May | 2020 | Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray)

1. Working in the garden with Eric. I am so happy that Eric loves to garden as much as I do. We had to take a few days off because it’s been raining, but we’ll get back out there this weekend, keep at the weeds. It’s also getting close to time when we can put the seedlings he’s been tending into the ground. We still need to get Japanese cucumbers and basil, and I’d like more daisies and some chamomile, as well as some more bulbs. I also wouldn’t say no to more peonies.

2. Grocery pick-up. It’s not a perfect system, but so much better than having to go in. This week, I screwed up our grocery order. Let me explain: They do substitutions if something isn’t available, but it has to be a pretty exact match. For example, if they are out of the organic sharp white cheddar I like, they won’t substitute the Tillamook sharp white cheddar because it’s not organic, even though to me that’s an appropriate alternative. So, to “fool” the system, if I really need the cheese, for example, I’ll put both on my order, the one I prefer and the one that is acceptable, and in that way, I usually will at least get one of them, and if I get double, no biggie. Well, we had a hard time getting dish soap so in my initial order this week, I selected multiple options, never intending to leave them all in my cart. You can update your order up until midnight the day before, so my initial order when I reserve the pick up time is never the final version, but somehow this week when I updated the order, it didn’t go through so when we picked up Monday morning, we got a whole lot of dish soap and not much else. I tried again and did better. Fun fact: Dot’s pretzels and frozen pancakes and Caesar salad mix are my pandemic foods.

3. Online yoga classes. I miss being with people, in the same room as them, practicing together, but I am not complaining about being able to show up just a few minutes before class starts and still get a good spot, and being able to practice in my pajama pants and no bra because no one can see me.

4. Preparing and eating food. I feel really lucky that Eric and I are both good cooks, and that we have the supplies we need to put together things we are happy to eat. He made me English muffin bread this week and I’m going to make some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

5. My tiny family. Thank goodness we enjoy spending time together but also know how to give each other space in this tiny house.

Bonus joy: Being back in Laurie’s Wild Writing Friday morning class, figuring out how to make a meditation video and finishing it in one take (more on that on Sunday), hanging out with my aqua aerobics pal Janice, hanging out with Mikalina, singing with Ringo, cuddling with Sam, texting with my mom and brother, toast, clean sheets, so much good TV, good books, good podcasts, getting the garage cleaned out, laundry done and put away, stimulus checks, thunderstorms at night, how green our backyard is, dandelions, lilacs on my meditation shrine, naps, tacos, drinking a cup of hot half cocoa and half coffee while I write in the morning, tater tots, reading in bed at night while Eric and the dogs sleep.

It’s hard to see, but the ripple in the water on the right is a beaver

1. A situation vs a slog from Seth Godin.

2. Good stuff from Dances with Fat: International No Diet Day And The Life I Could Have Had and When Celebrities Lose Weight, because this:

…while people – including celebrities – can do whatever they want with their bodies, their choices have meaning and consequences. And choosing to participate in intentional weight loss, or to celebrate weight loss of any kind, supports weight stigma and perpetuates eating disorders by promoting the idea that a thin(ner) body is a better/more attractive/healthier body, which is at the root of fatphobia.

3. Judith Butler: Mourning Is a Political Act Amid the Pandemic and Its Disparities.

4. ‘Heads we win, tails you lose’: how America’s rich have turned pandemic into profit. The things that are “wrong” now, “happening” now, were actually already wrong and happening, it’s just that this crisis is highlighting it. It’s so simple: we have to do better or none of us will survive what’s coming, not even those sitting on a pile of money.

5. After the deaths, holiness from Rabbi Rachel Barenblat.

6. 10 Life Lessons Learned From a Decade of Blogging from Be More With Less.

7. ‘Double-Rainbow Guy’, Paul L. Vasquez, Dead at 57, most likely from COVID-19. “Yosemite, California, man became an early 2010s internet sensation with his ecstatic nature video.”

