“Dona Lucy wants to read your coca leaves,” Sergio informs me. Inside the building at Chakarunas, shaman Dona Lucy sits in a chair with a bag of coca leaves. She is short, cheerful, red-faced and terrifically friendly. I ask her questions. Previously I paid little attention to the coca leaf readings, but then dona Lucy nailed a piece of improbable and very specific information, and I have listened more carefully since. Will a medicine hunter TV show happen this year? What about the maca business? What else does she see? She studies leaves lying in her lap. “Yes, the TV show will happen soon,” she tells me. Dona Lucy brandishes a handful of green coca leaves. “See this? You will have lots of money.” She laughs and squints at the leaves and tosses them again onto the lap of her skirt. She looks at Sergio and me. “And you two will walk many miles together.”    Read more...

My title is the name of a video interview of Deepak Chopra with New Realities host Alan Steinfeld done on January 8, 2009. It’s long, and the first twenty minutes are the best. Give it to yourself as a lunch hour.   Read more...

Now that the first round of HIV awareness workshops is over, we go full speed ahead towards the event.

Full speed ahead, that means as far as the weather will allow us. They are expecting 40° Celsius, and hardly any wind. Therefore, we all woke up at 6 am - which is a weird idea for a northern European production team, knowing that we will go on till 8 am the next day. But knowing that you will take a swim in the Antarctic cold ocean in the afternoon while you might have 2000 visitors at 9 pm, gives an extra thrill as well.

So here I am again: next trip, next continent.

This time in South Africa. Another Sencity event, another music event for deaf people - and hearing people. Together with an aromajockey, videojockey, vibrating floors, light artists, signdancers and several other artists, we are going to create an amazing experience in the center of Capetown. One year of preparation is about to come to a climax. A team of three project leaders has been working for 6 months together with the local community and deaf society to turn this event to a big success.   Read more...

I heard Father Pierce before I met him. He has a loud ooogaaah horn that bays out his presence as he coasts down country lanes or town streets. He also has a deep, uninhibited belly laugh that shudders happily out of him. That laugh always brings a startled response to all in earshot. He himself cuts a commanding presence with his abundant beard and imaginative attire, replete with wide suspenders. Why hide in the shadows when there is a message to proclaim? And part of that message comes through the man himself, through actions as much as words.

Nathaniel Pierce is an Episcopal priest in a rural area of Maryland, USA. However, he did not start out wanting to be in the clergy. “When I was in high school,” he explained, “it was post Sputnik and the push was towards science. It was seen as the be-all-end-all.”

I was pleased to hear from Ode commenter Tim Collardey. He’s written a new ebook about peace called If Flowers Can Grow in Alaska... Creating a More Peaceful World One Person at a Time. His website is www.walkthepeace.com.

His free ebook asks the seminal question of the spiritual life: do I practice what I preach? Do my spiritual values shine through my behaviors? Am I living the spiritual life I say I want to be living? Collardey’s personal challenge centered on the issues of peace and non-violence.

Staying present while we are parenting can be difficult at times. Our kids are such good teachers. They are able to create situations to help us grow as parents. We can be sure that when we are having a strong reaction to a situation involving our kids, there is something within us that needs to be healed. If we are mindful, we are able to grow and heal. If we are not mindful, we have knee jerk reactions that can keep us stuck in the box of parenting from reaction instead of presence. Mindful parenting helps us heal our own emotional wounds, so that nurturing our children comes from a healthier place.

We are all busy these days, and it is easy to get caught up in the, “hurry up, let's go here”, or the “hurry up, we are going to be late” syndrome. What is the reaction to the child that is not in a hurry, one that is really enjoying what she is engaged in, one that is in the present moment? Obviously, there are times when we have to be somewhere at a certain time, parents that need to be at work, etc. However, what about the times when we think we have to be somewhere, when we have it in our minds that there is no choice? This is the time to practice mindful parenting and thinking outside the box. Some books may tell us to offer rewards for the child's cooperation, or offer them a bribe, or maybe you might resort to the reaction you would have gotten when you were a child. Some of these things appear to work. For instance, the parent got what they wanted since the child went along with the plan. Success, right? At what expense to the parent-child relationship?   Read more...

B-Rilla on Vimeo.

Fifty People, One Question is a simple project with surprising results. Go to a place, ask fifty people the same question and film their responses.

The hardest part about exercising is not deciding what to do - it's actually sticking with it. Everyone is excited and motivated when they first start a new workout training schedule, but it's easy to lose passion over time.

Unless you're in the small minority of people who have more money than they know what to do with, the thought of totally wasting cash is properly motivating so "put your money where you mouth is."

The thing I liked best about Susan Skog’s Beliefnet Gallery, 10 Ways to Bring Peace to the World, is the structure of her title. So often our thoughts about peace are about how to bring the world to peace. Instead, she flips that on its head. How can we bring peace to the world?

It’s a great question because lots of us feel that peace is too big a task for one person. The logic goes: well, it doesn’t really matter whether I do what I can for peace or not because it’s such a big job that what difference can little ol’ me make? A big difference. A big, big difference. And it’s a lot of little ol’ mes taking daily time and making daily choices for peace that will add up to the Big Peace on Earth.