Laddership To The Stars... Posted by Tom Mahon, May 19 2013 A glass piece I created several years ago, re-discovered while cleaning house recently: "Stairway to the stars. And return." It reminded me of the notion of "laddership". I invite you to visit my GlassRoots Gallery to see other words and images (www.glassrootsgallery.me). Please enjoy!   

Seven People Cutting Stones Posted by iJourney.org, May 19 2013 This week's iJourney reading is by Roger Walsh titled 'Seven People Cutting Stones': For several weeks strange sounds had drifted over the mountains from the neighboring valley. There was much talk in the village about what these noises could be, but no one could make sense of them. Even the village elders had never heard anything like them. Finally one of the young men of the village was chosen to cross the mountains and see what was going on.   After two days of hiking he reached the mountaintop and saw in the valley far below a hive of activity with dozens of people working. As he drew closer, he saw a line of people, each with a huge stone in front of them that they were hammering and chiseling.    When he finally reached the valley floor he approached a young man at one end of the line and asked, “What are you doing?”   “Huh!” grunted the young man. “I’m killing time until I get off work.”   Puzzled, ... [Read more]

Wavy Gravy: Saint Misbehavin Posted by DailyGood.org, May 19 2013 "I was asked, in the mid-seventies, to go the Children's Hospital in Oakland and cheer up kids. On the way out the door of my house, someone handed me a red, rubber nose. I discovered it enabled me to get out of myself and be entertaining to the kids. After awhile, I began to paint my face up as a clown. I worked with kids almost every day for about seven years. I had to go to a political rally at Peoples' Park and I didn't have time to take off my clown stuff. I discovered that the police didn't want to hit me anymore. Clowns are safe." Wavy Gravy, the MC of Woodstock, hippie icon, beloved peace activist, humanitarian and clown shares more about his colorful journey in this interview. [Full Story]

Ajay, My 10 Minute Teacher Posted by Jitu Mishra, May 19 2013 On a fine summer morning I left Ahmedabad and drove all the way to Pedhamani, a village on the bank of River Sabarmati, about 90 km from home. Throughout the way I had been engaged with my mind on the prospects of my contribution on education. As I reached Pedhamani, I was greeted warmly by Jaldeepbhai, a man in his late 20s. With relation to maturity even a man more than 50 years old would have no match with Jaldeepbhai. When I revealed my obsession of teaching to village kids, Jaldeepbhai gently said: “in the process of interaction with kids you might discover yourself as a student and children as your teachers”. About 2 hours later when I joined the kids in an informal workshop of clay modelling, I met Ajay, a boy of hardly 10/11 years old, and a student of class 5. He became my teacher for 10 min and ... Read Full Story

Three Short Rickshaw Stories & Generosity Posted by Ram Upadhyay, May 18 2013 Three short rickshaw stories & generosity (one of them is about Udaybhai in Ahmedabad)... Posted by Nithya Shanti on Facebook (who recently attended the Awakin gathering in Pune!). Three Amazing Rickshaw Stories... Yesterday a few friends and I began sharing auto-rickshaw stories. Now it is common in India to complain about how rude and corrupt rickshaw drivers are. However our stories revealed a very different side to these people who ferry us across busy, smoke filled roads each day. The first story was shared by a friend who said that he has made it a practice to give every rickshaw driver TWICE the amount he is asked for. Once when he did this the driver was very confused and asked him why he was giving him twice the fare. My friend replied, "I would like you to keep the money, and if ever you see an old or sick person needing a ride on ... Read Full Story

Our Forest Call Guest Today Was ... Posted by Vinya Sankaran Vasu, May 18 2013 Our forest call guest today was Sheetal. Sheetal mentioned how much Wednesdays at Santa Clara have nourished and inspired him. It is no surprise that he started Awakin circles in Pune and spread the love :). A few weeks ago, his wife Khushmita has posted a beautiful blog entry about Wednesdays at Ahmedabad and the inspiration Madhu and Meghna imbibed from the awakin circles they were at in Santa Clara. One act of service inspires another and another until what is left is circles of love that fill our world with ripples of more circles of love…

Elemental: Water, Film & The Human Spirit Posted by DailyGood.org, May 18 2013 Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee is a director, producer, musician and composer who set out on a journey around the world to film a documentary about water -- that integral substance that connects us all and sustains life. In this conversation, Emmanuel talks about his practice of focusing on the process rather than the outcome, staying authentic to himself and those he films, and trusting the ripples. He reflects on what the making of the film taught him and how, much like a river, it encouraged him to let go and flow with his journey. "Elemental" is currently screening in the United States and across the globe. [Full Story]

Share My Dabba Posted by Shalini Sahai, May 18 2013 A new campaign in Mumbai uses the famous lunchbox network to feed the street children of the city.  Some would define it as “social innovation” – using an existing infrastructure for social impact. What is Share My Dabba? Share My Dabba is an initiative to get uneaten food in dabbas (lunch boxes) to hungry children on the street. It’s not charity but an attempt to create a practical, every day system for food relief. Why Share My Dabba? 300 million children across the world will go hungry today. 200 thousand in Mumbai, with 2 starving to death. All this while we leave behind food. In the dabbawala system itself, out of the 120 tons of food transported, approximately 16 tons is wasted. Wouldn’t you rather share this with a hungry child than throw it in the bin? How does it work? On a diet? Not feeling that hungry? Skipped lunch? More food than ... Read Full Story

Unconditional Income Experiment Posted by Tapan Parikh, May 17 2013 A very interesting experiment of Uncondition Income -- The idea of giving money to the poor without asking for anything in return startled some. "They told us the men would use the money to get drunk, and the women to buy jewelery and saris," said Dewala. "But it’s a middle-class prejudice that the poor don’t know how to use money sensibly. The study showed that a regular income allows people to act responsibly. They know their priorities. When something is rare, people measure its value. (Anyway, in tribal villages, people distil their own liquor.) The main advantage is regularity. It makes it possible to organize, save and borrow. The principle is that a small amount of money generates a great deal of energy in a village."

Dennis Dentists And Giving Posted by Amit Dungarani, May 17 2013 Dan Pink asks Adam Grant: "Okay, let me just get this out of the way. People named Dennis are almost twice as likely to become dentists as people with comparably popular names. What the heck is going on here and why should we care?"  Adam responds: "The evidence here is very controversial, but it does turn out that we’re surprisingly drawn to careers—and people, places, and products—that remind us of our own names. If your name is Dennis or Denise, when you first learn about dentists, you might have a slightly more positive feeling because it taps into something familiar that’s part of your identity. Research by Brett Pelham and his colleagues suggests that this is true for a wide range of names, especially if our names are rare and we identify strongly with them. The self-similarity effect extends to helping: we’re more likely to give time and money to people who ... Read Full Story