8. Castle Rock restaurant reopens to Mother’s Day crowds in defiance of statewide public health order. This is TERRIFYING. You hear how “we are all in this together” or “this virus is the great equalizer,” when clearly that’s not the case. There are both economic disparities and racial divides that mean some people are suffering more, have lost more, and are at more risk. This restaurant opening against orders, the people flooding in, smushed in there together with no one wearing masks, makes me realize we are experiencing this in very different ways, and there’s a large number of people who don’t take it seriously at all, some who even think it’s a hoax or that we are overreacting, that it is “just like the flu” and that the risk to them is small. This is what willful ignorance looks like, and sadly these people aren’t just harming themselves. The choices we all make have consequences, and some outcomes cause harm to others, even as those others are doing everything they can to manage their risk. Either you are helping or harming, and it’s clear the choice these people made. I suppose they most likely watched and believed this: Seen ‘Plandemic’? We Take A Close Look At The Viral Conspiracy Video’s Claims. They should have read this instead: The Risks – Know Them – Avoid Them.

9. An 11-Year-Old Girl Writes To Thank Her Mailman. Postal Workers Write Back.

10. Not everything will be okay (but some things will) from Austin Kleon.

11. Write = right? from Paul Jarvis.

12. How ‘Anticipatory Grief’ May Show Up During the COVID-19 Outbreak. “There’s a lot to be grieving right now with the recent COVID-19 outbreak. There’s a collective loss of normalcy, and for many of us, we’ve lost a sense of connection, routine, and certainty about the future. Some of us have already lost jobs and even loved ones. And most, if not all of us, have a lingering sense that more loss is still to come. That sense of fearful anticipation is called ‘anticipatory grief,’ and it can be a doozy.”

13. Here are the top 10 coronavirus safety tips for groceries. (video) Most of these tips are related to actually going in the store to pick and pay for your own groceries.

14. hi.this.is.tatum, a hilarious video compilation, a dog talking in the funniest voice.

15. Workers Are No Longer Heroes, Kroger Concludes. This is so disappointing.

16. Mom Shares 30 Times Her 6-Year-Old Boy Cleverly Stalled Her With Questions Before Bedtime.

17. 10 Books Recommended by Pulitzer Prize Winners.

18. Meet Magnolia, Gerber’s New Spokesbaby.

19. Comedy Clubs Are Closed, So To Reach Audiences, Comics Have To Improvise.

20. Two penguins at the Oregon Zoo, Nacho and Goat, went for a hike earlier this week. (video)

21. Fuck the Bread. The Bread Is Over.

22. Mom forgot to give her adorable son a kiss before she left for work. (video)

23. They are the most popular mariachi on TikTok. (video)

24. Nikole Hannah-Jones, Creator of the New York Times’ 1619 Project, Awarded 2020 Pulitzer Prize. In related news, ‘This American Life,’ Now a Pulitzer Winner, Is Once More a Pioneer on The New York Times. “This week, the venerable radio show and podcast received the first Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting.”

25. Susan Piver: Buddhist Wisdom to Meet the Challenge of the Pandemic on Economics & Beyond with Rob Johnson podcast. “Susan Piver—a writer on meditation and Buddhist teachings and founder of the Open Heart Project—talks to Rob about how Buddhist ideas of being grounded in the present can help us get through the uncertain times of this pandemic.”

26. Grocery Worker [of 32 years] Has Never Seen Shelves Being Emptied Like This.

27. The morgue worker who buys a daffodil for each body bag. May she continue to be safe and well.

28. 13 Ways To Stop Your Glasses From Fogging Up While Wearing A Face Mask.

29. Yoga alone, together. “The rise of at-home fitness made Yoga With Adriene a YouTube sensation. Then the pandemic hit.”

30. Humorist Lightens Depression’s Darkness By Talking (And Laughing) About It.

31. More interviews with poets by Laurie Wagner: Marie Howe and Lauren Fleshman.