WINN – Page 2 – What is Needed Now

About Empathy

By Celia Coates Recently, “empathy” has often been in the news. In the January 19th Washington Post, Katherine Ellison wrote, “… scientists churn out volumes of work on the subject, with more than 2,000 scientific papers published in 2019 alone. For all its popularity, empathy isn’t nearly as simple as so many blogs and books…

Still the Mind, Fill the Heart

By Brian Luke Seaward You must remain very still to get a hummingbird to perch on your hand as you hold a small bowl of sweet nectar in your palm. The slightest movement signals these tiny birds that it is not safe to land, let alone feed. Last summer I taught my wife’s grandson how…

“We Are All Connected”?

By Celia Coates This week in America, when we are more openly and ferociously divided than we have been in many decades, the idea that we are all connected can seem ridiculous. Still, it is an idea that goes back 3000 years or more to the earliest Vedic teachings in India, and it can be…

Gifts for a New Year

By Celia Coates I had been wondering how to begin this new year in WINN, a year that everyone is hoping will be better than the dark and troubled year just past. Then, within days of each other, two gifts arrived – first, a photograph that my sister, Judith Sellers, had taken in her garden…

Giving and Getting

By Celia Coates Many years ago, when I was young and had not been going to school in America for very long, I was surprised that after the Christmas vacation the question that kids asked each other was, “What did you get?” I didn’t really know what to answer. There had been nuts and candies…

The Present Moment

By Celia Coates Having to go to the bank in these pandemic times means finding a drive-through teller. I sat in my car after I had sent in my documents using that pneumatic canister that reminds me of the way money was moved overhead from counter to cashier in department stores long-ago. It was a…

Authenticity

By Ann Allen “This other work you’re doing is just too unusual. People aren’t ready for it. Doctors aren’t ready. If they know you’re doing it, we’re worried they won’t refer patients to any of us. Unless you stop doing it, we’ll have to ask you to leave the group.” I stared back in disbelief…

Winners and Losers

By Celia Coates Of course the fierce competition to decide who the political winner and loser would be has grabbed our national attention this week, but this post is not about the 2020 Election, or at least, not directly. There have always been divisions and differences in human communities, but this natural aspect of existence…

That Was Then, This Is Now

By Celia Coates Often, I begin to write what will be published in WINN by looking at my own experiences. This post began with something I was feeling last week. I became aware that although, like most of us, I’ve been experiencing a great deal of fear and anger, there was another, quieter discomfort hidden…

Choosing Kindness

by Celia Coates The Dalai Lama has said that his religion is kindness. When today’s post was first published in June, 2018, its title was How to Choose Your Prince or Princess. It’s about deep kindness, one that includes sacrifice, and it’s a story for our times. Here it is, again, Some of the best…

From Celia

A dear friend e-mailed me after reading last Friday’s pair of posts to say that she always looks forward to receiving WINN but this time she was sad and disappointed that I had published these “purely political articles.” For me these posts are not purely political. This is my response – not a full post – to…

Loving America

This morning two people will publish their stories in WINN. We are all in these troubled times together and we need to be able to see ourselves clearly and to walk in another’s shoes (Gilah’s post) and we need to confront fear and to move forward in our country with love and hope (Pablo’s post)….