1. Morning walks, and the various shades and colors of the Colorado sky. We’ve had to stick to the main roads because there are still patches of ice and snow from our big snow a few weeks ago, and it’s now back to being dark our whole walk, the sun only beginning to rise once we reach home. We haven’t seen much wildlife and it’s been so quiet.
The view from our front porch
2. We got our Christmas tree! We’ve only had one for the past three or four years after years without. The state of the world made us long for more light, more joy during this season and now it’s one of my favorite things all year. It only fell over twice before we finally got it settled.
3. Practice. Keeping me sane for over a decade.
The shrine on my writing desk where I sit and write morning pages every day
4. Celebrating the season with friends. We went to a fun party where, among other things, we decorated gingerbread houses. This coming week I get to teach a Christmas themed yoga class (it’s the last one before Christmas where everyone will be there, so we are celebrating a week early) and give out goodie bags.
5. My tiny family. They are my favorites. Eric is officially on vacation now, Sam had a bit of a setback but he seems to be feeling better, and Ringo continues to be the family jester. The dogs also got a bath this past week. When humans take a shower, it only involves at most a towel or two, a washcloth, maybe a hand towel, and a set of clean clothes. When (my) dogs take a bath, it involves washing not just the dogs, but 29 towels, two bath mats, all the blankets on the living room couches and chairs, as well as blankets on four different beds, and depending on how long since the last bath, maybe collars and harnesses too. It’s a lot of work, but totally worth it.
Post bath handsome
Bonus joy: good books (I just got done reading The Water Dancer), good TV (the third season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is streaming on Netflix), good movies (I watched Marriage Story, phew…), good podcasts (Mary Lambert and her partner started a new one that’s really good, The Manic Episodes), [seriously, there is WAY too much good content, which is double the trouble when you are a content creator, as in it limits the time you spend creating and is more competition for what you create], trying new classes at the gym and loving them, honoring my own truth when it would be really easy not to, writing with Carrie and Mikalina and Chloe’, knowing I just don’t have to, feeling a bit more energetic and inspired, other people’s honesty when you really need the truth, Strawberry Santa Hats, mixing hot cocoa with marshmallows in my coffee (so far the experiment is working, I am only drinking a cup every other day and that feels workable), reading in bed at night while Eric and the dogs sleep next to me, how much more Ringo wants to get on the couch and cuddle with me now that I’m home more often, how I can always depend on Sam to take a shower or nap with me (he keeps me company while I’m in the shower, doesn’t actually get in with me), having all the laundry done and put away, our heavier down blanket on the bed now that it’s colder, clean sheets, cooking new recipes, eating tried and true recipes, my new favorite owl pajama pants, laughing.
3. Ethical Conduct Is the Essence of Dharma Practice from Lion’s Roar. “The Dalai Lama and Thubten Chodron outline three levels of Buddhist ethical codes, how we can follow them, and what it looks like when we miss the mark.”
4. Awakening Fueled by Rage from Lion’s Roar. “As a dharma teacher, says Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, she’s told she shouldn’t feel or express rage. She disagrees and reveals how rage can be ‘life-giving and illuminating’ and help ‘fuel a transformation toward awakening.'”
9. Why We Need Satisfaction to Feel Healthy Around Food. “When you don’t take into account our needs for pleasure and satisfaction in eating, it’s actually a form of deprivation. And we all know what happens when we tell ourselves that we can’t have something.”
11. Colorado Business Owner Learns How Real Boycotts Are After His Kaepernick Boycott Forces Him To Close Shop. “Perhaps there are more…Colin Kaepernick supporters out there than I realized,” the businessman said. Maybe we don’t just support Colin Kaepernick, but we agree with his protest: “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
14. ‘I Got Tired of Hunting Black and Hispanic People’ on The New York Times. “Multiple police officers in Brooklyn say they were told by a commander that white and Asian people should be left alone.”
30. Body Kindness Podcast. “I believe we all have an enormous power to change diet culture – one voice at a time. In this podcast I talk to people from all walks of life about their journey to a better wellbeing. From food to family to sex, you never know what will come up in an episode.”
31. Toward an Applicable Theory of Just Not. “The power that so many of us have to change the deeply fucked systems we’re part of by abstaining from them — a more active and dangerous prospect than the language makes it sound — is immense, and it is terrifying. It is harder to do than is possible to explicate here; it is the most honest work there is.”
33. My So-Karen Life on The New York Times. “I know Karens are hard. As a member of Gen X, I grew up surrounded by them.”
34. Instagram is broken. It also broke us. “Influencers and regular users are reckoning with what Instagram has done to them. Now Instagram wants us to love it again.”
35. Why White-Collar Workers Spend All Day at the Office. “The web may be our garden of boundless leisure, but it is also a global workplace without limits. And in the open office of the internet, more Americans are not only engaged in overwork but also convinced that it is necessary to love their labor, above all else.”
37. Home For Christmas | Official Trailer | Netflix. (video) I finished watching this last night, and except for a bit of a letdown in the final moments, it was SO good. It reminded me a bit of Rita and Hjørdis, which you can also stream on Netflix and were also SO good.
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 