The Ocean and the Meaning of Life
"Contemplating the teeming life of the shore, we have an uneasy sense of the communication of some universal truth that
How Love Comes to You
We spend our days making plans, making promises, making predictions about the possible, and yet the most bewildering thi
Constellating Wonder: Celebrating 20 Years of The Marginalian (October 23, 2026)
At the dawn of my twenties, lonely, destitute, and disoriented by the demands of making a new life in an alien world, I
Swimming and the Meaning of Life
One of my earliest and most vivid childhood memories is of swimming in a cool pool bounded by boulders in the middle of
Yes to Life, in Spite of Everything: Viktor Frankl’s Lost Lectures on Moving Beyond Optimism and Pessimism to Find the Deepest Source of Meaning
"Everything depends on the individual human being, regardless of how small a number of like-minded people there is... on
How to Hold What Harrows You
We are shaped by all we have suffered — by what harrows us — and in turn shape our lives by how we hold our harrowing. H
Polyvagal Theory and the Neurobiology of Connection: The Science of Rupture, Repair, and Reciprocity
"The mind narrates what the nervous system knows. Story follows state."
Roots and the Meaning of Life
They are so far out of sight for us, creatures of the upper world, that we don’t readily think of them. But as soon as w
Trial, Triumph, and the Art of the Possible: The Remarkable Story Behind Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”
A hymn of rage, a hymn of redemption, and a timeless love letter to the possible.
Rilke on the Relationship Between Solitude, Love, Sex, and Creativity
"There is only one solitude, and it is large and not easy to bear... People are drawn to the easy and to the easiest sid
How to Hold the Darkness: Notes on Living Through Uncertainty
There are times in life when the continent of certainty parts underfoot and, as the ash cloud of the old world rains dar
The Continuous Creative Act of Holding on and Letting Go: 10 Beautiful Minds on the Art of Growing Older
A great paradox of being alive in this civilization is that we have come to dread and devalue the triumph of having live
Blackie & Co.: A Blackbird’s Lesson in Friendship
In the middle of my bleakest winter, my friend Andrea gave me a battered copy of a forgotten book from her elderly fathe
No One You Love Is Ever Dead: Hemingway on the Most Devastating of Losses and the Meaning of Life
"We must live it, now, a day at a time and be very careful not to hurt each other."
The Log from the Sea of Cortez: John Steinbeck’s Forgotten Masterpiece on How to Think and the Art of Seeing the Pattern Beyond the Particular
"Everything impinges on everything else... Everything is potentially everywhere."
The Third Self: Mary Oliver on Creativity and Time
"The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power rest
Kindness Over Fear: Naomi Shihab Nye Tells the Remarkable Real-Life Story That Inspired Her Beloved Poem “Kindness”
"Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, / you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing."
The Bird in You, the World in You, and the Art of Trusting Time: A Ceramics and Serpentine Raffle
One December afternoon, I arrived in Patagonia with a big blue backpack, a small bilingual edition of Pablo Neruda’s lov
The Donkey and the Meaning of Life
"Come with me. I'll teach you the flowers and the stars."
G.K. Chesterton on the Dandelion and the Meaning of Life
Recovering the "forgotten blaze or burst of astonishment at our own existence" alive in the back of our modernity-deaden
Epictetus on Love and Loss: The Stoic Strategy for Surviving Heartbreak
"Who is good if he knows not who he is? and who knows what he is, if he forgets that things which have been made are per
Sleep and the Meaning of Life: Fernando Pessoa on the Existential Dimension of the Horizontal Hours
One of the most important things I have learned about living is that, in any life of purpose and creative vitality, you
From Mitochondria to Minds: The Illustrated Science of the Psychedelic Dream Called Life
Like consciousness, like music, like love, life itself didn’t have to exist — nothing in the fundamental laws demands it
The Art of the Sacred Pause and Despair as a Catalyst of Regeneration
Just as there are transitional times in the life of the world — dark periods of disorientation between two world systems
How to Love: Legendary Zen Buddhist Teacher Thich Nhat Hanh on Mastering the Art of “Interbeing”
"To love without knowing how to love wounds the person we love."
Diseases of the Will: Neuroscience Founding Father Santiago Ramón y Cajal on the Six Psychological Flaws That Keep the Gifted from Living Up to Their Gift
"Our neurons must be used ... not only to know but also to transform knowledge; not only to experience but also to const
How to Get Love Less Wrong: George Saunders on Breaking the Patterns that Break Our Hearts
"We want to believe that love is singular and exclusive, and it unnerves us to think that it might actually be renewable