August | 2016 | Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray)

From our walk this morning

1. Truth: It’s good to be home. I was sitting on my meditation cushion this morning while Eric and the dogs lounged on the couches in the other room, with John Jay & Rich on the radio in the background and the whole house fan pulling fresh cool air in from outside where a warm wind was blowing and the birds where singing, and it washed over me, “I’m so glad to be home.”

2. Truth: It’s hard to let go of some things. I’ve had the urge to purge ever since we got back from vacation, and yesterday I tackled a small built-in bookshelf in our living room where we keep DVDs, CDs, old VHS tapes, and apparently remotes to things we don’t even own anymore. I dusted and got rid of two shelves worth of things. It was hard to let go of some of them. For example, even though I know I can access just about any music I want online and only one of our cars has a CD player, it’s still hard to get rid of the CDs I’ve been collecting for so many years. As I looked through them, there were bands I’d forgotten about, that I loved, still love — K’s Choice, Everything But the Girl, Luther Vandross, LTD, Donna Summer, Go West, and so many more. Last year for Christmas, Eric burned almost all of those CDs onto one of our computers so I’d have copies of everything without needing to keep the actual hard copy, but I hadn’t been able to get rid of them yet. Yesterday, I did, along with a bunch of stuff that hadn’t made it back into our linen closet yet after having redone our bathroom.

3. Truth: Even though letting go is hard, I usually feel better once I do. I feel so much lighter, clearer, more peaceful without all that extra shit lying around gathering dust and making me feel bad. If I really don’t need it, letting it go makes room for something else, even if that something else is simply space. And if I lose a memory because I no longer have a thing to remind me, I supposed I have to be okay with that too.

One wish: May we all have a space to go home to, that feels comfortable and safe, that contains the things most precious to us, and may we let go of everything else with ease.

In my garden

1. This urban farmer is casually feeding New Orleans for free.

2. Meet Josh Coombes, hairdresser for the homeless.

3. Joey Dosik — Game Winner (Rec Center Version). “This cute little girl accidently crashed my music video and became the star!!” This is the best thing ever, how she can’t get close enough to him.

4. Life in a nutshell, a funny compilation of life fails. We can face the bad stuff if we don’t lose our sense of humor.

5. Michelle Obama’s DNC speech. We’ve been so lucky the past eight years.

6. Some fun, free stuff to do in August: August Break and Awake August. I’m doing them both, combined, using the August Break prompt as a spark for my Awake August post, (publishing them on Instagram). Here’s my day one Awake August post: “Morning light. Each morning, usually before the sun rises, I meditate — relaxing with myself, as I am — cultivating an internal light unchanged by the rise and fall of the day,” with my August Break picture, (the prompt was “morning light”).
morninglightaugustbreak

7. Please help me get my Service Dog! This is a really good cause, if you have a few extra bucks and would like to make someone’s life better.

8. Wisdom from Seth Godin, Narratives keep the feeling going and Empathy is difficult and Just because you’re right… .

9. Wisdom from Wayne Dyer, “When you live on a round planet, there’s no choosing sides.”

10. Wisdom from Banksy, “If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit.”

11. Crossing the threshold. Calling in the doulas. from Andrea Scher.

12. The Art of Drawing a Treasure Map from Jena Schwartz. I appreciate everything Jena writes, love so much of it, but this… There are no words for how much I adore it.

13. I asked 100 people from 1-100 to describe their body in 1 word. I can’t wait for this movie.

14. Wisdom from Pema Chödrön, “To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.”

15. Avoid these 7 Deadly Sins while Simplifying Your Life on Be More With Less.

16. Remembering we are ALL the same from Susannah Conway.

17. What to do when someone acts shitty from Jamie Greenwood.

18. This Cat Keeps Putting Its Paws In The Air And Nobody Knows Why.

19. Little Street Pantry Where People Can Leave Products For Those In Need. A twist on a little free library.

20. The elegant art of not giving a shit, which includes this very important distinction: “Knowing how to not give a shit doesn’t mean you never give a shit about anything. It just means that when you give a shit, it’s voluntary. You have a reason.”