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The Importance Of Everyday Kindness "Do you live in a kind community, a kind society, a kind country?" A recent story from Greater Good Magazine asks this question as they delve into the World Happiness Report 2025. This year's report found that countries where people donate, volunteer their time, and strangers help strangers are happier. What is more, the belief that one lives in a benevolent community also increases happiness. Small acts of kindness, the report seems to indicate, can positively influence our own happiness and that of our neighbors'. Read the full story here.
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“You could barely walk a straight line through it. One had to traverse fallen trees, ant hills, dense undergrowth and uneven ground. Harvesting was a rewilding experience, and a lesson in the cultivation of patience.” “This complexity held a warmth of heart, which matched our humanity in a certain way.” Ezra says, in meeting the old orchard, “I had a strong trust that my guiding spirit was leading me towards an unfolding biography that would integrate agriculture with spirituality.” Read the full article here ... Raised in urban Los Angeles, Ezra sensed early on that current ways of education and life weren't calling him. Farming with local communities became a natural choice - offering him a poignant combination of the elemental, the physical, and the spiritual. After a decade of working with regenerative biodynamic agriculture and nonprofit leadership in South America and the Pacific Northwest, Ezra studied at the birthing ground of Anthroposophy in Switzerland. He now leads a young adult residency program in the Hudson Valley of New York -- with self-guided processes to allow young people to access ancient wisdom so they find "the willingness to be themselves." Ezra recently joined us for an Awakin Call. Hear more about his journeys across physical and spiritual landscapes in the full call here.
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Beyond Equations: An Awakin Call with Cédric Villani To Cédric Villani, mathematics is about more than just equations -- it is a deeply connected approach to understanding and engaging with the world. "Mathematics is a poetry of sciences," Cédric said. "Mathemtics and poetry are the two purest refinements of this ability to create the world..." In a recent Awakin Call with the award-winning French mathematician, Cédric and Mark, the call moderator, wove together an inspired conversation that encompassed Cédric's "lucky" and collaborative path to winning the Fields Medal, the role of the internet and AI in today's world, storytelling as a "sacred bond" between humans and so much more. After the call, viewers expressed how moved they were by the conversation, describing Cédric as a "Renaissance man" whose passion for math is "contagious"-- and also commenting on the incredible surprise video Mark prepared for him! Watch the whole conversation unfold here.
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On Community: The More-Than-Human World “I step into the human world through the mirror of the more-than-human world, finding ease in its familiar safety. People exist in the background; my foreground is the present moment. Never empty. Always a canvas—Butterflies. Dried leaves. Twigs I like to hold. Worm castings brushing my heels. A bird call.” She continues, "This is how the world arrives for me. I step into the human world through the mirror of the more-than-human world, finding ease in its familiar safety." Tess also seeks to understand “the nature of invitations in the human world too.” She shares, "This is the secret I have come to dwell in. One must understand the nature of invitatiosn in the human world too. And so, I post them—my invites—out into the world." [Read more ...] Her reflection, offered with poetic grace, emerged during a recent Laddership Pod exploring uncommon questions with heartful changemakers from 40+ countries around the world. |
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I was recently talking to a friend who was laboring over whether or not to move in with her boyfriend. She had previously lived with a partner and it didn’t go well. She had much apprehension at the thought of doing it again—especially after less than a year of dating. After listening to all her nervousness, I said, “then don’t do it”. “But he’s so wonderful”, she said, “we have such an amazing connection… and, logistically, it just makes a lot of sense”. “Well, then do it,” I said. “But I told myself I wouldn’t do this again unless I was 100% sure he was the one—and I guess I’m not totally sure yet”. Sound familiar? Maybe for you it’s not a relationship decision, maybe it’s related to your career, a big journey, what kind of communication to maintain with old friends or perhaps something as simple as where to eat for dinner. At some point or another, we all ... [Read more] Seed questions for reflection: How do you relate to the difference between the inner voice and the ego voice? Can you share a personal story of a time you dared to enact what your inner voice was saying? What helps you walk the path of sincerity? |
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Recently, our London community came together for a day-long Radical Love retreat in London with Satish Kumar -- a former monk, lifelong activist, and peace pilgrim who once made an 8,000-mile peace walk from India to the US. During the retreat, changemakers and everyday heroes gathered deepen the roots of Radical Love—towards self, others, and the Earth—and share their collective intentions to pause and respond to challenges with more compassion and wisdom. At one point, a sweet song even arose! Enjoy this photo collage of the time together:
[Bonus: 2018 Awakin dialogue with Nipun and Satish here.] |
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Social Impact Conference + Soul Carnival Last month, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ranchi held a Social Impact Conference. Building on the theme of "Values for Tomorrow," conference speakers grounded their talks in stories exploring harmony, heart intelligence, inquiry, nonviolence, philosophical inquiry, and others. Joyful drum circles dissolved boundaries in the creation of one rhythm. The day culminated in an evening Soul Carnival. Inspired by ServiceSpace's gift economy, students, faculty, and families ran more than 40+ stalls offering hand-cooked meals, games and variety of other experiences -- all without any pricetags. Participants were invited to pay as little or as much as they wanted, flipping the focus from the priced good to a priceless human connection. Read more about this heart-centered event here.
