Earlier this month I got to visit HopeWorks Station in Everett, Washington.  An innovative housing project in Snohomish County, it holds the possibility of a permanent solution for some of the people experiencing homelessness in the area. A few interesting facts about HopeWorks Station: -65 affordable housing units from 300-453 square feet -focused on serving veterans, youth and families -all units face inward to a common courtyard to encourage creating community -a building that gives more than it takes… 532 […]

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I was able to spend time with middle school students last week, supporting the school’s efforts to cultivate each individuals sense that they could be a source of strength for themselves and others. I was reminded of Mel Duncan’s quote that “We struggle with a shrunken notion of our own ability. We have the ability to bring substantial change and often we don’t own that. We are afraid of that.” In fact, we can do big things. We can encourage […]

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These trips have a been a whirlwind. Nairobi, Kenya in August. Lima, Peru in September. We’re headed to Bangkok in November. It’s been a wonderful opportunity to partner with Good Deeds Day and to see some of the positive work they encourage and support around the world. To borrow a phrase from their website, “Good Deeds Day is a global day that unites people from 108 countries to do good deeds for the benefit of others and the planet.” Not bad […]

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Last week I was grateful to be a part of Title V activities that honored Adams State University’s history as a Hispanic Serving Institution since 2000. We installed our American Stories exhibit, I visited classrooms and led programming. As a part of the week’s engagement, the Title V office wanted to encourage more conversations about race and bridge building. We set up a studio and asked, “What is the unique opportunity or challenge around talking about race at this moment […]

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It’s become one of my favorite places. For the past five years, I have been a part of the teaching staff at Holden Village, a retreat center tucked into a remote valley in the Washington Cascades. The journey to Holden is an adventure. You ride a boat 20 miles up a wilderness lake, climb aboard an old school bus for an 11-mile drive up a winding gravel road and eventually arrive at an old copper mining camp that was sold […]

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Nobody should go to Africa for just four days. But four days is better than none. A door opened, an invitation was offered, and we squeezed A Peace of My Mind’s first international engagement into an already full schedule. In June, we had our exhibit and studio at a conference for Points of Light and there we met some folks from Good Deeds Day, an organization based in Tel Aviv that is active in 108 countries and encourages acts of […]

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Many of the biggest challenges we face are global in nature. Climate change is a global challenge. Terrorism is a global challenge. Poverty and food security are global challenges. These issues will impact people across borders and will require cooperative effort to resolve them, yet the tools we have to govern policy on a global scale are not strong and trends toward unilateralism will exacerbate the problem. Collaboration, cooperation and collective effort increase our odds of success as we tackle […]

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“Now I’m able to think twice before I say anything or do anything.  I deal with each individual for where they at. So I would say that I am a different person today then what I was 17 years ago.” Pete Russell was convicted for the murder of his girlfriend Tanjala Brewer and has been an inmate on Texas Death Row since 2003. While he was in prison, he embraced meditation and authored the book, Texas Death Row Yogi. Pete: […]

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At Carleton College last week, we asked, “When have you been your best self?” We were hosted by the Office of Intercultural and International Life and on Tuesday, 53 students, faculty and staff stopped by to share their response. You can view the collection in the video below or continue scrolling down to see all of the individual responses. Carleton College 2019 from John Noltner Photography on Vimeo.

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It’s important that we celebrate examples of success. Our world is filled with challenges, many of them daunting. And it’s important that we address those challenges honestly and directly. But we also need to believe that something better is possible and we do that by acknowledging the times we have gotten things right, amplifying those examples and using them to guide our way forward. Last week we joined The Forum on Workplace Inclusion in Minneapolis and asked, “When have you bridged […]

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