National Features

Is one person’s trash really another’s treasure? According to a Durham, North Carolina-based arts and crafts store, it is.
The Scrap Exchange lets people explore their creativity while helping out the environment. The exchange was founded in 1991 as a sustainable art supply store that takes unwanted materials from businesses and community members and resells them [...]

by Susie Ruth
“Silence is like scouring sand,” says Gordon Hempton, an award-winning acoustic ecologist. “When you are quiet, the silence blows against your mind and etches away everything soft and unimportant. What is left is what is real: pure awareness and the very hardest questions.”
It’s not easy to find silence, which is facing extinction in [...]

by Morieka V. Johnson
Let’s face it, a smelly pet can put a serious damper on cuddle time. Proper grooming can help dogs not only look good, but feel better, as well.
“Extreme matting can cause a health risk to pets,” explains DeAndre Upton, a registered veterinary technician in Conyers, Georgia. “Dogs have a natural amount [...]

by Ellen Mahoney
Among Stephen Simon’s many acclaimed films are the Academy Award-winning What Dreams May Come, Somewhere in Time, and the groundbreaking Conversations with God. He also co-founded The Spiritual Cinema Circle in 2004 with relationship experts Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks. As a subscription-based monthly DVD community, Spiritual Cinema Circle offers viewers a [...]

by Judith Fertig
“Being a locavore is fabulous if you live somewhere like California,” says Audra Wolfe, a co-founder of Canvolution and an expert food preservationist. “But if you live in the Northeast, unless you learn food preservation, you could be eating local turnips and kale all winter,” she notes with a chuckle.
The mounting desire to [...]

by Mary Beth Maziar
Mounting scientific evidence makes it clear that personal creative expression, once perceived as a luxury, sideline or hobby in our busy lives, is in fact a keystone of our most healthy and worthwhile activities. In infinitely varied and pleasurable forms, creative practices can move us beyond artful living to also serve as [...]

by Martin Miron
This year, why not make the most of a long weekend by taking the family on a short trip designed to give kids a new, vibrant connection to nature? Everywhere across North America, birds, insects, animals and sea life are repeating their annual rituals of migration, a vital call of the wild [...]

by Carlotta Mast
Most kids are more likely to grab a French fry than a broccoli floret. Fortunately, a children’s-specific, high-quality multivitamin can help provide crucial, missing nutrients, as well as build an early shield against diabetes, heart disease and childhood cancers, according to the writings of Shari Lieberman, Ph.D., a clinical nutritionist often cited for [...]

by Barb Amrhein
Millions of new parents in the 1960s thought they had found the answer to their prayers in the mess-free convenience of disposable diapers. Sales of Pampers, Huggies and other brands continued to soar during the following decades.
Sadly, so did a host of related problems: tons of soiled plastic diapers that could potentially contaminate [...]

by Isha Judd
In an increasingly unpredictable world where anxiety and insecurity abound, where can we turn to find peace and happiness? The simple answer is: within ourselves. Here’s how.
1. Get present
When you find yourself in the midst of a worrisome situation, stop. Go inward, and ask yourself, “What is wrong in this moment?” Usually, nothing [...]