Monthly Archives: February 2019

Something Good

1. Hummingbird feeding her babies. (video)

2. The Practice of Letting Go from Zen Habits.

3. Misty Copeland And Calvin Royal III Become The First Black Couple To Dance Lead With The American Ballet Theatre.

4. Hi I became obsessed with amanda chantal bacon the inventor of moon juice “and what she eats in a day because of this article …so i made a video to exorcise it.” (video)

5. I’ve No More F***s To Give. (video) This is my new theme song.

6. “Why can’t I stop dreaming of waffles?” (video)

7. Ellen DeGeneres Awards $50K To Good Samaritan Who Paid For Hotel Rooms For Homeless Chicagoans During Polar Vortex. “She plans on renovating and furnishing properties around the Chicago area to give homeless individuals a permanent home.”

8. 3 Ways To Improve Education About Slavery In The US. “When it comes to dealing with slavery, textbooks often use inadequate or inaccurate descriptions.”

9. At least someone is enjoying all this snow. (video) I feel like this tells you everything you need to know about having a cattle dog.

10. Just me over here, feeling my feelings. (video)

11. Jessica Nabongo is on her way to becoming the first Black woman to travel to every country in the world. (video)

12. Allison Mae has a new website! She’s my favorite local pet photographer. Check out her portfolio to see why.

13. This marathon runner picked up a stray puppy at mile 7 and carried her past the finish line. (video) In related news, Woman Finishes Marathon Carrying Puppy She Rescued Along The Way.

14. This is what millions of monarch butterflies look like. (video) In related news, National Butterfly Center to file restraining order to stop border wall construction.

15. ‘I’m mad, y’all!’ “Ocasio-Cortez wipes away a tear as she vows to defund ICE over death of 7-year-old migrant and claims Trump hates ALL immigrants – while saying Latinos can’t be illegals because America is ‘native land.'”

16. ‘We bought this good boy a shell bath the other day… I think he likes it’ (video)

17. Wisconsin Boy Is Hooked On Crocheting And Giving Back.

18. I Wrote a Letter to a Nightclub That had Hindu Gods on its Bathroom Walls. Here’s What Happened Next.

19. 100+ Books by Black Women That Should Be Essential Reading For Everyone.

20. Redbone ~ Come And Get Your Love ~ The Midnight Special 1974 (video)

21. Pipe Cleaner Puppets (video)

22. The National Parks’ iconic typeface has never been digitized–until now. “It’s part of designer and professor Jeremy Shellhorn’s Design Outside Studio, which takes on design projects in Rocky Mountain National Park.”

23. This video of a girl singing into a well has gone viral because, well, just listen. (video) Sometimes I feel like all our efforts are just singing into a well, hearing our own echo.

24. ‘If our union is strong, it is because of its resilient people who have succeeded in spite of, not because of, the actions of this administration.’ (video) In related news, Read Stacey Abrams’ full response to the State of the Union.

25. A dam collapse killed more than 60 people and ruined this Indigenous tribe’s home — now they blame the ‘white man’ and corporate greed. (video) As they should.

26. “Who’s Behind Dieting’s Rebranding as “Wellness”? Men.”

27. First bison calves born in Banff National Park in over 140 years.

28. Colorado Runner Kills Mountain Lion In Self-Defense. You know how people sometimes give themselves a goal to train towards? Mine is now “be able to fight off a mountain lion attack and then suffocate it with my bare hands and walk away, drive myself to the ER.”

29. Camille Dungy on Race, Motherhood and the Guidebook to Relative Strangers. In which Camille shares a very important question for us to consider: “How are we personally doing in terms of treating the people around us with equity, care, honesty, grace, support and genuine kindness?”

30. A Dying Mother’s Letter to Her Daughters. “Many may disagree, but I have always believed, always, even when I was a precocious little girl crying alone in my bed, that our purpose in this life is to experience everything we possibly can, to understand as much of the human condition as we can squeeze into one lifetime, however long or short that may be. We are here to feel the complex range of emotions that come with being human. And from those experiences, our souls expand and grow and learn and change, and we understand a little more about what it really means to be human.”

31. Dismantling White Feminism Masterclass with Layla F. Saad. “How white womxn can become allies to BIWOC* (*Black, Indigenous, Womxn of Colour).”

32. The struggle is real, this past week’s newsletter from Paul Jarvis, one of the only humans who gives advice about business that I listen to and trust.

