Miscellaneous
Soul Messenger: Michael Franti
I met Michael Franti in Amsterdam seven years ago. The Netherlands was still in shock after the brutal murder of director Theo van Gogh, who was shot and stabbed by a Muslim fundamentalist. Franti was performing at a literary music festival in The Hague, and I was amazed at the ease with which he Read More...
Children full of life
What is it that we want our children to learn in school? It was the question that came to mind after watching the documentary Children Full of Life (link to part 1 of 5). The documentary follows the Japanese teacher Toshiro Kanamori and his class of fourth-grade children in a primary school in Read More...
Microfinance Must Return to its Roots in Charity
Dewi Gigengack | November/December 2012 Issue What’s wrong with microcredit? “The original idea to help poor people by providing a small start-up loan is a good one. But the goal has increasingly shifted away from charity, and the problem now is that the sector has become totally profit driven. Read More...
Spontaneous Evolution Event with Bruce Lipton
I went to the seminar with two hopeful expectations: to get some inspiration and to feel some enlightenment. Both expectations were not only met, but exceeded. When I saw on my Twitter feed Dr. Bruce Lipton was speaking at a conference in San Francisco, I knew I had to go. After having read and Read More...
Where Do You Find Meaning?
In an online kindness class I facilitated not too long ago, I asked this question of the participants: Where do you find meaning? I gave them a little exercise to help, too, which was to choose a relatively small, personal object and place it somewhere so they’d encounter it each morning. I asked Read More...
Peace Recipe
This past month I received a lovely email from a woman named Monique Constant in Canada who’s an Odereader. She’d read one of my posts and wanted to thank me. Very nice when that happens. But then … she went on … “There is something I would like to share with you, I wrote this Read More...
Perfect Day: Music as a Mode of Travel
September 2, 2009 was a perfect day. And by some miracle, I found a way to share it with you. That day I was on a songwriting retreat at a tiny, beloved island in the border waters of Minnesota and Ontario. The days are long there. I awaken before dawn and slip into the cool, still water before Read More...
A Harvest of Peace
I read an American proverb the other day that got me thinking. “A harvest of peace is produced from a seed of contentment.” I think this is true. Sow contentment seeds and you definitely stand a chance of reaping peace. But then I got to thinking a little more deeply about this adage. Read More...
In my own voice: The brilliance of Karly Wahlin
In the winter of 2009 my friend and recording engineer, Matthew Zimmerman, called to invite me into a remarkable project that was being recorded at his studio, Wild Sound, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A 24-year-old composer named Karly Wahlin was seeking a producer for a collection of ten of her Read More...
The discernment dance
When we follow that which excites and challenges us, an internal spark fuels us in our endeavors, and we’re able to step into our vision. By Antonia Hall “I just don’t have your discipline,” my girlfriend told me. But she does have it within her. I suspect she’s just lost the Read More...