Reading Archive (Hope and Optimism)
We Were Made for These Times
Clarissa Pinkola Estes
My friends, do not lose heart. We were made for these times. I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered. They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world now. ...
Inner World of Moods
Patty de Llosa
“Give me a place to stand on," said the Greek mathematician Archimedes, “and I can move the world.” He was talking about his invention of using pulleys and levers to raise ...
Vulnerability is the Path
Brene Brown
Vulnerability isn't good or bad: it's not what we call a dark emotion, nor is it always a light, positive experience. Vulnerability is the core of all emotions and feelings. To feel is to be...
Small Wonder
Barbara Kingsolver
Barry Lopez writes that if we hope to succeed in the endeavor of protecting natures other than our own, "it will require that we reimagine our lives.... It will require of many of us a humanity w...
Honor the Seed
Jim Ewing
Honor the seed. The words seem so simple. This is knowledge that was passed down to me from my father. Yet, today, those simple words — and sentiments — are so forgotten. My father, a b...
The Messiah Is One Of Us
Megan McKenna
Once upon a time there was a wise abbot of a monastery who was the friend of an equally wise rabbi. This was in the old country, long ago, when times were always hard, but just then they were even wor...
Restoring Balance and Meaning in Ourselves
Alan Briskin
During a time of great drought, a Taoist master was asked by members of a village if he could help bring rain to their dry fields. They confessed trying many other approaches before reaching out to hi...
A Newly Rich Life With Yourself
Martha Nussbaum
Do not despise your inner world. That is the first and most general piece of advice I would offer. Our society is very outward-looking, very taken up with the latest new object, the latest piece of go...
Causes Of Happiness
Dalai Lama
The purpose of life is to strive for happiness. Every sentient being has the right to survive; this means having a desire for happiness or comfort: that’s why sentient beings strive to surviv...
Laziness As Our Personal Teacher
Pema Chodron
The path of awakening is a process. It’s a process of gradually learning to become intimate with our so-called obstacles. So rather than feeling discouraged by laziness, we could look into our l...
An Undying Faith of the Infinite in Us
Rabindranath Tagore
When we watch a child trying to walk, we see its countless failures; its successes are but few. If we had to limit our observation within a narrow space of time, the sight would be cruel. ...
Our Teachers in Nature
Elisabet Sahtouris
Looking at living systems over time, I came to understand that they all go through a cycle that's very like our psychological maturation cycles. We start with a unity, we're undifferentiated, we come...
Love is the Source of Fearlessness
Margaret Wheatley
Some of the prison bars that we have constructed for ourselves are our fear of losing our jobs. Our fear of not being liked. Our need for approval. Our desire to make important changes but not have to...
Three Millimeters of the Universe
Daniel Gottlieb
Dear Sam, One night in the hospital, a friend came to visit me. I told her I didn't think I could go on anymore. What I was feeling went beyond despair. It was a loss of hope — of everyth...
Search Itself Changes You
Richard Rose
"This whole planet is fiction," he said. "A picture show. Sometimes it can be a rather engrossing picture show, but that doesn't make it real. Our heads are programmed to get puffed up with all kinds...