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Don’t become a spiritual zombie, devoid of passion and deep human feeling. Let spirituality become a celebration of your uniqueness rather than a repression of it. Never lose your quirkiness, your strangeness, your weirdness – your unique and irreplaceable flavour. Don’t try or pretend to be ‘no-one’ or ‘nothing’ or some transcendent and impersonal non-entity with ‘no self’ or ‘no ego’, ‘beyond the human’ – that’s just another conceptual fixation and nobody’s buying it any more. Be a celebration of what your unique expression is and stop apologising. Fall in love with this perfectly divine, very human mess that you are. There is no authority here, and no way to get life wrong. So get it all wrong. Fail, gloriously.

—Jeff Foster

About 60 million people around the globe have been forced to leave their homes to escape war, violence and persecution. Those who have crossed a border and sought shelter outside of  their  own  countries–and  they  are  commonly  referred to as ‘refugees’, but what exactly does that term mean? The world has known refugees for millennia, but the modern definition was drafted in the UN’s 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees in response to the mass persecutions and displacements of the Second World War. It defines a refugee as someone who is outside their country of nationality, and is unable to return to their home country because of well-founded fears of being persecuted. That persecution may be due to their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion and is often related to war and violence.

So what happens once someone flees their country? Most refugee journeys are long and perilous, with limited access to shelter, water or food. Since the departure can be sudden and unexpected, belongings might be left behind. And people who are evading conflict do not often have the required documents, like visas, to board airplanes and legally enter other countries. Financial and political factors can also prevent them from traveling by standard routes. This means they can usually only travel by land or sea and may need to entrust their lives to smugglers to help them cross borders. 

Each refugee’s story is different, and many must undergo dangerous journeys with uncertain outcomes. Today, roughly half of the world’s refugees are children, some of them unaccompanied by an adult; a situation that makes them especially vulnerable to child-labor or sexual exploitation.

Chances are if you go back in your own family history, you will discover that at a certain point your ancestors were forced from their homes, either escaping a war or fleeing discrimination and persecution. It would be good of us to remember their stories, when we are hearing those of the people currently displaced, searching for–or on their ways to– a new home.

Today is World Refugee Day and the UNHCR is launching its #WithRefugees petition to send a message to governments that they must work together and do their fair share for refugees. The #WithRefugees asks governments to ensure every refugee child gets an education, that every refugee family has somewhere safe to live, and that every refugee can work or learn new skills to make a positive contribution to their community. We hope for a world where violence will not force people from their homes, but until then, let the world know you stand #WithRefugees.

From the TED-Ed Lesson What does it mean to be a refugee? - Benedetta Berti and Evelien Borgman

LIKE EVERYTHING IS THE SAME AS A KIDS PLAYGROUND

BUT BIGGER

the St. Louis City Museum:

Playground for adults and children.

*HERE YA GO LADIES 😉😉😉*

“When Women Is Boss.”

“It is clear to any trained observer, and even to the sociologically untrained, that a new attitude toward sex discrimination has come over the world through the centuries, receiving an abrupt stimulus just before and after the World War.

“This struggle of the human female toward sex equality will end in a new sex order, with the female as superior. The modern woman, who anticipates in merely superficial phenomena the advancement of her sex, is but a surface symptom of something deeper and more potent fermenting in the bosom of the race. 

“It is not in the shallow physical imitation of men that women will assert first their equality and later their superiority, but in the awakening of the intellect of women.

“Through countless generations, from the very beginning, the social subservience of women resulted naturally in the partial atrophy or at least the hereditary suspension of mental qualities which we now know the female sex to be endowed with no less than men.

“BUT the female mind has demonstrated a capacity for all the mental acquirements and achievements of men, and as generations ensue that capacity will be expanded; the average woman will be as well educated as the average man, and then better educated, for the dormant faculties of her brain will be stimulated to an activity that will be all the more intense and powerful because of centuries of repose. Woman will ignore precedent and startle civilization with their progress.

“The acquisition of new fields of endeavor by women, their gradual usurpation of leadership, will dull and finally dissipate feminine sensibilities, will choke the maternal instinct, so that marriage and motherhood may become abhorrent and human civilization draw closer and closer to the perfect civilization of the bee.”

–Nikola Tesla

2018 promises to be a historic year in the United States, and women are demanding to be heard. There are twice as many women running for congress in the 2018 midterm elections than there were in 2016. They (we!) are making their (our!) intentions clear: Women’s rights are human rights, and women will not be left out of the deciding conversations.

Which leads us to Women’s History Month.

All month long, we’re partnering with MAKERS (@makerswomen), a feminist platform that highlights trailblazing women who are making changes today, and inspiring the ChangeMAKERS of tomorrow. For the next 31 days, MAKERS will put the spotlight on dozens of women who are making a difference. Each week will have a specific focus: HistoryMAKERS, TechMAKERS, TroubleMAKERS, and ChangeMAKERS. Be sure to follow them so you never miss a post. 

Monday, March 19—We’re celebrating a Badass Black Women History Month takeover (@bbwhm). Founder Ashley Ray-Harris will curate a celebration of 28 incredible Black women who said, “Fuck it, I’ll do it!”

Monday, March 26—Magic in her Melanin will be a community-driven organization that focuses on elevating the stories of women of color, as well as bridging the gap between creatives of color and the tech industry. It’s going to be launching right on Tumblr. There will be a whole takeover dedicated to their launch, paired with an opportunity for you to submit your art to be featured on their Tumblr.

Wednesday, March 21—Everytown for Gun Safety (@everytown) operates under the very real notion that thoughts and prayers are not enough when it comes to gun violence. Change demands real action, and their goal is to make that happen. Chances are you’ve heard of them already. Now it’s time to connect with them directly. Their ask box will be open for questions before their Answer Time.

Wednesday, March 28—Run for Something recruits and supports young progressives running for local office, and they want to answer any question you have during their Answer Time. It’s to be held over on our official Action (@action) Tumblr.

Friday, March 30—Transgender activist Malaysia Walker will be graciously answering your questions during her Answer Time, hosted on the Transgender Freedom Project (@transgenderfreedomproject) Tumblr.

We’ll also be honoring various incredibly important days throughout the month, such as International Women’s Day (March 8), the March for Our Lives (March 24), Muslim Women’s Day (March 27), and the Trans Day of Visibility (March 31). 

🚨 The FCC plans to kill net neutrality on December 14 🚨

It’s real simple: ISP lobbyists are pushing the FCC to kill net neutrality so phone and cable companies can block apps, slow down websites, and charge fees to control what you see and do online.

Our only chance is congressional pressure and legislative action. But we need grassroots support. Tell your representatives that you support “Title 2” rules and ask for their help protecting a free and open internet.