33. Yoga for All Podcast with Jessamyn Stanley, “her Yoga Journal cover, setting boundaries, representation & more.”

34. 14 Stunning Illustrations That Perfectly Capture The Introvert’s Love Of Books.

35. don’t follow your passion from Karen Walrond on Chookooloonks.

36. Write to Get Free with Melissa Toler. February 17 – March 24, 6 weeks of reflective questions and prompts.

37. The difference between Validation and Hope, and Toxic Positivity. “Here are some positive sayings I found on Pinterest. Alone, they’re pretty benign. But for someone who is really struggling they can sting. I translated them into some different variations that I think still inspire hope, but are validating. What do you think?”

38. Here’s How To Love Each Introverted Myers-Briggs Personality Type.

39. “Real but Not True”: How These Four Words Can Help With Strong Emotions on Lion’s Roar. “‘Real but not true’ gives us space to both notice thoughts and emotions and acknowledge that they might not correspond with reality. It’s an antidote to our habit of trying to escape uncomfortable emotions. It alleviates the suffering that is caused by futile attempts to avoid what actually is.”

40. This week in People Behaving Badly: “They Say We’re White Supremacists”: Inside the Strange World of Conservative College Women (alternative title: This is What Willful Ignorance Looks Like”), and Nick Sandmann’s Lawyer Plans To Sue Nathan Phillips For Defamation, and This Republican rep. tried to kick Parkland parents out of a hearing on gun reform and said building the wall would do more to protect our country than gun legislation (video) (This is the kind of thing I think about when someone argues for civility, tells us we need to try and get along with those who disagree with us. THIS kind of violence and perversion of the truth is not something we should entertain under any circumstances), and CSU sells Hughes Stadium land to home developer; 600-700 homes planned, and We fact-checked Trump’s State of the Union address — he averaged one false claim every 2 minutes (video), and Liam Neeson Explains Why There’s No Such Thing as Racism, and Investigation: Shambhala leader Sakyong Mipham likely committed sexual misconduct.

Gratitude Friday

1. Snow. Everyone I know in Oregon was posting pictures of snow, and it was so weird because they never get snow, and we usually do yet we’ve had so little this winter. A few days later, we got about six inches and it’s been pretty cold for the past few days, and I’m so happy about it.

2. Puppies. They never fail to make me smile. In particular this week, some friends brought home a new baby (five months old, so maybe more of a toddler than a baby). Her first family had her for just two months and then brought her back – she’d been their first dog and it was too much for them, (puppies can be hard, not just cute, and some people don’t realize that). I can’t wait to meet her, hope she loves Ringo and he loves her, (Sam prefers to have no more new dogs in his life, thank you very much). I think puppies are just the best. If you don’t believe me, look at these four.

The day we adopted Obi, April 20, 2002

Baby Dexter. We called him Batman when he was this little because he had such a dark mask.

Sweet Sam the baby bear

A baby dingo in the snow

3. Rest. I’ve needed a lot of it this past few weeks. I’ve been super busy and had a cold. Sometimes, when that happens and my anxiety starts peaking, it gets hard to rest. My brain won’t calm down enough for my body to relax. It’s a horrible state, to be so tired but unable to sleep. It makes me appreciate it even more when I can.

Sam decided I needed help meditating this morning

4. Ringo and Sam. The weekend before the snow came, we had a stretch of days where it was in the upper 50s. The boys took advantage of it and lounged in the sun in the backyard, one of their very favorite things to do together.

5. Thirteen weeks!!! That’s all I have left to work at CSU before I “retire.” This week we did interviews and hired two new interns to work with me (one I hired last semester stayed on, so there are three total). That’s the last time I’ll ever interview for that position, and the last two I’ll ever hire. Every day I work there now there’s at least one thing that reminds me why I’ve loved being there for so long, why I stayed, and at least two things remind me why it’s time to go, why it’s the absolute right decision to leave.

Brrr… from their walk this morning

Bonus joy: orange juice, West African Peanut Stew (Eric made this in our Instapot this week and it was SO good), good TV (I just finished Sex Education on Netflix and am going to start Russian Doll), teaching yoga, aqua aerobics, sitting in a 200 degree sauna on a morning when it’s -4 outside, good hand lotion (Aveda’s Hand Relief Moisturizing Creme is my favorite, smells so yummy), computer glasses, a clean bathroom, a warm shower, clean pjs, the blanket my niece made me years ago that turns out to be the best lounging on the couch blanket ever, writing with Chloe’ and Mikalina, Pilates with Carrie and Ashley, being done with another module of yoga teacher training (two more to go!), naps.