Sharon Salzberg's advice for difficult conversations with family at Thanksgiving? Practice listening from a place of generosity and love — whether you agree or not.
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In doing good community work, Courtney observes, our focus on ingenuity, success, and failure is sometimes misplaced. Instead, she looks to her mother and the film festival she founded for guidance — on providing for our communities with humility and unfussy boldness.
A poem from David Whyte on escaping the noise of the world, and listening instead to “questions that can make or unmake a life.”
We all have habits and histories that lie in shadow, uncomfortable to face. But what if we went beyond acknowledging our shadow side and reclaimed it for the better?
There’s wisdom on the well-worn phrase “Think global, act local” — but does it come with a spiritual cost? On the heartbreaking tension between local loyalty and the greater good.
We never would have guessed it, but Omid is a total gearhead. What a jaunt in a convertible dream car taught him about seeking out the luminous moments in the mundane — that while we can’t all speed around in expensive convertibles, we can find the joy of driving the family car with all the windows rolled down.
Humor and poetry are therapeutic, and together they can be the ultimate balm. A verse from Ron Koertge — on a happy misunderstanding about the order of Carmelites.
We crave the closure of explanations and answers, but what if we were enlivened by the questions themselves? On the evolution of his own faith — from a hunger for certainty to awe at the ineffable.
We equate adulthood with “having our shit together" — but there’s just as much clutter and confusion behind every successful grown-up we admire.
To feast on Mom's home cooking is its own blessing — but sometimes, traveling with it is a different story. On the particular frustration of traveling while brown and Muslim, and on food as a vehicle for love, not judgment.
For when the world's trouble starts to overwhelm, a poem from William Stafford on savoring and safeguarding the refuge of life's quiet, peaceful moments.
To change another to better fit our own ideals is not love; it is domination. Instead, to truly love is to engage joyfully in our differences and to bring out the best in our unique potential — in personal relationships, and in community.
The fruit of working for racial justice lies in the discomfort and the mess — but only if we acknowledge the lessons those tensions have to teach us. On negotiating the tricky path of making change with authenticity and constant self-reflection.
It’s easy to respond to vitriol in kind. But, our columnist asks, what if we looked to examples of our better nature and chose to reflect back a spirit of kindness, instead?
Parker finds comfort in a poem from Carrie Newcomer — on learning how to occupy our space in the world with the wholeness and grace of trees.
#MeToo testimonies are flooding our social media feeds. And for men, realizing complicity can be uncomfortable. Our columnist sees this collective discomfort as a spiritual challenge — one that men must meet earnestly, first in themselves, and then in each other.
We might laugh at the clumsiness of the question, posed so often to people with brown skin in the U.S. But Omid Safi asks us to consider what we’re really saying when we ask this question — and how we might expand our imagination about what American identity is.
Our columnist turns a critical eye to his own convictions about race and white privilege. He finds there’s always room to face our hubris — and in that humbling experience, we find hope to do better the next time around.
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The Pause is a monthly Saturday morning companion to all things On Being, with heads-up on new episodes, special offerings, event invitations, recommendations, and reflections from Krista all year round.
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