Sunday, July 18, 2010 The Business of Giving  Billionaire Paul Allen has taken his friend Bill Gates up on his challenge to publicly pledge the majority of his wealth to philanthropy. In honor of the 20th anniversary of his Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, which has given 3,000 grants to various nonprofits, Allan plans to leave the majority of his $13 billion estate to philanthropy to continue the work of his foundation and fund scientific research. Making certain that his philanthropic efforts "will continue after my lifetime," he states, "As our philanthropy continues in the years ahead, we will look for new opportunities to make a difference in the lives of future generations." Read More >>
back to top  Saturday, July 17, 2010 Woman Behind a Movement  She's the woman behind Americorps and Obama's Corporation for National and Community Service. Radiating service from White House conference rooms to grassroots nonprofits, Shirley Sagawa is making community service a staple in the United States. Her belief? That it will change the nation, for the better. Named by author Steve Waldman as the "founding mother of the modern service movement," Sagawa has no doubt that volunteers with change America. A modern-day instigator of William James' 1906 "Moral Equivalent of War," she envisions in her latest book: "Imagine a nation that serves... Every town has well-trained disaster response volunteers, and every student can succeed because of extra help... Whole communities are engaged in healthy behaviors." Read More >>
back to top Friday, July 16, 2010 Remembering Peace Pilgrim  From 1953 to 1981, a silver-haired woman walked over 25,000 miles on a personal pilgrimage for peace. Crossing the United States seven times with nothing more than a toothbrush, some pamphlets, and a navy sweatshirt, she vowed to "remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking until given shelter and fasting until given food." Leading a fairly ordinary life up through young adulthood, Mildred Norman Ryder died at 72 as "Peace Pilgrim": a woman who transformed everyone and everything along her path. This weekend, her hometown of Egg Harbor, New Jersey will celebrate her life and legacy in honor of her birthday on July 18. Read More >>
back to top Thursday, July 15, 2010 66 Ways To Grow Without A Garden  Growing your own food is exciting, not only because you get to see things grow from nothing into ready-to-eat fruits and veggies, but you also don't have to worry about the pesticides they might contain, and you definitely cut down on the miles they (and you) have to travel. But starting a garden can be a daunting task: so many possibilities, water, and weeds. As it turns out, with pretty minimal effort, anyone can be a gardener. From fruits like apples and kumquats, veggies like peppers and cucumbers, and even aloe vera and tea plants can all be grown from a container in your home! Read More >>
back to top Wednesday, July 14, 2010 What Does the Rainforest Sound Like?  So many things. Katydids telling each other where to look for food, frogs bellowing for a mate and piranhas leaping out of the muddy brown Amazon. And this is how it sounds to a deaf person. Hear the World organization has partnered with Global Explorers to bring 50 mixed hearing students to the Amazon Rainforest to experience sound, empower the deaf. For a group of young adults, the expedition is strikingly still. "We're quiet because we're trying to listen," says 17-year old Jentry Taylor who was born deaf and now listens to the Amazon three times a day through the program's hearing devices. "Down here, you hear something every second," agrees Gary Quenzer. "None of the sounds are annoying. They all make you stop and turn and try to find what it actually is." Imagine what we could all hear and see, if we only take the time to listen. Read More >>
back to top Tuesday, July 13, 2010 Leap of Faith  Susan Schaller's story, comparable to "the Miracle Worker, is still not widely known. Perhaps it's so amazing, it's hard to grasp. How can one understand what it means not to have a language at all? For a man already 27 years old, to be in such a situation was considered completely hopeless. Fortunately, Schaller didn't know the situation was considered hopeless. Instead, she followed her instincts: "One of the things that attracted me to him more than anything else- the intelligence in his eye caught my eye- but more than that, he hadn't given up. I can't imagine going twenty-seven years thinking I was stupid and watching mouths. The most frustrating thing I can imagine. He didn't know what language was. He didn't know what sound was, but he knew something was happening and he wanted to know what that something was." Here is the story of a contemporary miracle. Maybe it's just at the point of giving up where real possibility exists. Read More >>
