“I discovered a long time ago that writing of the small things of the day, the trivial matters of the heart, the inconsequential but near things of this living,” wrote E. B. White to his brother Stanley White while reflecting on the art of living through writing. “Was the only kind of creative work which … Read more

“Once, while Mahatma Gandhi’s train was pulling slowly out of the station, a reporter ran up to him and asked for a message to take back to his people. Gandhi’s reply was a hurried line scrawled on a scrap of paper, ‘My life is my message.’” So writes Indian spiritual teacher Eknath Easwaran (December 17, … Read more

In 1845, moved by the desire to reconnect with the essence of his own being, great Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817–May 6, 1862) embarked on a voluntary two-year exile in the woods, an experiment in simple living and contemplation of nature, which later became the basis for his book Walden; or, Life in the … Read more

Rarely are we invited as intimately into the creation of spellbinding art as we are through Van Gogh’s Letters. It’s because of their accessibility that Vincent van Gogh (March 30, 1853–July 29, 1890), among all the fathers of modern art, has become the most universally loved. That his range of ideas is not seen as … Read more