Listening to yet another advertisement about the effectiveness of anti-anxiety pills, I hear the inherent worldview within our culture: You are fundamentally alone. Any suffering you’re experiencing is abnormal, the fault of a biological dysfunction within your body. While there certainly can be a biological basis for anxiety, never do [...]
In Leo Lionni’s children’s book Frederick a family of mice prepare for winter. The mice work all summer to store seeds and nuts and straw while Frederick stares out at the meadow feeling the sunlight, taking in the colors. The mice family enters their hovel as snow begins to fall. Deep [...]
Listen to the Jefferson Exchange Interview Here Maybe an adult said this to you as a kid: "I don't want to hear your little story." Ouch. That attitude can be just as hurtful between adults, and there are lots of people in today's world who just don't want to [...]
Hello wonderful Hearth community! I am so excited to announce the release of my new book Between the Listening and the Telling: How Stories Can Save Us, with a foreword by New York Times bestselling author Anne Lamott. This book is a labor of love that seeks to distill [...]
A couple of weeks ago I met with national book award recipient Colum McCann to discuss the medicinal qualities of stories. We began by piling up anxieties: political divisiveness, catastrophic climate change, wealth inequality, systemic racial violence. “We’ve become morally homeless,” Colum lamented. “Our lack of affection for others [...]
