Things can go awry, often when you least expect it. You lose your job or your 401K through no fault of your own. Someone you love gets deported and ends up in a foreign detention center. The politician you voted for, believing that he would make things better for you, ends up doing just the opposite. Challenging things are happening lately, many of which are simply … [Read more...]

Not long ago, singer Julia Price was getting some exercise, running along her usual path down a Chicago street, when she heard an older man yelling – loudly enough for her to hear through her headphones – “Sexy lady, hey hey hey sexy lady!” He kept screaming it, but she ignored him and continued to run. The well-dressed man, who appeared to be on his lunch break from an … [Read more...]

In his seminal book Grist for the Mill, Ram Dass shared his experience of teaching meditation to prison inmates, including those on death row. He observed that the inmates condemned to die welcomed the teachings. They were so serene that he felt humbled to be in their presence. But when he went to the cell blocks of those with life sentences, the inmates harassed him and … [Read more...]

During a particularly harsh Arctic winter in December 1984, native folks near the Bering Sea spotted over 2,000 beluga whales trapped by thick ice. Masses of frozen water were rapidly closing in on the mammals, squeezing them tightly together. For weeks, rescuers patiently hacked through the ice as best as they could, feeding the belugas with frozen fish. And thankfully, they … [Read more...]

Some years ago, writer Elizabeth Gilbert was stuck on a crosstown bus in New York City during rush hour. As she recalled, “The bus was filled with cold, tired people who were deeply irritated – with one another, with the rainy, sleety weather, with the world itself. Two men barked at each other about a shove that might or might not have been intentional. A pregnant woman got … [Read more...]