I first found about Ode Magazine a year ago from a friend. I like to think she showed it to me because she thinks that I am an intelligent optimist, but really it was because there was an article about great bookstores from around the world. I read the article. I also read every other word in the issue.

Ode was founded in 1995 in the Netherlands by Jurriaan Kamp and Helene de Puy. Kamp, hoping to create a magazine that was open to new inspirations and new visions from around the world.

For the first nine years, Ode was published in Dutch. But in the summer of 2004 Kamp and de Puy, who are partners in marriage as well as in publishing, moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to launch the English-language edition of the magazine. Lucky for us!

I am grateful to Lisa for sharing Ode with me. In print and online, Ode’s aim is to “bring a new reality into view, to explore opportunities for positive change in our daily lives and our daily minds.” With monthly features like Possibilities, People, and Passion, it seems to me they are doing just that.

The nonprofit sector is full of intelligent optimists. I suspect that if you are reading this you are one of them. So go subscribe to Ode, or in the very least, check out their online version. The will even send you an issue for free. [NQ]

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