Image by Eric
1. Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation on The New York Times from John Lewis. “Though I am gone, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe.” In related news, On Being with Krista Tippett: John Lewis Love in Action (from 2017), and My Eulogy for Congressman John Lewis from Barack Obama.
2. Tape Quilts from Austin Kleon.
3. How To Fail With Elizabeth Day “is a podcast that celebrates the things that haven’t gone right. Every week, a new interviewee explores what their failures taught them about how to succeed better.”
4. Showing Up Even When You’re Not Feeling It on Zen Habits.
5. How to Find Peace and Calm in a Chaotic World from Zen Psychiatry.
6. Bertice Berry, PhD on Instagram. Her almost daily videos are the exact pep talk we need.
7. Just a List of Hundreds of Businesses Led by Black Women+.
8. Why Oprah Gave Up Her Cover for the First Time Ever to Honor Breonna Taylor.
9. Atlanta Teen Loses Both Parents To COVID-19 Just Days Apart. I had to remind someone today that even though the percentage of people dying from COVID-19 (percentage not total number) is “small,” if those are people you love, the number is infinite.
10. Processing The Pandemic on TED Radio Hour, “Between the pandemic and America’s reckoning with racism and police brutality, many of us are anxious, angry, depressed. This hour, TED Fellow and writer Laurel Braitman helps us process it all.”
11. The Lighting in this Kathmandu Street Photography Series is Beautiful.
12. How Writing Can Help Support Your Mental Health.
13. Colorful Embroidered Landscapes Celebrates the Beauty of Mother Nature.
14. Fox found with impressive shoe collection in Berlin.
15. Woman has been doodling a wall in her house every day of quarantine.
16. See Alanis Morissette’s Daughter Sabotage Her ‘Ablaze’ Performance on ‘Fallon.’
17. Recipe I want to try: three-ingredient summertime salsa.
18. ‘White Fragility’ Is Everywhere. But Does Antiracism Training Work? on The New York Times. In related news, The limits of White Fragility‘s anti-racism and The Wages of Woke: How Robin DiAngelo got rich peddling ‘white fragility’.
19. The Lynn Shelton That Marc Maron Knew on The New York Times. “The comedian and podcaster reflects on his relationship with the filmmaker and TV director who died unexpectedly in May.”
20. Poetry Is A Lifeline: An Ode To Andrea Gibson.
21. Every self-help book ever, boiled down to 11 simple rules.
22. Navajo Nation Sees Farming Renaissance During Coronavirus Pandemic.
24. The Cult of Selfishness Is Killing America on The New York Times. “Many on the right are enraged at any suggestion that their actions should take other people’s welfare into account…This rage is sometimes portrayed as love of freedom… What they call ‘freedom’ is actually absence of responsibility.”
25. Ramy Is Best When It’s Not About Ramy. Season two of Ramy on Hulu was a tough watch. There were a few times I almost gave up. Ramy went from quirky, awkward, never getting it right to just plain awful, or maybe rather my perception of him is what changed not his character. Maybe he was awful before and I just couldn’t see it. If there’s a season three, I hope it’s him redeeming himself.
26. Meals for Relatives – COVID-19 Relief in Rapid City. “We are the Mni Luzahan Tiospaye coming together to help solve problems and relieve some suffering for people in Rapid City. We are collecting funds to provide hot homemade meals to families and individuals enduring COVID-19 in Rapid City. Many families must separate and isolate as well, so we are helping people stuck at home. We are providing aid packages with traditional medicines, cleaning supplies and PPE to families and communities in Rapid City as well. Please help us.”
27. The Filmmaker Giving DIY a New Meaning, another good video from Great Big Story. “You’d be hard pressed to find another filmmaker like Richard R.G. Miller. Born and raised in Wichita, Kansas, Miller has spent the better part of the last 40 years creating his own unique style of D.I.Y. films. Impressively, he has written, directed, produced, shot and acted in each of his 46 films. Miller’s work ethic is a source of inspiration for filmmakers and non-filmmakers alike.”
2. The pool. I’m so glad that even though I don’t have access to a lot of things I used to do regularly for my body, I still can get in the pool, (and no, I don’t wear my mask in the pool).
3. New friends for Ringo. Our first two dogs, Obi and Dexter, had a girlfriend named Brea. They absolutely adored her. Obi and Dexter went first, and Brea made it until a few months ago, was 16 years old. Her family just got a new puppy, Juni, and since Ringo is now our only dog, we had to make sure they met each other. I also got Ringo some new babies to murder.
5. My tiny family. I was saying to a friend recently that I feel so lucky that during this chaotic, stressful season, I get to spend time with beings I really like to be around. Ringo is not making things easy: after a lingering wonky belly and possibly acid reflux and then a sprained ankle, there was an incident at the park where he may or may not have swallowed a bone (turns out he didn’t). We are taking him in on Monday to check in with his vet, just to be sure we haven’t missed anything. After you unexpectedly lose your other dog, you don’t really have the bandwidth for anything to be wrong with the one that’s left.
Bonus joy: a new lounge chair, hanging out with Kerri and Juni, writing and hanging out with Mikalina, all the things that are supporting my state of mind right now, good books, good podcasts, good TV, good movies, good music, texting with Chloe’ and my mom and brother, peaches, cheddar cayenne biscuits, bran muffins with dried raspberries, cucumbers from the garden, a/c, pay day, resting in a dark room in the afternoon, watching Forensic Files with Eric, naps, how green the backyard grass stayed this summer, rain, Obama’s eulogy for John Lewis, the internet, all those who continue to work and put themselves at risk so we can have the products and services we need, good neighbors, baby animals, comedy, reading in bed at night while Ringo and Eric sleep.