I woke at 3 a.m. the other night, as I’ve often done in the turmoil of these past many months, and scrolled YouTube for something soothing to help me fall back to sleep. I stumbled upon a conversation with the Vietnamese Buddhist teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, and noticed that his retreat center, Plum Village, has an app. I downloaded it and listened to a few of his talks, as well as one by Sister Dang Nghiem about using a meditation bell. She said it saved her life. Read more on Lion’s Roar.

Something extraordinary may be happening amid all the more trying and traumatic things that are part of living through a global pandemic. In our increasing stillness, there are moments of dropping into a deeper place within ourselves—a place that might lead to a radical shift in perspective on life as we lived it before COVID-19, and as we might wish to live it when we emerge from this time. Read more on Thrive Global.

I was walking my dog through the woods last week listening to a talk by one of my favorite spiritual teachers. There were several inches of fresh-fallen snow on the ground that kept my 9-month-old pup deliriously happy. No one else was around. And, in my ears, I heard the voice of my teacher speaking from several hundred miles away. Read more on Gratefulness.org

Nine-thousand feet up Mount Shasta during a late summer climb, I was surprised to hear the sound of a cell phone. Read more on Elephant Journal.

One thing I have learned to be true is that it helps to try every day, every moment you can, to listen to your instinct. To still the voices in your own head. Take a break from the torrent of advice we are inundated with—and, Lord knows, from the news. To do everything you can to quiet all that so you can hear your own inner voice. Because here’s the thing: As well-meaning and even wise as good advice may be, it is often disempowering. It assumes the answers are out there somewhere else—or more pointedly, with someone else. Someone with credentials. Someone who has authority or expertise. Someone who is a professional at whatever issue it is you are facing. Read more on Thrive Global.

I was driving home with my sons one day when we began talking about what place on earth each of us most wanted to visit.

"The top of the world!" said my nearly always exuberant 4-year-old. Was he thinking of the Himalayas, I wondered, or the Arctic?

"The Arctic!" he said. He wanted to go to the Arctic, where he could see snow and ice and dog races.

"Well," said my 9-year-old, "the ice may not be there much longer." Read more on The Christian Science Monitor.

I’ve spent nearly a decade thinking about why people get stuck on climate change: stuck in debates, denial, what looks like indifference, and the awful discomfort that comes with the question, "But what can I do?" Read more on Vox.

Despite the economic risks of climate change, the response to global warming tends to be “flight” rather than “fight.” Experts on the economy have recently called on the business community to lead the way in reducing the risks of climate change—saying that inaction would lead to significant economic costs in the decades ahead. But what stands in the way of climate action isn’t just political deadlock or financial conflicts of interest. Read more on Forbes.

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