Years ago a song by TR Ritchie stopped me in my tracks. The words of “Whitebark” can still bring me to tears. I’ve weathered storms I cannot count To make this world my home In a place where small and twisted things Can split the hardest stone When I photographed these trees around Oakland,...
I’ve been hiding out the last few days. A cold whacked me Saturday, and although I tried hard through Sunday to pretend it was going to disappear overnight, by Monday I had to cave in. So I’ve been lying low. Still, yesterday afternoon was glorious. I just had to take a walk, and that’s...
Canada’s Conservative government figures building more prisons and slapping more people into them will reduce the crime rate. Since crime is at its lowest in over thirty years, that’s a pretty peculiar priority. On the other hand, Labrador’s Happy Valley-Goose Bay Correctional Centre has a more progressive idea. Inmates who have served two-thirds of...
We know intuitively that kindness makes the world brighter. Now science is confirming what we know in our hearts. University of Maryland Assistant Professor Kurt Gray asks a lot of interesting questions as head of the Mind Perception and Morality Lab. In his talk for TED, Gray starts with the story of Bruce Anderson....
When I watched this video by Andrea Dorfman, matching so perfectly the song “Art” by Tanya Davis, I had a grin plastered all over my face. This collaboration is pure delight. My joy in creating started with slippery mud when I was barely crawling. Poor Mother tried hard to keep me indoors once she...
More than one country is claiming the 7 billionth baby born in the world. In Manila she’s Danica May Camacho. In Kaliningrad, Russia, he is Piotr Nikolayev. In Santo Domingo she is Charleny Mota. In a world with so many people, thousands of newborns can claim the title of 7 billionth baby born on...
Northern Ireland storyteller Liz Weir posted a link on her Facebook page that made me cheer. The BBC Northern Ireland post tells of a project to string 10,000 hand-painted flags along Belfast’s Peace Line. The purpose went beyond the easier one of breaking the Guinness World Record for the “longest continuous line of flags”....
Sometimes this brain of mine is like one of those old bumper-car rides. Thoughts whip around, smack into each other, careen off in all directions, and generally maintain an entirely undisciplined messiness. Meditation has always seemed an unreachable goal. Martin Boroson’s One-Moment Meditation: stillness for people on the go, makes me believe there’s hope...
When friends are going through rough times or hoping mightily for something to come into their lives, I like to light candles for them. And if I don’t have a candle handy, I still like to repeat their names and my wishes for them before I drift off to sleep. Then one day I...
When Oshea Israel shot Laramiun Byrd, two families were plunged into mourning. The death of a child is excruciating for a parent. When that child is murdered, the loss cuts beyond grief. Anger mixes with pain, in a dance between forgiveness and retribution. Mary Johnson, Laramiun’s mother, found solace in her faith and in...
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