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

1. Poetry: Watching the War by J.R. Solonche and The Ex by Charlotte Innes and Caregiving, Car Crashes, and Charcoal People by Jimmy Pappas on Rattle, Panegyric by Leila Farjami and Guava Jelly by Quinn Franzen on The Slowdown with Maggie Smith, Newborn Soul and At the Poetry Slam Championship in Kansas by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, What Stillness by Laura Foley on Hearth Poems, Mercy by Joy Sullivan shared by Patti Digh, and next in a series of permission slips by Maya Stein.

2. Glen Hansard, Irish songwriter and ‘Once’ star, dies at 56. So sad. 💔 Also, Glen Hansard, Frontman of Irish Band the Frames, Dies at 56 on The New York Times. (gift link) “The popular singer-songwriter won, with Markéta Irglová, an Oscar for the song ‘Falling Slowly’ from the film ‘Once.'”

3. A List: The things that are quieting my heart. “Where I’m Finding Peace at a Noisy Time” by Elissa Altman on Poor Man’s Feast. Also from Elissa, Where You Used to Be: On the Intersection of Art-Making and Grief.

4. The Grief Iceberg by Cheryl Strayed. “One of the great, isolating addlements of grief is the lack of language to describe that difference—that ability to function and be ‘okay’ and back to things, while suffering tremendously. We don’t have a word for that state of being, perhaps because we’re assured by dichotomies. We don’t want to make a word for the awful land of living/suffering, where the bereaved are forced to live. It is reassuring to believe there is this or that and nothing in between. It is clarifying to stand on one shore or the other. But grief has no shore, as every honest account of the experience tells us. Grief is sinking into the depths of the muddiest waters and trying to swim to the surface and eventually float.”

5. 35 delightful images from the 2026 International Pet Photography Awards.

6. Becoming the root by Lisa Olivera on Human Stuff. “Notes on being what you’re waiting for.”

7. I thought I would have it all figured out by now by Brad Montague on The Enthusiast for his 45th birthday.

8. A good idea is not an obligation by Alix on Earth & Verse. “Creative excitement, financial reality, and learning to pause.”

9. 13 surprising reasons you’re always dog tired – and what to do about it on The Guardian. “Feel lethargic even after a full night’s sleep? From not enough fibre to too much sitting, experts explain why your get up and go has got up and gone.”

10. A Glorian Is a Moment of Grace: An Interview with Terry Tempest Williams on Emergence Magazine. “In this intimate conversation, Terry Tempest Williams shares the dream that set in motion her ongoing work of attending to ‘the Glorians’—moments of wonder, loss, and joy that fuse our attention with the mystery of Earth. Terry explores how visitations from the Glorians can help us engage with a spiritual life that recognizes wildness as the taproot of our consciousness.” Not sure if I’ve said it here but I’m currently obsessed with Terry Tempest Williams, am working my way through everything she’s ever written.

1. Morning walks: It was the Wild Kingdom out there this week: red tailed hawks squawking, a pack of coyotes yipping, flocks of crows murdering, mama deer with multiple babies, beavers swimming, herons fishing and one taking a bath in the river, an owl hunting, and toads hopping across the trail. That doesn’t even count all the ducks, geese, and rabbits we see on the regular. It’s one of my favorite things about where we live: all the animals.

Shaking off the water from their morning bath, so fluffy!

2. Practice. Nothing is “back to normal” and I’m not even sure what the new normal looks like, but practice is always there and I can always go back to it, start over, begin again: meditation, yoga — in particular at Red Sage, and writing — especially with my Friday morning group. Moving my body also feels like it should count, so along with morning walks there’s also getting back in the pool and going to Pilates.

3. Reading. Our book club pick was really good this time, (Wild Dark Shore), and am excited to talk about it this weekend with them. I just finished reading Kin by Tayari Jones and really liked it. I also already listened to most of the audio and read most of the ebook version of Heart Minded: How to Hold Yourself and Others in Love by Sarah Blondin, and now I’m working my way through the paper copy, underlining and highlighting and adding notes. It’s given me an idea for a gentle, restorative yoga class series I want to teach, as well as being so helpful to me personally. I’m also still loving working my way through every book Terry Tempest Williams ever wrote, and it’s making me want to go back and read A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold which I first read as an undergraduate.

4. Streaming content. Yes, most of my services are problematic, I know, but they continue to keep me afloat when so much else on the internet is crap. This week I watched Rooster on HBO and really enjoyed it. In terms of the rules and consequences around teaching at a university, it wasn’t very accurate, but it was still fun. I started watching Dish podcast after seeing some clips and really like it. I continue to work my way through Mike Birbiglia’s Working it Out and Amy Poehler’s Good Hang after having caught up with all four seasons of Do You Need a Ride with Chris Fairbanks and Karen Kilgariff. I also found a really good yoga mix on Spotify for class this week, except for that one song that had sounds that made us think there was a cat loose and crying somewhere in the clinic. As soon as I heard about Glen Hansard’s passing, I purchased access to Once, the gorgeous movie where I first heard him play and sing that has one of the best soundtracks ever, (the scenes of him on his motorcycle are hard to rewatch under the circumstances).

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. I’m a bit more settled this week but still pretty out of sorts. It’s a heavy season in my life and I’m trying to come to terms with the hard truths of aging and death and the lack of control I have over any of it. I am making an effort to find peace of mind amidst the chaos and calamity that is life and probably will until mine is over. Ringo is continuing to follow me everywhere and if he isn’t right with me, he’s recently checked on me. Right now, he is on the floor next to me, and I don’t mind that at all.

Bonus joy: our “new” bed (not sure when it stops being new), peaches, any pie that Eric makes and I get to eat, onion poppy seed buns, the sound of hummingbirds, being a huge dork and telling that guy we see walking at Kestrel sometimes about the coyotes we heard and him saying, “that’s so cool!”, the mama crossing the road with three babies and how everyone stopped and waited for her and were smiling as they drove away after they’d safety gotten to the other side of the road, cool air in the morning, our whole house fan, a/c, being able to get the laundry done before it gets too hot out, pay day, ink refills for my favorite pens, texting with Chloe’ and Chris, sitting in the sauna after being in the pool, the hydromassage chair, Tracy’s small group training class, how good Ringo did at his appointment on Monday, grapefruit Bubly, how Venture let it slide that I forgot he doesn’t like me to pet him (he’s just so adorable it’s hard to remember sometimes) and the way he sighed after I read that poem during shavasana, that Megan was there for yoga after not being able to come for a long time, how comfortable they all are after practicing with me for so long — all the jokes and the complaining, talking with Wendy about life stuff before we started writing, the look Ringo gave me when Wendy’s cat showed up while we were writing and meowed really loud, how excited he was about the cat that was sitting on our front porch when we opened the door to leave for our walk this morning, how he sometimes so clearly understands what we are saying, other people’s gardens and pets and kids, leftovers, the flowers Eric got me, naps, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.