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“What every human being can say yes to is flourishing.”—Martin Seligman “What makes life good?” It may be one of the oldest human questions, and perhaps one of the few we still might answer together. I think about this today after reading about the super elite folks from academia, finance, technology surrounding Jeffrey Epstein.  People with billions of dollars, anxious, untethered people with no real understanding in practice of what makes a good, healthy, flourishing life.

“ Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world. ” — Dacher Keltner It got to me this morning—that quiet, accumulating weight of the world pressing in before I could quite name why. A headline here, a comment there, voices rising and tightening, each one a little sharper than the last. I could feel it first in my body, a low hum of agitation, like something inside me was bracing for a fight I didn’t want

“Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer them with love.” — Mahatma Gandhi It happened at our simple and popular community dinner Thursday night. The Seventh Day Adventists served their signature vegetarian “haystacks.” Usually it’s an easy-going, if a little rowdy, environment. That’s how these things often begin—not in lecture halls or debates, but at long tables where people come carrying their fully human selves. John had sat down with a young woman and her

“The vagus nerve is a key component of the neural circuitry that enables us to feel safe enough to connect with others .” — Stephen Porges , renowned neuroscientist who developed polyvagal theory Stephen Porges, a neuroscientist who has spent decades studying how our bodies respond to safety and threat, suggests something both simple and profound: before we can connect, before we can rest, before we can even think clearly, our bodies need to feel safe. I’ve been thinking abou