Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray)

1. Poetry: What Every Woman Should Carry and After Turning Off the News and Knowing This Place by Julie Barton, After Bad News and Sacred by James Crews, Geranium by Karen Solie and Poem about everything except— by Amy Lemmon and Or am I a room with a roof taken off, still holding onto my idea of ceiling by Kelly Hoffer and Somewhere Else by Adam J. Gellings on The Slowdown with Maggie Smith, A Sign? and After by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, This human life by Maggie Smith and Interior: The Suburbs by Horace Gregory shared on Poets.org, Inheritance by DeMarcus Burke and Four Years Later by Julia Kolchinsky and Confrontation by Drew Rollins shared on Rattle, “Love / is paying attention” from Pádraig Ó Tuama, A Scrap of Blue from Alison Luterman in her recent newsletter, If this is all we get then maybe it’s okay that it’s messy from Jasmine on The Tiny Joy Project, It looks like the sky is coming apart and together at the same time by Maya Stein shared on Heart Poems, and What Every Woman Should Carry by Maura Dooley shared by Patti Digh. In related news, “This world is full of everything good, everything beautiful,” a new episode of On Being with Joy Harjo and Tracy K. Smith.

2. A Year of Kō on The Dewdrop. “We invite haiku poets to incorporate the kō phrases for the micro-season as prompts or inspirations into their haiku submissions. Please refer to our kō calendar, (below) which can serve as a guide for haiku poets to read, ruminate, reflect, and then write their own response in sync with the appropriate kō micro-season and publishing time frames.”

3. The Path, “a daily ritual on foot” by Danusha Laméris.

4. a mountain of clutter and chaos. “Is it my surroundings, or is it my brain?” by Elissa Altman.

5. Good stuff on The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz: He is Not Worth This, America and America Has Already Lost the War in Iran and Hey, Don’t Forget to Be Happy and Good People Have Had it With Faux Patriotism and Phony Faith and Lessons Trump Supporters Are Teaching Their Children (Whether They Know It or Not).

6. What Happens When a Neighborhood Is Built Around a Farm? “Agrihoods reimagine urban living by putting food, not cars, at the center of the community.”

7. You Can’t Give 100% to Everything All the Time. “On choosing what matters most, putting good things on the back burner, and why it’s okay to be sad about it” by Elizabeth Kleinfeld.

8. An Existential Guide to: Growing Old. “Old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read” on The Shadowed Archive.

9. The Habitual Disregard for Creative and Intellectual Work as Labor. “And why do we tangle up our self worth with work anyway?” by Ravynn K. Stringfield.

10. Years ago, novelist Tayari Jones snuck into a writing class. It changed her life.

11. Kristin Neff & Caverly Morgan: Self-Compassion as a Lifeboat. (podcast) “Can the simple act of being kind to yourself actually be a doorway to awakening? In this special episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon brings together two remarkable teachers whose friendship has sparked a revolutionary approach to inner transformation. Kristin Neff—the researcher who first measured self-compassion and author of Fierce Self-Compassion—joins Caverly Morgan, a meditation teacher and former Zen monk, to explore how self-compassion practices can become what they call ‘a lifeboat’ to our deepest nature. Together, they reveal why self-compassion isn’t just a psychological tool for feeling better—it’s a direct path to recognizing who we really are beyond our limited sense of self.”

12. How To Weave Friendship Into Everyday Life on Culture Study.

13. One Good Small Thing. “Take it when you can get it” by Jami Attenberg. Such a sweet story.

14. The Texture of Wartime Monet by Summer Brennan.

15. What Lurks Beneath and What Love Reveals, “& Lucy Kalanithi on a different way of loving” on The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad.

16. The late-winter urge to flee my life and the subtle reinvention on Earth & Verse.

17. Seals, shipwrecks and a screaming swallower: Underwater Photographer of the Year 2026 – in pictures.

18. Recipes I want to try: Perfect Mexican Rice Every Single Time and How to Make Mexican Corn Hotcakes.

19. Her husband wanted to use ChatGPT to create sustainable housing. Then it took over his life. “Kate Fox says Joe Ceccanti was the ‘most hopeful person’ before he started spending 12 hours a day with a chatbot.”

20. A CBS News personality is starting his own media company – but keeping his day job. “David Begnaud is launching an independent media company using the beehiiv platform while remaining a contributor at the network.”

21. Love Stories on 1440. “Below are more than 100 love stories submitted by our over 4.7M readers. Whenever you need a little lift, scroll through and let your fellow readers warm your heart, coax a chuckle, give you a lesson to ponder, and maybe even bring a tear to your eye.”

22. Feeling lonely? Six ways to connect with friends – even when busy.

23. Object-ives #24: The Brown Wall-to-Wall Carpet of My Childhood Home. “Many secrets were hidden in its mottled earth” by Sumitra Mattai.

24. The winter alters what is possible. “Don’t mistake dormancy for failure” by Patti Digh.

25. LISTERS: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching. (video) “Two brothers learn about competitive birdwatching by becoming birdwatchers—spending a year living in a used minivan, traveling the country to compete in a ‘Big Year’.”

