December | 2019 | Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray)

Lee Martinez Farm, image by Eric

1. Some “What Ifs” For Dealing With Fatphobia In The New Year from Dances with Fat. In related news, How to Deal When Your Friends Go On Diets and New Year’s Resolutions That Aren’t Diets, also from Dances with Fat.

2. More book lists! My reading year, 2019 from Austin Kleon and 100 Must Read Books of 2019.

3. CREATE.2020 with Karen Walrond, “a 15-day, self-guided journaling course to help you reflect on the previous year, dream about the new one, and help guide you to actualize your best intentions for 2020.”

4. When Your Expectations of Others is Making You Frustrated from Zen Habits. In related news, Toward peace, from Seth Godin.

5. Journaling Prompts to Relieve Stress: 10 for Morning + 10 for Evening from Be More With Less. Even if you don’t journal, these would work as contemplations too, I suspect.

6. These are the charities where your money will do the most good, a great set of tips and strategies for giving.

7. Artists Photographs 25 Kids From Around The World With What They Eat In One Week.

8. 7 Questions for the New Year.

9. The Best Advice You’ve Ever Received (and Are Willing to Pass On) on The New York Times.

10. I Was A Cable Guy. I Saw The Worst Of America. “A glimpse of the suburban grotesque, featuring Russian mobsters, Fox News rage addicts, a caged man in a sex dungeon, and Dick Cheney.”

11. 20 Tiny Changes You Can Make in Your Home to Make Life Simpler in 2020.

12. Hand-Stitched Flowers and Landscapes Revitalize Found Photographs by Artist Han Cao.

13. Ilana Glazer Strikes Out On Her Own In New Stand-Up Special.

14. 1,000 people sent me their addiction treatment stories. Here’s what I learned. “Here are four reasons America’s addiction treatment system is broken.”

15. Why America loves — and hates — outspoken young women. “Women like Greta Thunberg and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were leaders in the 2010s. And they were vilified for it.”

16. Civil Rights Leader Rep. John Lewis To Start Treatment For Pancreatic Cancer. May he be well.

17. How Women Are Using Knitting And Needlework As A Form Of Protest. From a year ago, but still relevant.

18. 10 Black Web Series To Put On Your Binge-Watching List For The Holidays.

19. You Can Now Download a Collection of Ancient Japanese Wave Illustrations for Free.

20. Move over, Avengers! This little girl is one incredible superhero. (video)

21. #NotAllHistorians: Some White People Are Upset That the New York Times’ 1619 Project Isn’t Centered in Whiteness.

22. Recipe I want to try: Onion Bacon Jam.

23. How a Stock Photography Project Is Confronting Fat Bias.

24. Philadelphia Man Wakes Up To Find Malnourished, Stray Dog In His Home After Accidentally Leaving His Front Door Open.

25. Calories In = Calories Out is BS.

26. If You’ve Survived A Gaslighting Parent, You Won’t Love ‘A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood.’

27. Parents Give Toddler A Banana As A Prank And The Video Of Her Delighted Reaction Goes Viral.

28. The Instagram Community That’s Decolonizing Fitness.

29. Kids Retell The Christmas Nativity Story While Adults Act It Out In This Hilarious Video.

30. Bonsai Master Masahiko Kimura Creates Gravity-Defying Mini Forests.

31. It’s None Of My Business If Homeless People Use The Money I Give Them For Drugs.

32. Our Year in Poems on The New York Times.

33. Dog Is Stolen, Found 2,000 Miles Away, And Returned Via 30-Person Relay Team In Time For Christmas.

I can’t believe we got them to sit still and look in the general direction of the camera

1. Merry everything, happy always. We had a lovely, quiet and calm celebration, opened presents, cooked and shared and ate lots of good food, listened to Christmas music, took naps, and watched “Elf.”

2. I’m retired. On our walk this morning, I felt that familiar post-Christmas anxiety, that sinking feeling, the awareness that no matter how rested or good I was feeling, I was going to have to go back to work and that was going to ruin it. Then I remembered I’m retired and never have to go back.

3. The best Christmas present I can’t even tell you about. A dear friend recently got something they’ve wanted for such a long time. When I found out and tried to tell Eric, I burst into tears but was laughing at the same time. He said he’s never seen someone do that before, and it’s never happened to me, that particular mix of grief over everything they’ve been through, joy about what’s possible, and relief that the long dark night of waiting just might be over.

4. Eric is really good at gift giving. There were two giant boxes under the tree and he told me even if I guessed a million guesses, I’d never figure it out. He was right, two brass herons for my garden. He also buys me at least a few gifts just because he knows they’ll make me laugh.

5. My tiny family. My favorites.

Bonus joy: texting with my brother, cute pictures of his tiny family, talking to my mom on the phone, hanging out with Chloe’ and Mikalina, breakfast with Carrie, aqua aerobics, sitting in the sauna with Eric, naps, clean sheets, Christmas dinner leftovers for days, the new pen Eric bought me, good TV (Season 3 of Better Things is streaming on Hulu, and I accidentally started watching season one and it was so good I decided to rewatch the first two seasons before starting the new one), Amazon gift cards so I can load up my Kindle with more books, reading in bed at night while Eric and the dogs sleep, therapy, my new favorite super soft pj pants that are my self-employed introverted hsp uniform, yoga, meditation, writing, morning walks with Eric and the dogs.