Monthly Archives: January 2016

Something Good

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Lory State Park, image by Eric

Lory State Park, image by Eric

1. The King Center, “Established in 1968 by Mrs. Coretta Scott King, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (‘The King Center’) has been a global destination, resource center and community institution for over a quarter century.” Their website has an amazing archive of materials worth checking out.

2. Good stuff from Terrible Minds: Self-Care For Writers: Some Tips and Your 2016 Authorial Mandate Is Here: Be The Writer That You Are, Not The Writer Other People Want You To Be and Death Becomes Us.

3. To Be Happier, Start Thinking More About Your Death, an Op-Ed on The New York Times by Arthur C. Brooks about an important and challenging shift in perspective.

4. Watch Every #SmartGirlsAsk Answer From the 2016 Golden Globes. These are so much more interesting than “who are you wearing?”

5. A New Year. A Fresh Start. #3bravethings I love Diana’s alternative to making New Year’s Resolutions. What would your three brave things be?

6. It’s Nice to See You, another great response to Oprah’s Weight Watcher’s deal.

7. That time David Bowie almost became a Buddhist monk — and what he said (and sang) about that time on Lion’s Roar. I hadn’t heard this before. So fascinating. I love the idea that we all have a particular way that we can be of most benefit.

8. Alessia Cara covered “Hotline Bling” and “Magnets” and now we know heaven. I love Alessia Cara, had no idea she was so young but her voice has that magic timeless quality all the best artists do.

9. How to Stop the Doubting Yourself / Quitting/ Looking for a Magic Solution Cycle – Today. Jennifer Louden is one of those teachers, women, beings that is able to tell the truth, the whole truth even the brutal parts, but always in the end offer some relief. It’s a particular kind of magic.

10. The (Not So) Tell-Tale (Fat) Heart from Dances With Fat, which makes a very important point about the “facts” we’ve been fed.

11. Dreamy Animated Light Paintings by Lucea Spinelli. These are amazing, but they also make me a bit dizzy if I look at them for too long.

12. Weight-Bias Within The Eating Disorder Recovery Movement. “How you can combat fat-phobia in the eating disorder recovery community.”

13. Every Meeting You’ve Ever Been To (In Two Minutes). Hilarious!

14. I can’t from The Bloggess — on sadness and regret, and the importance of telling people they matter while you still can.

15. 50 Motivating Quotes for Your Career, inspiration from Laura Simms, “50 of my favorite quotations, organized by theme: Purpose, Action, Courage, Creativity, and Leadership. Find a favorite for today, and Pin this post so you can come back when you need something different.”

16. Storyteller Captures ‘Humans Of The Colorado Trail.’ David Fanning (of Fort Collins, where I live) “collected about 100 stories like this on his blog, and is now working on a book.” (Inspired by Humans of New York, one of my favorite things e v e r). Such a cool project.

17. Oregon to Patagonia, “Jedidiah Jenkins’ parents once walked across America, ending their journey in Oregon. Now, Jedidiah is on an extraordinary journey himself, picking up where his parents left off and traveling south to Patagonia, Chile — by bicycle.” His pictures are amazing.

18. A great post from Austin Kleon about the book Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers.

19. These genius “Seabins” vacuum garbage and pollution right out of the ocean. A really great idea. More of this, please.

20. 19 Lasagnas for Veggie Lovers, a great set of recipes from The New York Times. One disclaimer: I don’t agree with how they’ve marked some of these as “healthy,” thus categorizing them into “good” and “bad” food.

21. The Spaces Between the Consonants by Jena Schwartz, a great piece on On Being.

22. This Selfie Taking Cat Takes Better Selfies Than You. Oh how I love this dude.

23. Truthbomb #975 from Danielle LaPorte, “Choose kind over cool.”

24. Why I love the cards (and a giveaway!) from Susannah Conway.

25. Meditation for Beginners: 20 Practical Tips for Understanding the Mind, great set of tips from Zen Habits.

26. Why Owning 24 Items of Clothing Is Good For My Creativity, (thanks for the link, Tammy).

27. Adele Carpool Karaoke. Love it!

28. Recipe: Lemon & Thyme Syrup Cake from decor8. Yum.

29. It’s all a mistake, wisdom from Seth Godin.

30. President Obama’s 2016 State of the Union Address.

Gratitude Friday

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sleepysam031. Two years ago today, we went to pick up Ringo Blue and bring him home. The above picture was Sam that morning. He had no idea how his life was about to change. My wish for him on that day was “May little Ringo Blue love you as much as we do, may you love each other like Obi and Dexter did.” It didn’t work out quite that way, but it has worked out. As grateful as I am for Ringo as I remember that day, I’m even more grateful that we figured out what was wrong with Sam, who two years ago was in so much discomfort, the cause of which was a mystery to every vet we’d taken him to, that we were afraid we’d lose him.

He was so tiny

He was so tiny.

2. Wild Writing. I missed the first class of this session last week because I’d agreed to sub a yoga class, forgetting that we were starting the spring session that same morning. I’m so excited to get back to it. It is such a magic practice, and as much as I love leading other people in it, I love being led by Laurie even more.

3. Good friends, making the time to see each other or connect some other way (because some of my favorite people I’ve never even met in person), being able to pick up right where we left off even if it’s been a long time in between, talking so long we have to move the conversation to a second location.

4. Paid sick leave. I had only been back at work one full day and the very next morning I woke up feeling like crap. The crud is still lingering, but thankfully I can do a bit of work and then come home and rest when I’m worn out and still get paid for a full day.

5. Eric. He has hard things just like everybody else, but he doesn’t give up. He still finds things to be happy about, still makes me laugh so hard, is so kind, takes such good care of our dogs.

Bonus joy: my foot still better and getting stronger, good tv to watch when all I can manage is to lie on the couch, pictures and video of the dogs when they were little so I can remember how tiny and soft and cute (but not have to remember any of the hard stuff), wool socks, soft comfortable lounge pants, flowers on my writing desk, clean water, my new bathroom (yes, still), new towels, fresh pineapple, clementines, avocado, a working furnace, texts from my brother, the internet, blooms on my Christmas cacti, and after a whole year without a new bloom on my “ever blooming” Amaryllis the tiniest bud.