When the cost of maintaining the facade finally becomes too overwhelming and it all comes crashing down, the whisper of our true inner self can guide us back to our authentic self.

Substance misuse being seen and treated as a health care and mental health issue, not a criminal justice issue. More treatment centers and less incarceration.

A Fathers’ Day conversation between two fathers who have invested much of their lives into shifting attitudes and actions to end male violence against self and others.

To catch a glimpse of someone in that moment when the real person shows through. The noise, their story fades away and the real, full human being is revealed.

Being listened to by another sincerely and compassionately can help us believe in ourselves, and in our better nature.

“If you have the chance to be compassionate with somebody or to do nothing at all, I hope that you choose compassion.”

And not on the righteousness of telling them what “they” should be doing, or not doing. "They" probably don't have all of the right answers, but then neither do we, or anyone. Affording everyone the dignity of having agency over their own lives.

Rehabilitation and rejuvenation thanks to the grace of those who remained supportive even when it felt undeserved. Holding onto the light of compassion through years of disappointment.

What if even in your worst moments, you could still love yourself and look upon your past behaviors not through the lens of shame, but accept that you were taking care of yourself in the best way that you could at the time? Could you expand and strengthen this practice by relating with others in your community not with judgment and shame but with compassion?

In a very personal conversation, Stephen talks to his son about the challenges facing the generation coming of age today. The ability to focus on their own passions and creativity has been so exhausted by ceaseless stimulation and endless anonymous streams of ambiguous uncertainty that they often “fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way”.