February | 2018 | Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray)

1. Morning walks. They’ve been a bit unusual this past week because Sam has had a tiny limp that won’t go away (only happens when he first gets up after having been resting for a bit, and he only limps about 3 or 4 steps, so you barely notice it, but he’s 8 years old now and we have to be careful) so we’ve been making him rest. We have a vet appointment scheduled for next week just in case it doesn’t clear up. You might not know this about me, but anything like that makes me anxious, because I always worry that every little weird thing is the first sign of cancer, and not just cancer but fatal cancer, because it’s happened to us like that two times and I keep expecting it to happen again because so far that’s been our reality. So an extra gratitude linked to this one is that while I worry, in this case Eric isn’t worried and has been able to keep me mostly sane.

2. The sky and the bare trees. The winter can be cold and dark, but it can also be beautiful.

3. Baby Ringo, back when his ears were just starting to stand up.

4. Teaching yoga. I subbed twice this week. This morning was almost a disaster because even though I KNEW I was teaching this morning, I forgot somewhere between Wednesday and today. I slept in and was being lazy, totally forgetting I was supposed to teach. Luckily my phone was in my hand when the notification went off, “Yoga: I’m Teaching!” and I only live five minutes away from the gym where I was subbing.

5. Aqua aerobics and then ten minutes in the sauna. Just look at how happy and pink it makes me.

6. My tiny family, and an explanation — many times when Eric and I text each other, we say “How’s it going?” and then include a selfie of wherever we happen to be at the moment. That’s why there’s a picture in this post of me at Om Ananda as I was getting ready to teach, and me in the gym locker room after aqua aerobics and the sauna, and the ones that follow of Eric and I with the dogs.

Bonus joy: Wild writing, Friday !!!, homemade pizza, a crispy gala apple with peanut butter, a working furnace, warm water, clean sheets, texting, Ringo doing well in his Parkour class even though we hadn’t had time to practice, how much more spacious my schedule is next week, and this cutie…

1. Judy Clement Wall: Artist, illustrator, author, love warrior. J posted the above picture this weekend on Instagram and Facebook, and you know I LOVE IT. I’ve been following J’s journey ever since she started sharing her “doodles” and to see her become so fully embodied as an artist gives me all the joy I can stand, and reminds me that I have to trust myself and keep trying.

2. Wisdom from Kelly Diels, “Sometimes you don’t even realize the burden you’ve been carrying until you put it down.”

3. White Denial is an American Tradition: It’s Time to Bury It. Amen. In related news, 7 things black people want their well-meaning white friends to know.

4. 10 ways to keep doing the work when you’re in it for the long haul from Jena Schwartz. Thank you so much for this, Jena, and for sticking with it, doing this work with me, helping me to keep from giving up. Also from Jena, Five Deep Breaths.

5. Harold Ramis didn’t intend “Groundhog Day” to be Buddhist, but it’s a dharma classic. This is the first movie Eric and I went out to see together, at a $2 theater here in Fort Collins which is now a sticky floored music venue. We rewatch it at least once a year, and I think about the metaphors of the movie, the message a lot. In related news, from Austin Kleon, Want to be an artist? Watch Groundhog Day.

6. Good stuff from Everyday Feminism: When You ‘Don’t See Color,’ You’re Contributing to the Everyday Racism Around You, and 5 Things Your Activist Friend Wants You to Stop Doing (Because You’re Wearing Us Out), and I Had Cancer – And Medical Fat-Shaming Could Have Killed Me.

7. Party in my Plants Episode #72: Health at Every Size, Diet Culture & BURNING THE WAGON! with Isabel Foxen Duke.

8. Collaborative Lamps That Weave Traditional Fibers With PET Plastic Waste.

9. Primer: When You Have Too Much to Do from Zen Habits.

10. Onym, a naming site with a ton of free resources. I’m trying to come up with a better name for my business (I’m just not feeling Life Wholehearted anymore, with the events of the past couple of years I feel like I need something with teeth), so I’m hoping this site can help.

11. attention is the beginning of devotion from Karen Walrond on Chookooloonks.

12. Panda eating carrot. (video) In related news, Pandas Gone Wild, a photo collection.

13. #MeToo, Now What? from PBS. Executive editor and host Zainab Salbi goes beyond the headlines about sexual harassment to ask how we got here and how we move forward.

14. New Mexico’s Teacher Of The Year Might Be Deported. (video) “This woman was Teacher of the Year in her state — but until there’s a clean DREAM Act, her future is in jeopardy.”

15. A Man Who Could Finally Afford To See A Doctor After Winning The Lottery Died Three Weeks Later. “Donald Savastano was excited to finally see a doctor after winning $1 million. Then he found out he had stage 4 cancer.” Tell me again how we are “making America great again.” I dare you.

16. Baby dances to dad’s beatboxing. (video)

17. The Term ‘Marijuana’ Is Rooted In Racism. (video)

18. Reminder: Black labor built this country for free. (video)

19. Recipe I want to try: Potato Chip Cookies. Sweet and salty, chewy with some crunch is my jam.

20. Someone edited Ram’s Martin Luther King commercial with what King actually said about car ads. In related news, Yes, the MLK Estate Did Approve That Trash Dodge Super Bowl Ad, and America Will Not Stop Until Martin Luther King Jr. Is Completely Rebranded as a Slice of Avocado Toast, and White Supremacy Murdered Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King & Now Uses Him as a Capitalist Prop, and Dodge’s Super Bowl ad used a Martin Luther King Jr. speech … to sell pickup trucks, (video).

21. Justin Timberlake’s Super Bowl Halftime Show Was a Total Disaster.

22. White Supremacists Are Targeting College Students ‘Like Never Before.’

23. 3D collages in layers of glass: By Dustin Yellin. (video)

24. A Photographer Captures a Decade in the Life of a Single Ukrainian Park Bench.

25. Black Beekeepers Are Transforming Detroit’s Vacant Lots Into Bee Farms.

26. Jessica Williams and Phoebe Robinson Save It for the Stage from The New York Times.

27. Why Schools Fail To Teach Slavery’s ‘Hard History.’