Imagine a world where leaders’ decisions are heartfelt and guided by conscious thoughtfulness; a world where societies benefit from intuitive, collective wisdom and where scientific discovery and technological innovation is derived from heart-centered minds. If this vision resonates with your soul, you are not alone. For the past nineteen years, ISSEEEM has united healers, teachers, researchers and pioneers seeking to bridge science and spirit.   Read more...

Juliette dreams of someday marrying a nice man. One unlike the monster who poured acid on her in a jealous rage in July 2007. We are sitting with this young woman, just 19 years old, on a porch near a church in Kampala, Uganda. Juliette is beautiful on the side of her face that she shows to the world. Her eyes are bright and she has a radiant smile. The other side of her face she covers with long braids. It prevents the fearful looks from those who pass her by. It covers the half of her face that was destroyed in the brutal acid attack that sent her to the hospital for five months and disfigured her for life. “I open?” she asks. She lifts her hair to show what remains and tells her story.   Read more...

Senta Yamada was born in Fukuoka Japan in 1924, and he is the founder of Kikusui Kai. He studied Judo with its founder, Dr. Jigaro Kano, who sent him to study Aikido with its founder. Recently I had the pleasure and honor of meeting Senta Yamada sensei for the first time. What follows is a loose translation of Yamada sensei's words, embroidered by the larger picture I sensed he was pointing toward. Uncharacteristically for a Japanese person, he moved his hands as he spoke, to portray the movements he perceived as inherent in the mind of Aikido and the mind of water. You might try doing the same as you read the words that follow. Take your time, breathe freely and move your body so as to feel the movement and mind that the words suggest.   Read more...

If you’ve never heard of Gabriel of Urantia - musician, author and spiritual leader - that’s because the powers that be have tried very hard to suppress his truth, environmental and social advocacy. He fights injustice through his books and music, and his words are powerful against greed and religious hypocrisy. You might say that he’s like the Spike Lee of music!

Gabriel of Urantia started singing on the street corners of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was 8 years old and was a professional nightclub entertainer at age 18, until a spiritual transformation happened to him at age 24. At that time he began to write spiritual music with commercial-sounding melodies.   Read more...

I’m reading A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future (Daniel H. Pink) at the moment.   Read more...

Wall Street traders gave us the global economic meltdown. Oil futures traders gave us $4.00 a gallon gasoline. This Earth Day, Swaptree traders will be helping to reforest the Atlantic Forest in Brazil, one of the world’s most endangered regions. Which kind of trader would you rather be?

If you’d like to do your part to help the Earth, visit Swaptree.com on Earth Day, April 22, and start swapping books, DVDs, CDs, and video games, for free. With each completed trade, Swaptree will contribute $1.00 to Plant a Billion Trees, a conservation initiative created by The Nature Conservancy. Every dollar helps The Nature Conservancy and its partners plant one tree in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest.   Read more...

Seeking higher ground and an escape from the chaos of everyday life? Gravitate towards a more organic lifestyle and harmonize with nature at Finca Bellavista, a sustainable treehouse community set within the spectacular backdrop of the south Pacific coastal mountains of Costa Rica!

Perched overlooking the Golfo Dulce and nurtured by two whitewater rivers, the location of this unique enclave is unmatched in its magnificence and pulses with life. While it feels a world away, this 350-acre preserve boasts easy access to some of the country’s most stunning natural assets, like National Parks, isolated beaches and epic mountainscapes. Those with a taste for adventure will feel right at home amongst the multitude of outdoor activities available nearby, such as windsurfing, hiking, birdwatching, diving, surfing, kayaking and deep-sea fishing.   Read more...

Although spying joy is still easy to do if you look for it, these days it seems more challenging to really relax into the moment and let the joy we see soak down into our bones. At least, it seems a bit tougher to me.

Take yesterday, for example. After sleeping in until 7am and savoring a morning mocha, I check my email for the first time in a few days and find a heartfelt note from a friend saying she is closing the doors of her yoga center. As if that, among the daily barrage of bad news and double-digit unemployment, wasn't enough; I opened mail and found the neighborhood hardware store is also closing its doors. Driving through town I see so many more signs shouting "for lease" or "going out of business sale." It's moments like these that challenge me to remember the truth.   Read more...

I remember when I was in high school, looking forward to college, I thought independence from my parents, thousands of new people to meet and access to all the arts, shows and parties I could handle would make me the happiest person on the planet. I remember, years earlier, staring at the ashes of half of my family's house - the half containing my room and all my belongings.

College was good. After a while, though, it was kind of average. As for all of my possessions burning up, a year later it was only a curious fact from my past. Many researchers have found that people significantly overestimate the emotional impact of both positive and negative future events.   Read more...

Walking up to the PLUSAA wheelchair factory in Leon, Nicaragua, you wouldn’t think that it is a place that changes lives every day. The floor of the workshop is concrete and peppered with cracks. Dust from the dirt courtyard outside leaves everything covered with a fine coat of brown earth. The walls are mostly bare, except for the tools that hang neatly in their place.

PLUSAA provides custom-made and fitted wheelchairs at little or no cost to people with disabilities. It is one of the few alternatives to the used, donated American wheelchairs that are sent to Nicaragua in huge quantities every year. These used wheelchairs, while donated with the best of intentions, can have negative impacts on the health and psyche of people with disabilities and often end up in wheelchair graveyards, massive areas where hundreds of broken wheelchairs find their final resting place.   Read more...