Hope

I’m a pretty mild mannered person, but do something to threaten my kids and you will unleash a lion. Among all the different motivations for living sustainably, thinking about what sort of world I’m leaving for my kids and their kids is the one that moves me most. Any action I take now to live ... Continue Reading »

Awful things happen for no apparent reason. Keep believing in goodness, no matter what. Unstable, crazed, even evil people will continue to perpetrate violence. Refuse to let them infect your mind, no matter what. Our kids are not truly safe anywhere, not even in school. Do ALL you can to protect kids, no matter what. ... Continue Reading »

One of my favorite authors, Barbara Kingsolver, said The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof. I love that. Know what you ... Continue Reading »

Cateura, Paraguay is a town essentially built on top of a landfill. Garbage collectors browse the trash for sellable goods, and children are often at risk of getting involved with drugs and gangs. When orchestra director Szaran and music teacher Favio set up a music program for the kids of Cateura, they soon have more ... Continue Reading »

Hope is the thing with feathers, perched in the soul, and sings the tune–without words, and never stops at all. Emily Dickinson

1500 people died in the Titanic disaster. Every one of those people had a story; a history, grieving family and friends, and lost potential. There were tragic stories, and there were also incredible stories of survival, sometimes against incredible odds. This is part three in a series on lessons from the Titanic. The first lesson ... Continue Reading »

I woke up with a sinking feeling on the day of the 100 year commemoration of the Titanic tragedy. When I checked my tweet stream, I found the History Channel’s real time Titanic tweets. The tweets followed the fateful steps leading up to and including the sinking of the Titanic. It was powerful to follow ... Continue Reading »

In the movie Hannah and Her Sisters, Woody Allen is obsessing about Nietzsche’s theory of eternal recurrence, which says that we’re doomed to repeat the past over and over again. “Great,” Allen moans, “that means I’ll have to sit through the Ice Capades again. It’s not worth it.” In Nietzsche’s, more serious, words, If given ... Continue Reading »

Dear God, In this one moment I recognize that there is within me a perfect Self: A Self that is not dysfunctional; A Self that is not weak but strong; That is not limited, but unlimited; That is not small, but huge; That is not in pain but in peace; That is not faithless and ... Continue Reading »

This article is about creating vision boards. For more information on visions, see here. A vision board (also called a Treasure Map or a Visual Explorer or Creativity Collage) is typically a poster board on which you paste or collage images that you’ve torn out from various magazines. It’s simple. The idea behind this is that ... Continue Reading »

A book report on a famous person. She chooses Anne Frank. She has never heard of Anne Frank but the book has a picture of a little girl on the cover. She is a little girl. I leave her to leaf through the pages at her own pace, to discover her own meaning about something ... Continue Reading »

It all felt particularly hard that day. I lay flattened by the weight of it all, buried with barely a pulse – until a whisper brushed by my ear, barely audible as doubt and disbelief smothered each word… “The sun’ll come out Tomorrow Bet your bottom dollar That tomorrow There’ll be sun! “ Yet, it ... Continue Reading »

Love prevails despite overwhelming evidence – thorns have roses, tears have heart and trauma has strength. You have incredible resilience to get back up after a setback, dust yourself off and keep moving forward with grace. In time you find that there is wisdom in wounds, perspective in pain and growth in grief. As much ... Continue Reading »

Twigs, sticks, grey and lifeless. Pretending to be dead, fooling me. I’m easily fooled. Sharp, brittle, and ugly. Yes, like the duckling. You know the story. Transformation, ugly turns beautiful. We all finally rejoice because pretty is better. But this isn’t a story with a perfect ending. It’s a perfect cycle with no real ending. ... Continue Reading »