November | 2017 | Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray)

City Park Lake, image by Eric

1. December Reflections, 2017 with Susannah Conway. “The idea is simply to take a photograph (and share it if you wish) every day in December while reflecting back over the year. I’ve provided a list of daily prompts with a mix of things to photograph — for example: sparkle, red, skyline — and things to ponder. The ponder prompts are an extra invitation to pause for a moment and consider some of your favourite bits of 2017. Share your treasured photos from the year alongside your thoughts. Dig further into the prompts privately in your journal. You may feel moved to create paintings or collages or poems. December Reflections started as a photo project but feel free to take it in any direction that calls to you!”

2. Sleep-over at the library. “Falling asleep in a library is typically the hallmark of an overstressed student, slumped over a desk piled with books in a fit of exam-induced exhaustion. But at this library in a small Welsh village, sleeping among the books is part of the appeal.”

3. 30 Questions I’ve Asked Myself Every Year for the Last 8 Years. I love a good list of prompts.

4. 5 Misconceptions About Highly Sensitive People That Need to Go Away.

5. What I learned from a year of dumpster diving in Australia.

6. Wisdom from Brave Girls Club. This one feels like it was written just for me, but I’ll share it here just in case it was for you too.

Dear Brave Soul,
Listen for a minute, okay?
It’s time to stop waiting.
It’s time to become who you want to become and do what you want to do and learn what you want to learn and rest when you want to rest.
It’s time to take little pieces of your day and do terrific things that are beautiful and personal and unique and true.
Every day we can make progress toward our own big and little dreams. So no more waiting, okay?
It is time. Time to find peace, time to be happy, time to really live. It is time. Today.
You are so beloved. Right now.
xoxo

7. Strangled Roots and More Than One Kind of Silence from Jena Schwartz.

8. Farmland can spark urban renewal—and it’s happening in Detroit. (video)

9. These 10 companies control everything you buy. “Oxfam created a mind-boggling infographic that shows how interconnected consumer brands really are.”

10. Recipes I’d like to try: Vegan mayo and Scalloped Sweet Potatoes.

11. With ‘One Mississippi,’ The Moment For Women Storytellers Is Now. “As some of comedy’s icons have fallen, Tig Notaro continues to rise. We should make way for more women like her.”

12. Health Science Is Bullshit from College Humor. (video)

13. We Can’t Train Our Way to Racial Equity.

14. The Patel Family’s Immigrant Story. (video) “Ravi V Patel joins his family and friends in Chicago to take a trip down memory lane and learn about his father’s immigrant story.”

15. This Cat And Dog Love Travelling Together, And Their Pictures Are Absolutely Epic.

16. Thanksgiving for Native Americans: Four Voices on a Complicated Holiday from The New York Times.

17. Turns Out Tree-Kangaroos Exist, And It’s Impossible To Scroll Down This List Without Smiling.

18. An American Secret: The Untold Story Of Native American Enslavement.

19. Anyone for crickets? Finnish bakery sells bread made from insect. Considering the things we eat and take for granted as food, I’m not sure why eating bugs is viewed as anything out of the ordinary.

20. It is time to Give Back to Black Women for #GivingTuesday. (video)

21. A Texas teenager has a forever home just in time for the holidays after his former teacher adopted him on Friday.

22. This 23-year-old is doing her part to bring clean water to her Navajo community after decades of pollution and neglect. (video)

23. Don’t be afraid to talk about the real history behind Thanksgiving. (video)

24. Eliahu Pietruszka had grown up thinking his whole family had been killed in a Nazi death camp. (video) “This is the moment a 102-year-old Holocaust survivor meets the nephew he never knew he had.”

25. Trump Says He Passed On Being ‘Person Of The Year.’ ‘Time’ Says He’s ‘Incorrect.’ Liar, liar, you are a dumpster fire.

26. Words of wisdom from poet Andrea Gibson,

When I think the light is gone
I consider that it might just be too bright
for me to look at. Especially
if I’ve come directly from the dark.
Which I, and many of us have, lately.

27. Through Our Eyes: Puerto Rico. (video) “Here’s a glimpse at what life is like in post-hurricane Puerto Rico, where American citizens are still without clean water, food, or electricity.”

28. NYT Accused Of Normalizing White Nationalism In ‘Nazi Sympathizer’ Profile. In related news, from The New York Times, Readers Accuse Us of Normalizing a Nazi Sympathizer; We Respond.

1. Flowers in the bathroom. From Trader Joe’s, not the Farmer’s Market or my garden, but still one of my favorite things.

2. Morning walks. It’s fun to go alone with the dogs, but also good to go with all three of my boys. The sky this week was amazing, as always, and Eric pointed out that the true sunrise, the full measure of it, only really lasts for about five minutes.

3. Cache La Poudre River. If I can’t live near the ocean, at least I am within walking distance of the river.

4. The pictures Eric takes while he’s hiking, walking, riding, or napping with the dogs. He texts me pictures, and it’s the next best thing to being there.

5. My tiny family. It’s been so nice to spend more time with them this week.

6. Special occasion food. It was just the two (four) of us for Thanksgiving dinner this year, but that just means that with leftovers, we don’t have to cook for a few days, and there’s a fridge full of yum. I made a breakfast casserole this morning to add to the mix, and it is so good (it calls for store bought biscuits in a tube, but I make it with homemade cheddar cayenne biscuits instead). The apple pie Eric makes is sweetened with maple syrup and apple cider, and it’s so good.

Bonus joy: aqua aerobics, sitting in the sauna, not having to do anything if I don’t want to, good books, good TV (I’m watching the BBC series Happy Valley and loving it), stretching, hot apple cider, San Pelligrino orange sparkling water, breakfast burritos, a warm shower and a clean towel, a clean car (thanks, Eric), our new fence, answering questions with Eric (after 25 years, how are there things I still don’t know about him?!), texting with my brother and friends, a good nap, clean pjs and clean sheets, a new bed on its way (the new one we got isn’t working out, so fingers crossed this one is better).