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

1. Morning walks. Some of what was seen on this week’s morning walks: foxes, raccoons, beavers, herons, and a set of trash cans that are clearly a message for someone but in a very isolated parking lot that seems an odd place to leave it.

2. Making art, with and for people. Janice and I hung out on Zoom and I made a collage and did some painting. My small group fitness training class instructor had told me she’d had a dream that I showed up at her house with a beat up yellow hippie van covered in flowers and gifted it to her saying, “Thanks for the training.” So I painted her a tiny one, handed it to her before our next session and said, “Thanks for the training!”

3. Spring snow. We woke up to a surprising amount this morning. On Tuesday it snowed much of the day, but only about three or four inches and the ground was so warm it didn’t stick to the sidewalks or the road and the sun came out on Wednesday and melted it all. When I saw we were supposed to get more snow overnight, I expected more of the same but instead we got six inches. Things are really started to turn green because of the moisture, the sun and warmer daytime temperatures.

4. Reading and writing. It was a really good week for both.

5. My tiny family, tiny home, tiny life. I love it here. Ringo had a visit with his physical therapist and fourth favorite person this week, (yes, there’s a ranking: Eric, then me, then Teri, and then a tie between Chloe’ and Jeff). He doesn’t really need therapy anymore, is doing really well and back to running, but he loves seeing Teri so much and the work they do together is play to him, a working dog, so I make sure to take him once a month. It also helps me to know just how Ringo is doing physically, as Teri can tell me if anywhere is particularly tight or stiff and I can work on that with him at home. I usually let him go back on his own because with me there, he gets too distracted. However, this week I wanted to see the space where they work with different eyes because I’m going to start teaching yoga for their doctors and technicians and staff again and they are in a new building, so I went back for just a few minutes at the beginning to take a closer look. I noticed then, as I had when she came out to get him and then when we left, that even though he loves Teri so much, I can tell he loves me even more. For a dog I wouldn’t really call affectionate, that makes me really happy.

Bonus joy: sitting with Eric on the couch doing nothing, making each other laugh, watching Antiques Roadshow together, tax refunds, cooking together, the birds in my feeder, the way Ringo noticed the giant Northern Flicker in the feeder and stood up on my desk to bark at it, the way he’s been following me into my office in the mornings and napping on the floor behind me while I write (there’s a whole bed set up under the desk but he’s my only dog who won’t lay there if I’m sitting at the desk), two of my house plants in bloom, glue stick and paint, raspberries, Dot’s Honey Mustard Pretzel Sticks, that Eric was able to hit the brakes and swerve into an empty turn lane instead of getting smashed by a giant truck that pulled in front of him, walnuts, gingerbread, stickers and magnets, my bed, flannel sheets, down blankets and pillows and coats, when I’m in my office blogging while Eric and Ringo are napping on the couch to the sound of the XM Chill Hop station and washing machine, how bright it is at night or early in the morning when it snows, plans to get dinner at Chili House with Chelsey and Jon, other people’s dogs and kids, how much people like the pictures I take, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.

1. Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by. “From Aristotle to Iris Murdoch: what the greatest minds of the past 2,500 years have to tell us about the good life.”

2. How do you take a picture of happiness? We asked photographers to surprise us. Today is International Day of Happiness.

3. I Love You, Now Leave Me Alone: What Friendship Means to an Introvert on The New York Times. “It can be hard to reconcile the need for close connections with the urge to cancel plans. Experts say it’s a matter of taking control and finding your comfort zone.”

4. Time doesn’t have to be money. “Two new books, Jenny Odell’s Saving Time and Pooja Laksmin’s Real Self-Care, offer a framework for thinking about the world beyond capitalism.”

5. Good stuff from Seth Godin: Is it possible to care at scale? and Conspicuous (non) consumption.

6. Healing the Heart, a poem from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.

7. Ms. Petersen Went Up the Mountain Herself. “What matters, I think, is this continual work of constructing a life that ultimately feels chosen. That doesn’t necessarily mean controlled; there is so much in life we can’t schedule, change, manage, or even anticipate, all manner of disappointments and disasters and swift left turns. But we can choose how we navigate those obstacles and valleys, how we move towards and through and away from others, how we cultivate precious corners for ourselves and also feasts of connection and intimacy.”

8. Weight Watchers Expands Their Harmful Model – Adding Prescription Drugs.

9. Learning to hold sorrow. Because, “if our hearts are working, sorrow is unavoidable. Or, more to the point, sorrow is the sign that we are connected to what is important to us—that we are connected to our desires, our love, our hope, our integrity. Sorrow is the loss of something we hold dear.”

10. Whiteness is a Hungry Ghost.

11. You have to really love your idea from Austin Kleon.

12. How to Escape ‘Faux Self-Care’ on The New York Times. “Dr. Pooja Lakshmin, a psychiatrist who specializes in women’s health, says you don’t need bubble baths to beat burnout. Here’s what she says to do instead.”

13. The Best Foods High in Fiber. I’m currently obsessed with fiber, understandably so.

14. Wellness, bootstraps, and gurus: the new toxic mental health cheerleaders. “Toxic positivity, the sunny side up mindset that has a dark side.”

15. Yoga Has a Body Shaming Problem…Still. “We all need to take an honest look at where we actually are and commit to moving past it.”

16. A veterinarian says pets have a lot to teach us about love and grief.

17. More on The Whale: The Whale’s Point of View (“The Oscar-nominated film is not just cruelly fatphobic; it is irredeemably juvenile”), and Fat Suit Fart Attack: The Whale (“I Deserve $120,000 for Watching This Movie”), and Brendan Fraser Deserves The World, But The Whale Deserved Nothing.

18. How Introverts Can Overcome Limiting Beliefs.

19. Ghost Story by Maggie Smith on Brevity. She has a memoir coming out and this piece is part of it. I am looking forward to reading the whole book because, as I’ve always said, poets write some of the best memoirs.

20. Five things you thought were “normal” that were actually emotional neglect. (Instagram reel) *sigh*

21. Fear is not necessarily a “no” from Andrea Gibson. (Instagram reel)

22. ‘There was cruelty and unpleasantness’: Emily Watson on school, stardom and sex scenes in her 50s. “The actor grew up in an alleged cult and was expelled after her explicit role in Breaking the Waves. She discusses method acting, the #MeToo movement and mixing work and family.”

23. 6 early entries we love from the 2023 NPR Student Podcast Challenge.

24. Covid has not affected people’s happiness around world, study reveals. “World Happiness Report finds higher levels of benevolence in all global regions than before the pandemic.”

25. Woman lives in a tree for two years to save it from loggers. “Julia Butterfly Hill’s two-year tree sit was an admirable act of environmental activism, but it is important to acknowledge the work of marginalized communities too.”

26. New music from Furns, one of my favorite groups. “FURNS is the name of the Danish power couple with the distinctive logo. With their airy minimal electronic soulful vibes they have captured the hearts of millions of listeners around the globe. Monika Faludi and Mathias Dahl Andreasen AKA. FURNS write, compose, record, produce, mix and master all of their work in FURNS Studio, based in the outskirts of Copenhagen.” If you don’t have Spotify, you can also listen to them on YouTube.