Linda Eve Diamond, Interview #78

Name: Linda Eve Diamond

Where you live: Dania Beach, FL, USA

What you do as a vocation or avocation? I'm the author of several books in the areas of self-help, business, education and poetry. My poetry book is called The Human Experience and my latest book, Rule #1: Stop Talking, is a fun, self-help guide to listening that offers practical advice and a spiritual thread. Beyond writing, I give talks and listening skills seminars and poetry readings.

Your two favorite books: One of my favorite little story collections is called Einstein’s Dreams, and Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s The Little Prince will forever be in my heart.

Your two favorite songs: Two of my favorites are “Everybody Knows” and "Dance Me to the End of Love" by Leonard Cohen.

Why you are interested in spirituality? I believe that what is essential is what we explore beneath the surface and that if we live on the surface we barely live at all.

Your favorite quote: “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." EB White

Your favorite web sites:

A Children’s International Sponsorship Website:

http://www.liftoneproject.org/site/TR?px=1611338&fr_id=1040&pg=personal

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals): http://www.peta.org/

Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/

FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting): http://www.fair.org/index.php

Your hero? My dad, Michael Diamond, whose work can be found at http://domesticviolenceclause.org/

A spiritual lesson you hope to learn? I think that we can create our worlds but that creativity is stifled and directed by fear and a tendency to react instead of create. I make a practice of careful inner listening, but it's a process. (Being human is a constant restriction to achieving perfection!) But I do move along—perfectly imperfect—in the right direction, and I hope to continually become more creative and less reactive.

A place in the world where you feel spiritually "connected?" I can feel connected in lots of places, but deeply in Sedona, AZ, and pretty much anyplace where mountains are.

Websites:

http://lindaevediamond.com/

http://listenersunite.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/LindaEveDiamond

Jean Russell, Interview #77

Name: Jean Russell

Where you live: Chicago, IL, USA

What you do as a vocation or avocation? Advocate for thrivability by nurturing change agents

Your two favorite books: very hard to say, but I have grown a ton from The Four Agreements and Tolle's New Earth

Your two favorite songs: hmm, again, hard to say in general.

Why you are interested in spirituality? because nothing in the world feels so clear to me as being an experiencer of the world evolving itself, which has brought me tremendous serenity.

Your favorite quote: Lately, it is "Act always as if the future of the universe depended on what you did, while laughing at yourself for thinking that whatever you do makes any difference." -- Buddhabut it changes every season depending on where I am.

Your favorite web sites: wikis, blogs, and microblogs - community spaces of the long tail.

Your hero? So many! Depends in which domain you mean, for example: The grain of sand which has been so transformed over so much time. Gandhi. Many of my friends. Tracy Gary. My own highest self.

A spiritual lesson you hope to learn? How to recognize the spiritually radiant, so I can learn from those who are so open to learning.

A place in the world where you feel spiritually "connected?" I feel most spiritually connected when I have a sense of spaciousness and reflection. For me this often happens in transit - on planes, trains, and cars! But it is also acute when immersed in a tranquil state of nature - from mountains to dessert to forests and plains.

I uploaded a picture of a waterfall that I took while in Oregon. I twitter as @nurturegirl, blog at nurturegirl.net as well as thrivable.org, and my website is nurture.biz