The Story Only You Can Tell (+ June 7th!)

A 21-day story challenge starts June 7 — plus Story Booth, KarmaTube Theatre, and ripples from the Flourish Pod  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

View in Browser Podmates on last month’s Born to Flourish orientation call The Story Only You Can Tell Every culture has a story. What’s the new one trying to emerge through yours? In 1953, a woman stepped onto an American highway with no money, no organizational backing, and no map. For the next twenty-eight years, she walked over 25,000 miles, carrying only a toothbrush and a few leaflets, calling herself simply “Peace Pilgrim.” She vowed to remain a wanderer until humanity learned the way of peace. When skeptics asked how she survived without a safety net, her answer was disarming: she didn’t rely on the charity of strangers — she relied on the goodness already inside them. Her absolute vulnerability woke it up. Peace Pilgrim told a new story — or perhaps helped us remember a very ancient one. Last month, more than a thousand of us from 54 countries joined the Flourish Pod; as you might’ve read in The Field That Taught Itself, more than 1,800 pages of collective stories unfolded. As AI saturates our world with content and concept, we are excited to share two new projects that deepen the context — what we think of as a shift from audience to community, and more subtly, from broadcast to deepcast: Story Booth — Every person carries a story that could change a room — but most never get told. Story Booth creates the conditions for those stories to surface: no sponsorship, no subtle product, no agenda except love. Everyday heroes share their journeys of inner transformation, held by volunteers whose sole practice is to listen. What began with one woman's journey through 185 places of worship is now blossoming into many others. Seven story booths are under way. Join one, or nominate your own. KarmaTube Theatre — KarmaTube has curated over 6,000 inspiring videos with actionable ideas. Now, we’re building watch parties around them. Watch a film together, spend a week reflecting on clips via a virtual pod, then have a live conversation with the filmmakers. The debut: Loving Karma, documentary by Emmy–winning filmmakers Andrew Hinton and Johnny Burke, telling the story of an unsung children’s community in the Himalayan foothills — and Lobsang Phuntsok, a former Tibetan monk whose unconditional care in the face of destitute circumstances nurtured the community into being. Join the journey → Which brings us to the question underneath all our work this season: What is a new story you want to step into? 21-Day Challenge • Starts June 7 New Story Pod Stories are how we make sense of our lives — and how we change them. This June, ServiceSpace is hosting New Story, a 21-day challenge that invites you to explore lived experience through carefully crafted daily prompts: What was an accident that shaped your life? When did you first discover the power of imperfection? Describe a moment of unexpected fear — how would you respond to it now? Each day, as you write, you'll also read what others have shared — and something quietly remarkable happens when a stranger's story lands in you like a memory you didn't know you had. Over 21 days, hundreds of voices weave together into something none of us could create alone. Join us starting June 7th. Join the New Story Pod → In a recent essay on moving from transaction to relationship, a parable by Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa read: “Who are you?” said the salt doll to the sea. The sea smilingly replied, “Come in and see.” So the doll waded in. The farther it walked, the more it dissolved, until there was only very little of it left. Before that last bit dissolved, the doll exclaimed in wonder: “Now I know what I am!” Maybe every pod, every Story Booth, every circle of strangers sitting together with a film — is a version of that sea. Not a transaction between intact selves, but a dissolving into something the selves alone could never have found. The old story says: protect what you are. The new story whispers: come in and see. The story only you can tell is waiting. 🙏 FEW RECENT TIDBITS … ♫ SONG YOU MIGHT PLAY ON REPEAT On our closing call for the Flourish Pod, a volunteer performed an original song woven from direct quotes from the pod’s curriculum. Richie Davidson recalled, “My heart broke open and I wept.” Watch the video → 📜 UPCOMING STORY BOOTHS WITH PILGRIMS In Portugal, Vasco's journey of trusting hummingbirds over big checks; Chris's experience of starting a school in one of Nairobi’s harshest slums; Rama and Alex, on the third year of a 7-year pilgrimage from home to home, currently in transit from Jerusalem to Beirut; in Uganda, Bhante Buddharakkhita jokes of a “bed sheet sangha” of young children who take a principled stance for peace. ❤ HEARTS TRAVELING AROUND THE WORLD Women in India hand-stitched heart pins and sent them to Ruth Pittard in North Carolina. What happened next: they traveled to a cancer clinic, a cupcake shop, a wedding in Ohio, a women’s elder retreat in Oregon, a town intersection where eight people have stood with a LOVE sign every Wednesday for eight years, and a stranger’s hands in Asheville — nobody refused one. Read the full journey → 🤖 DEEPENING OUR INQUIRIES Someone asked our nonviolence bot: “Nonviolence doesn’t seem to be working with the wars in Gaza and Iran. It did work years ago.” Check out the response. From the Shinzen Bot on meditation to the 100 questions for the Flourish Bot on the mechanics of personal and social uplift — do check them out. Explore Awakin AI → 🕊 METTA CIRCLES After the first round, where the Circle Agent matched 50 podmates into small groups by resonance rather than demographics, the majority of groups continued on their own. Round two is forming → 🌳 IN INDIA Building off the March retreat, inspired teachers are convening for this year’s Educators Retreat. What does compassion in the classroom actually feel like? Can silence, listening, and presence become educational tools? What shifts when learning moves from transaction to relationship? As they put it: “We won’t resolve these. We’ll live inside them, and let them live inside us.” ✍ FROM NIPUN’S KEYBOARD Latest in the 2026 series of 12 essays around AI + Humanity: The Beam, where Nipun explores our approach to technology through a 1656 physics experiment: two pendulum clocks on a wooden beam synchronized on their own — not because the beam kept time, but because it transmitted vibrations too subtle for the eye. “Most AI is designed to be the clock. We are building tools designed to be the beam. Tech that helps humans find each other’s rhythm — and then disappears.” 📖 ICYMI ON DAILYGOOD Trupti’s touching reflection on a woman who gave what she didn’t have. A firefighter shares what he learned from surviving burns as a child: I Suffered Burns, Then I Became a Firefighter. When the embodied teacher becomes the curriculum. And a quietly beautiful piece on how nuns say goodbye after one of their dear sisters passed. ServiceSpace incubates volunteer-run projects that nurture a culture of generosity and uplift the spiritual commons. Such small acts of service unlock an inner transformation that sustains external impact. Get Involved Join as an individual • Partner as an organization Unsubscribe • Newsletter Archives • Contact Us