26. Lost Words, a Rhinoceros and Soul Connections by Laura Lentz on Writing at Red Lights.

27. Lauren Groff answers the Orion Questionnaire. “In which we get to know our favorite writers better by exploring the sacred and mundane.”

28. ‘Truly accessible to everyone’: how to start yoga. “Some think yoga isn’t for them – but there’s ‘something for everybody’. Experts share what to know about the mindful practice that can improve strength and sleep.”

29. Watched by Millions, ‘People’s State of the Union’ Counters Unhinged Trump. “‘We live in a country where we have one reality for everyday people and another for the rich and the well-connected and the well-protected,’ said Rep. Summer Lee.” In related news, in her rebuttal to the president’s State of the Union speech, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger questions whether Americans feel the ‘golden age’ Trump describes.

30. Scams, hustles and false idols that were supposed to save us, “a partial accounting” by Garrett Bucks on The White Pages.

31. What If Your Sanctuary Gets Destroyed? “When our place changes, even overnight, our stories stop making sense—until we redraw the world around us” by Janisse Ray on Trackless Wild.

32. The Sunday Letter Project. “The Sunday Letter Project is a weekly invitation to balance. To recalibrate, reconnect, and return home. We believe that letter-writing is the perfect antidote to this generation’s dependence on technology – it allows you to slip back into a time where the world felt less frantic and more spacious. By signing up for the project, you will be invited to take a pledge: a pledge to take a pocket of time each Sunday and dedicate it to yourself and your loved ones. To write, to ponder, to savour. To regenerate a practice that has connected humans for generations and is starting to be lost. We believe letter writing is a unique way that we can find our way home as humans, and we invite you to join us.”

33. Eight Tenets by Elizabeth Hawes on The Sun.

34. If I want to ever be okay — “on living this life, when there is no easier world” from Britchida.

35. And finally, this meme. Because it made me giggle.

1. Practice. I had a really hard week, and some of the things that saved me were a guided meditation to ease anxiety, teaching my yoga class at Red Sage, and writing with my Friday morning sangha.

2. Morning rest in the blue light with the blue dog. There were no morning walks because Ringo has been struggling with some pain in his back end, and we’ve been resting him and working with his “team” to get it sorted.

3. Sometimes comfort is a loaf of cinnamon swirl bread from The Bread Chic. Sometimes, it is an emergency therapy session. Sometimes it is a nap. Sometimes it is a good cry. Sometimes it is a poem. Sometimes it is a warm shower. Sometimes it is a hug in the kitchen. Sometimes it is a slow drive around the cemetery with all the windows rolled down. Sometimes it is texting with Chloe’ and Chris, without even telling them you are struggling. Sometimes it’s a massage with Dana where you tell her exactly all the ways you are struggling. Sometimes it is watching part of a movie. Sometimes it is listening to a podcast or some Teddy Swims loud in the car with all the windows rolled down even if it means you have to turn on the heat. Sometimes it is drinking a can of grapefruit Bubly sparkling water. Sometimes it is canceled plans. Sometimes it is not finishing the book you are reading and starting another. Sometimes it is sending what feels like the perfect gift through snail mail. Sometimes it’s butter or cheese or something salty. Sometimes it’s your dog’s vet seeing that you are worried and saying something, and then telling you, “I’ll take care of him like he’s my own dog, without all the crying” and knowing for sure she’s telling you the truth. Sometimes it’s making a joke and other times it’s keeping quiet. I’m grateful for all the forms it takes.

4. Lounging in the sun in the backyard with your dog. Am I aware that all the sun and warmth we’ve had this winter is bad news, that it’s going to lead to dry ground and increased fire danger and too much heat this summer? Yup. Do I know that it is a sign of the climate crisis, soon to be apocalypse? Yes, absolutely. Would I rather have colder temperatures and lots of snow? For sure. Did I allow myself to enjoy it anyway. Yes, yes I did.

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. Like I said, this week and honestly the week before it were so hard, but still, there’s no one I’d rather do it with, no one I’d rather do my life with, including all the hard parts.

Bonus joy: Annie’s mac & cheese, burritos, toast, pay day, a big glass of cold clean water, Ringo out in the backyard barking, Ringo’s “team” of doctors, getting in the pool, sitting in the sauna, chatting with Sally, citrus, pickled red onions, texts from Monica and Cynthia and Jessamy, the things I brought home from Mom’s that I see and use at my house now, a hot cup of coffee and warm mug of tea, finding tiny pockets of calm, tiny brass animals — the ones I’ve kept and the ones I’ve given away, online shopping, listening to comedy albums at night with Eric instead of watching TV (not that I have anything against watching TV), video shorts on YouTube, tortilla chips, plantain chips, how I always feel better after doing yoga, that tiny corgi walking by our house as I was leaving today who I said “hi” to and how happy it made her person, other people’s kids and pets, Ringo’s appetite, the riot of bird song in the backyard, to be known and loved anyway, making each other laugh, ice cubes, naps, libraries and librarians, poetry and poets, comedy and comedians, music and musicians, stickers, blank notebooks and pens with refillable ink, downloading books from the library onto my Kindle, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.