Bach’s Ode to Joy got us thinking about how JOY works when when life throws in a giant monkey wrench and we find ourselves navigating darkness we never imagined…,
Read More
Life’s a Mess, Channel ‘Pura Vida’
Understanding the nuances of “pura vida” made me wonder what if, in the face of all the chaos and uncertainty and rage and sadness, we were to embrace it as our daily mantra?
Read More
Pat Steir: How to Occupy This Time on Earth
Pat Steir is one of our favorite artists for the dazzling beauty and surprise of her work. She speaks eloquently about the dark time we find ourselves in.
Read More
Kevin Kelly’s 68 Bits of Seriously Good Advice
To celebrate his 68th birthday, Kevin Kelly compiled some of the gold he’s learned over his seven decades. The brilliant list provides a roadmap to wholeness and positivity.
Read More
Thomas Ashcraft’s Hopeful Reminder in Fearful Times
Over the years, artist-scientist Thomas Ashcraft has made artful iterations of a message that we’ve found deeply heartening. Especially so now, in this anxious time…
Read More
Lessons in Slowing Down (Pico Iyer, Vija Celmins, W.S. Merwin…)
The past week or so, the same message arrived through a variety of sources: in an email sent by a friend, a poem stumbled on on instagram, a notice of a museum exhibition…
Read More
Slomo Followed THIS Principle To Change His Life and Transcend the Trappings of the Material World
The impetus for Dr. John Kitchen’s radical life change into the skater Slomo was the answer a very old man gave him when he asked, “What is the secret to living so long?”
Read More
Brené Brown’s Life Changing Question: Do You Believe People Are Doing the Best They Can?
When Brené Brown asked herself, ‘Do you believe people are doing the best they can? ‘ she admits to answering ‘Fuck no!’ until she explored it further, which yielded pure, transformative gold.
Read More
Editing Those Ubiquitous Lists of Reminders Yields Potent Scraps of Wisdom
Over the years, we’ve come to look more closely at the lists of reminders about how to live that we find in our internet wanderings, to decide just what is truly useful. Here’s how we curated this one.
Read More
Oliver Sacks: Nature is a Therapy More Powerful Than Medication
An essay in a posthumously published book by the very wise Oliver Sacks gives a scientist’s view of the healing power of Nature and gardens.
Read More
Seinfeld on Why Things Make You Happy or Not (and Why He Loves Advertising)
We are knocked out by Jerry Seinfeld’s radically truth-telling, wise, funny —Is he kidding or what?— send up of advertising and his clarifying principle of things and happiness.
Read More
Don’t Know What You’re Doing and Think Everyone Else Has It All Together?
We’ve lost count of the times we’ve thought “We don’t know what we are doing!” We got some perspective from 4th-century Chinese Taoist philosopher/poet Chuang Tzu…
Read More
What Maurice Sendak Discovered About Aging and His Tender Blessing
In this animated clip Christophe Niemann illustrated from Terry Gross’ last interview with Maurice Sendak a year before he passed away, the author of Where the Wild Things Are, shares some very tender wisdom…
Read More
“I like to be like a big oak tree”: Willie Stargell via Mister Rogers
Sublime: the first 25 seconds of this Mister Rogers’ interview with Pittsburgh Pirate baseball player Willie Stargell.
Read More
Balancing Advice from Thích Nhất Hạnh
When we read this remarkable quote from Thích Nhất Hạnh, first we thought, What great advice for caregivers. Then we thought, What great advice for being with anyone…
Read More
A Charleston Pastor Comforts a Pittsburgh Rabbi and Teaches Us About the Healing Power of Presence
Rev Manning described the Ministry of Presence that became the heart of his church’s mission and teaching after the violence it experienced in 2015. And he showed it in action.
Read More
Practical REAL-Life Wisdom from the Very Wise Ann Lamott
When she turned 61, Anne Lamott decided to “take the opportunity to write down every single thing I know, as of today.” It is a seriously good distillation of decades of living from the author of Bird by Bird.
Read More
The Deep Internal Realizations to be Had from Fooling Around
In his wonderful TED talk, Gever Tully describes the “deep internal realizations” to be had from having the freedom to fool around, tinker, improvise…
Read More
Honoring 9/11
Seventeen years after I watched from my window as the twin towers fell, I remember a powerful message sent from a friend in Italy.
Read More
Sister Corita Kent’s Visual Meditations on the Moment
Artist and renown educator Sister Corita Kent’s 1977 series around the theme of ‘the moment’ makes a heartening meditation…
Read More