1. Morning walks. We walked the dogs at CSU this past Sunday morning. This is the view from my old office, from the outside looking in. I expected to be just a little freaked out at this point that I didn’t have a job to go back to in another week, but I was wrong. I’m content, happy with my choice, looking forward to what comes next — and SO happy I’m not going back there, doing that again.
2. Practice. Yoga, meditation, writing, and dog. Practice can sometimes feel like a contradiction. The intention is to become comfortable with discomfort, to accept that the ground is always shifting, and yet what practice offers is something like stable ground, a strong foundation, a soft place to land. Ultimately one has to be able to hold space for conflicting truths, both/and.
3. Writing, and the good books other people write. The love I have for these two things, the obsession, feels part of my DNA, something you couldn’t take from me no matter what or how hard you tried.
4. Our garden. The new flowers we planted attracted so many bees, moths, butterflies, and grasshoppers. We are also finally getting some tomatoes and a bunch of cucumbers — which is why I’m making these sesame cucumber noodles for dinner tonight.
5. My tiny family. Sam and Ringo like to “help” me cook.
Bonus joy: fresh peaches, zucchini quesadillas with grilled onions, writing with Mikalina, good TV, good movies, good podcasts, aqua aerobics, Pilates, sitting in the sauna, the fitness class I’m taking (and the fact that I can keep up with the 20-year-olds), yoga, clean sheets, getting all the laundry done, sourdough toast with marionberry jam, vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and walnuts, watching dumb TV with Eric, the way we laugh at the same dumb things.
1. Paisley & Hazel, an Instagram account where they paint pictures of adoptable dogs to help them get homes.
2. What the fuck should I do with my life? (A step-by-step process). I love that she ended with this, “Before wrapping up, I want to acknowledge that not everyone has the freedom to do what they choose in life and live out their desires. I’ve really written this article for those of us who are lucky enough to have that choice — let’s not take our freedom to do what we want in life for granted.”
3. Because of you from Alexandra Franzen. “Olympic athletes who claim the gold are very inspiring. But the person who comes in ‘last’ can be just as inspiring, if not more so.” Another good one from Alexandra, There is no rush.
7. Buddhist psychotherapist and “RAIN” champion Tara Brach on Lion’s Roar. “Western psychology and Buddhism—together they offer us a complete diagnosis of the human condition. Andrea Miller talks to psychotherapist Tara Brach, who works to combine these two disciplines into a powerful path to love and fulfillment.”
9. The mindfulness conspiracy. “It is sold as a force that can help us cope with the ravages of capitalism, but with its inward focus, mindful meditation may be the enemy of activism.” In related news, How mindfulness privatised a social problem. “The £3.4trn industry encourages a preoccupation with the symptoms of mental illness, rather than their social causes.”
11. Wisdom from Pema Chödrön, “Everything that occurs is not only usable and workable but is actually the path itself. We can use everything that happens to us as the means for waking up. We can use everything that occurs—whether it’s our conflicting emotions and thoughts or our seemingly outer situation—to show us where we are asleep and how we can wake up completely, utterly, without reservations.” P.S. this doesn’t mean we need to see our suffering and obstacles as “gifts.”
12. Wisdom from Andrea Gibson, “Even when the truth isn’t hopeful, the telling of it is.”
14. Colson Whitehead Opens Up. “In a wide-ranging conversation with The Nation, the author talks about political writing, zombies and horror stories, American history, and his new novel The Nickel Boys.”
22. ‘We’re All Tired of Being Called Racists.’ “At Donald Trump’s rally in Cincinnati, droves of attendees made it clear that they stood with the president despite his recent comments.”
57. Jordan and Andre Heroes El Paso, a GoFundMe fundraiser. “The family of Jordan Anchondo just confirmed they also lost her husband Andre Anchondo in the El Paso Shooting, leaving all three of their kids without their parents. Their 2-mos-old newborn, Paul, survived and will be released from the hospital today. Yesterday was also their 5-year-old daughter’s birthday, and they also leave behind an 18-month-old daughter.” This fundraiser is to help their kids and the family left to care for them. Andre stood in front of his wife and baby, and Jordan put her body in front of the baby when the shooter came for them. The baby survived; both parents were shot and died. They were at Walmart buying things for their 5 year old’s birthday party and school supplies.
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 