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A New Course In 'Compassionate Leadership' Coming this winter, a new travel abroad course will be offered at UPenn: Compassionate Leadership: “The Power of Love, Service and Inner Work”: Experiencing the Life of Mahatma Gandhi and other Compassion-based leaders. Taught by two Gandhi 3.0 alumni, the course will invite students to explore the compassion-based legacies of leaders including Mahatma Gandhi, Grace Lee Boggs, Nipun Mehta, Tony Hsieh, and more. Students will analyze their teachings and practices while coming to understand the way 'inner work' profoundly shaped their external impacts. The course will venture out of the classroom and into the city of Philadelphia with several group activities and acts of service. Ultimately, students will travel to the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, the birthplace of the nonviolent freedom movement. Read more here. |
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Change rides in on many speeds. Lightning speed and we change worlds of perception overnight. We can suddenly lose everything, or gain what we have always hoped and dreamed. Some changes take centuries to reveal themselves. Islands of trash plastic float in the seas where trash has been dumped for centuries. We will experience more powerful storms and more widespread earthquakes from years of cumulative large and small transgressions of disrespect. Death is a most obvious change, as is birth. The wisest teachers remind us to not get too hung up on judging any shift. We keep our hearts open no matter what happens, and act with integrity, even when we are in the most chaotic of shifts, as we are now here in this country, here on our beloved planet Earth, which is us. Some rides are sweet and exhilarating. Some are rough and challenge us to keep heart. [Read more] Seed questions for reflection: What does keeping your eyes on the horizon of kindness mean to you? Can you share a personal story of a time you felt you were in a whirlpool and had to keep your eyes on the horizon of kindness to make it through? What helps you keep your eyes on the horizon of kindness? |
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Moved by Love: Gandhi 3.0 Retreat 2025 + Spontaneous Human Spiral In January this year, 70+ people gathered for the Moved by Love Gandhi 3.0 retreat in Ahmedabad (India). A mix of changemakers and everyday heroes from around the world cleared their schedules to come together with little knowledge of how the retreat would unfold or what value it would hold. Before the retreat itself even began, there were five days of immersions that included interactive visits to the School of Seeing, Bansi Gir Goshala, Ashramshala and PTC Hostel, Dandi Kutir, Gandhi Sabarmati Ashram, the "Old City" of Ahmedabad, Craftroots, and other places in and around the city.
When the retreat officially began only a few days later, there were no strangers amongst the group. Now dear friends, connected heart-to-heart, they explored a simple premise: "If diverse minds can hold space with a focus on inner transformation, something may shift in the matrix of our inter-connection and create a field for radically innovative solutions for today's challenges." In the days that followed, these love warriors moved from "Me" to "We" to "Us" as they leaned into uncommon questions about our 1,000 year plan, the architects of regeneration, and metrics for dignity (among many, many others). And, rather than a one-to-many network, the retreat was designed for many-to-many connections to flourish, including collective emergences like this spontaneous human spiral!
For more stories from Gandhi 3.0, check out the Community Night recordings including Stories of Heartivism and Stories of Soul Force. |
Instead of imposing our human world onto the “more-than-human” world, Tess James helps us understand how the world arrives for her. 