back to top Monday, July 12, 2010 What They Don't Teach in Business School  When I started this journey, I just wanted to be a carpenter. But I surpassed my wildest dreams and became a builder, a distinction I didn't even know existed when I started. And this realization leads me to one overriding and inescapable truth, that a life well lived must be a creative endeavor. Whatever form that creativity takes whether it's carpentry, building, teaching, raising a family, or writing a book the challenge of looking within ourselves to find that creative element makes us who we are. But chances are, if we are genuinely open to the possibilities of a calling, we will find that that satisfaction will come from someplace far different from where we expected to find it. Read More >>
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Many years ago, when I was working weekends to pay for extras my parents couldn't afford (school ring, class trip, etc.), I lost my wallet. A man called and asked me if I had lost it. I checked my purse and, to my horror, I had. He asked me to tell him how much money was in it. I told him. He then told me where to pick-up my wallet. As I pulled into his driveway, I noticed his handicapped van and the ramp going up to the house. There is no way this man easily got out of his van to pick my wallet off the street. He had to pull over, get in his wheelchair and lower the lift to pick it up. I was amazed and humbled. I asked him if there was anything I could do to repay his kindness. He said "Just pass it on." [ 
Artist Leigh Hyams of San Miguel Allende, Mexico writes, "I found this script today in a forgotton portfolio. It was dictated to me by my four-year-old granddaughter Annalena, who could not write then, but she knew how to advise people to paint and draw. I like her advice enormously, not to mention her attitude..." Here's just one example of Annalena's painting wisdom: "When I don't have anything to do and get bored, I start painting and then I just can't stop and it makes me feel good." [ 
Jay Shafer lives in an 8-by-12 foot house. He built it from scratch. With no prior carpentry knowledge or experience. "I'm sure there are people out there who think I'm crazy for living so small, but living in this little house has allowed me to totally reinvent my life," he says. With a desire to "escape the rat race," the former grocery-store clerk's intentions were simple: focus on the things he really wanted to do, and not on working for money. Now, he runs a company that builds small homes for others. "I never thought I'd be an entrepreneur in anything, but it's my passion to design small houses," he smiles. "It's been really liberating." [ 
Being kind is nice. But why do it on a daily basis? Why do something for a total stranger when there seems to be nothing in it for you? Birju Pandya, a regular practitioner of small acts of kindness, shares: "I had experienced a moment where I wanted to give out of habit; almost as if that was the only way I knew how to respond to the situation. For that moment, there was no difference between a stranger and a trusted friend. And the most beautiful part? After I handed him the book, the person jumping around and giddy for the rest of the day was -- me. I realize now that I've been literally rewiring my brain." [ 
"Great wife, amazing kids, a full head of hair - like so many people I felt I had no real grounds for feeling unhappy. But all too often I did, and it was getting me down." At 44, Cathal Morrow found himself getting bogged down by the trials and tribulations of daily life and spending "a decent amount of time veering between mildly piqued and downright upset." But then it dawned on him: he was happy. Overall at least. So what's the unhappy happy man to do with this minor epiphany? Spend a year in happiness, of course. He resolves, "When problems arise, I'm going to recentre myself and then react in the way a happy person would." For a man who spent a year without lying, and hasn't told a lie since, Morrow certainly knows a thing or two about changing habits. [ 
"Everyone has a story to tell," says Stephanie Ursula Hodges, one half of PenTales, a New York City based storytelling initiative. In an age where SMS and the solitary nature of social networking are the standard, Hodges- together with childhood friend Saskia Miller- is hoping to integrate the art of storytelling back into people's lives, thereby fostering community and cultivating new storytellers across the globe. And it all started with a notebook. Well, 20 notebooks. The two women gave 20 empty notebooks to 20 storytellers, with just one request: write two pages and pass it on. Now, PenTales is empowering storytellers in Paris, Berlin, Hanoi, Chicago, San Francisco and London. [ 
