) — each part record of personal gladness, part creative prompt. Delight begets delight — people began sending her their re... posted on May 17 2022 (6,591 reads)

when I became still, I was able to really see what was there. I have come to think about stillness as a prerequisite step for true creation to come into being. An Act of Kindness You'll Never Forget? I feel that my life in some sense is a lynnstich of kindnesses, selfless acts and forgiveness that I was honored to witness around me and be the recipient of. Without love, this world could not move forward an inch, and I know I would be nowhere in my life were it not for the grace and generosity of God and the people around me. There are many moments of unforgettable kindness I experiencedgrand and smallthat I thought of when pondering this question, but one that comes back to me m... posted on May 24 2022 (3,039 reads)

soil, soil structure. And yet — Tippett:The caregivers of the forest. Simard:They are. They’re the fundamental foundation of the forest. They’re the legacy of the forest that helps move it forward. Tippett:There’s this very quiet — there are these quiet sentences that I just want to put back — from you again: “There is a necessary wisdom in the give-and-take of nature, its quiet agreements and search for balance. There is an extraordinary generosity.” Simard:Yeah. You know, species, they don’t live in isolation. It is a world of give-and-take. It is a relationship of silent agreements between species. We all need each ot... posted on Jun 1 2022 (3,908 reads)

imaginary.   Within our working definition, post capitalist realities are possible pathways that share the following principles: Post anthropocentric: beyond the human-centric gaze and species exceptionalism, and towards the valuing of all Life. Trans-rationalist: where rationality is incorporated but not elevated beyond other ways of knowing, sensing and being. Post transactional: where acts of exchange are based on relational acts of genuine connection, reciprocity, generosity, cooperation and solidarity. Anti-patriarchal: where gender or sexual orientation do not determine socio-economic or cultural hierarchies. Post hierarchical: there may be functional, ... posted on Sep 20 2022 (4,563 reads)

from each other and find each other again.” That’s actual, that’s real connection. And anyone who’s married or in a long-term relationship knows that’s what it’s about. It’s about how do we find each other again and again. TS: You teach this practice that we can have a do-over. We can ask, “Are you willing?” And, “I’d love to have a do-over.” And I thought, it takes a lot of humility to do that and a lot of generosity just to even really be like, “I want—.” You really have to be in your heart to say, “I’d like to have a do-over. Is that OK with you?” I think it’s... posted on Sep 21 2022 (3,451 reads)

his heart, people immediately agreed. And he would add, “Instead of giving me one sixth of your land, would you pass it on to your landless brother and sister in your own village here?” He ended up walking 70,000 kilometers. And more than 5 million acres of land were just donated. 5 million acres! That is bigger than the size of Kuwait. That’s twice the size of Lebanon, almost as big as Israel.  No coercion, no compulsion, no loser. Just purely rooted in the virtue of generosity, compassion and connection. In 1955, when he was on the cover of Time Magazine, the caption under his photo simply read: “I’ve come to loot you with love.” Vinoba's... posted on Feb 2 2023 (8,935 reads)