Sangha of Auspicious Companions

June 30, 2019

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Farewell to Jean Vanier

Jean Vanier, philosopher, theologian, humanist and founder of L’Arche departed our physical world on May 7, 2019 at the age of 90. His heart, his love and his compassion live on in the hundreds of communities that have sprung from his love and compassion for humanity. This world wide movement is based on Vanier’s belief that people with disabilities are teachers, rather that burdens to society. { read more }

Be The Change

Reflect on your beliefs about others, is their a group of people that you tend to marginalize – how can you change your perspective – to see the value and gifts that they bring to you, to the world? { more }

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June 29, 2019

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Coastal Communication: A Mother and Son’s Moving Collaboration

When New York based author and social activist, Jane Jackson suffered an aneurysm, it affected both her memory and language skills. Over the months that followed she recovered through the unconditional support of her family, and the power of poetry. As a way to promote healing and reestablish language skills, she and her son began writing poems together. The poems were crafted line by line in emails sent back and forth across the continent. Together they wrote about the simple memories they shared and of the beautiful and difficult moments they were experiencing as her mind regained facility with words. Their unique collaboration resulted in a book of over 70 poems titled Coastal Communication. The following excerpts from it reveal not just the healing power of words, but also the power of love to find a way through our greatest challenges. { read more }

Be The Change

Send a note of appreciation to Jane and Aaron for their inspiring collaboration. { more }

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June 28, 2019

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What We Should Know About Animals

It’s easy to assume that animals experience happiness (just think of a dog wagging its tail), but what about higher-level emotions and qualities like selflessness, empathy, or even love? In “Beyond Words: How Animals Think and Feel,” conservationist Carl Safina shares stories from decades of observing animals and combines it with new brain research to paint a picture of animals’ emotional landscape that sounds remarkably like our own. In this interview, he shares a story about a wolf who selflessly tries to distract other wolves from attacking his sister, and a whale who saves a seal. He also suggests that animals’ experience of life is not a limited version of our own, but rather a more vivid one. These theories are just part of a growing body of evidence that there is much more to our living environment than previously thought, and knowing this, we cannot continue on the same path. { read more }

Be The Change

Take time today to observe animals and imagine what’s going on inside their minds.

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June 27, 2019

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A Primer for Forgetting

“We live in a culture that prizes memory–how much we can store, the quality of what’s preserved, how we might better document and retain the moments of our life while fighting off the nightmare of losing all that we have experienced. But what if forgetfulness were seen not as something to fear–be it in the form of illness or simple absentmindedness–but rather as a blessing, a balm, a path to peace and rebirth? A Primer for Forgetting is a remarkable experiment in scholarship, autobiography, and social criticism by the author of the classics The Gift and Trickster Makes This World. It forges a new vision of forgetfulness by assembling fragments of art and writing from the ancient world to the modern, weighing the potential boons forgetfulness might offer the present moment as a creative and political force. It also turns inward, using the author’s own life and memory as a canvas upon which to extol the virtues of a concept too long taken as an evil.” Here is an excerpt from Lewis Hyde’s latest work. { read more }

Be The Change

For more inspiration join this Saturday’s Awakin Call with Lewis Hyde: On Creativity, the Commons and Forgetting. More details and RSVP info here. { more }

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June 26, 2019

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The Table of Voices

Richard Kamler was drawn to art’s potential to touch people deeply and, in that way, bring about real change. In this interview, he talks about the evolution of his work with prisoners. “During that first year, I began to change – dramatically. I began to really think about art, and in a much different way than I did when I went to school. I began to see art as something that really could reveal things, reveal inner aspects about one’s life – and certainly that could heal.” { read more }

Be The Change

For more inspiration, check out this story on “Buddhas on Death Row” — a stunning collaboration that shares the art, story and spirit of a young man who has been in solitary confinement for over 15 years. { more }

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June 25, 2019

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Cellist Plays Bach in the Shadow of the US-Mexico Border

With powerful words, performing music by Bach, renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma reminds us of music’s unique power to connect and unite everyone. At the border between sister cities Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, he quotes from the poem by Emma Lazarus on the base of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free…”. Like the Statue of Liberty, Yo-Yo Ma and his music exhort us to remember that “in culture we build bridges, not walls.” { read more }

Be The Change

Read more about this moving performance’s power to cross the divide.
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June 24, 2019

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Meet Fadak: Australia’s Inspiring Refugee Advocate

Fadak Alfayadh spent her childhood in Iraqa country that shifted from one world to an entirely different, unliveable one seemingly overnight. 15 years ago Fadak sought refuge with her family in Australia, where they received little support from the system but were welcomed by their community in Dandenong, Victoria. Today, Fadak is paving the way for the refugees who have arrived in her wake. Her Meet Fadak tours combat the misperceptions that the Australian community holds about those seeking asylum and the narratives we so often hear in mainstream media, while her work as a community lawyer helps support and settle refugees so they can have a more supportive experience than she and her family did. { read more }

Be The Change

Make time this week to make someone feel welcome, whether at home, at work or out in the world.

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