January | 2021 | Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray)

1. Morning walks. If I want to take pictures, I have to wait and go a bit later so we don’t miss the sunrise altogether. Even so, I can feel the light rising, can feel that there’s more of it each day — which seems like a metaphor for this moment, this season: the light is returning.

2. Practice. I just got done wild writing with my Friday morning group led by Laurie Wagner. I’m so glad that after a momentary delusion, a short break, thinking I could do without it, I was able to get back in when I understood it was essential.

3. Poetry. For a long time, I didn’t fully understand its magic, its medicine. Now I do, and was so happy to see that truth represented during the inauguration ceremony, of which Amanda Gorman was the best and brightest. “For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.” May this be “who we are.”

4. Nourishment, in all its various forms, that which feeds, that which cherishes.

5. My tiny family. Every night before dinner, Eric peels clementines for me to eat. When Ringo rolls over on his back so I can pet his belly, it seems like there could be nothing better.

Bonus joy: hanging out and writing with Mikalina, getting my office tidied, hot coffee, donut holes, a good mask (comfort and coverage), sitting in the infrared sauna with Eric, cooking with Eric, laundry, clean sheets, that corner of the couch, good TV (sometimes that means something dumb and easy), podcasts, books, music, stretching, turning the heat down because it feels good to pile on the blankets, gummy vitamins, reading in bed at night while Ringo and Eric sleep.

“True peace is not merely the absence of tension. It is the presence of justice.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

1. you are who I love, a poem by Aracelis Girmay shared by Karen Walrond on Chookooloonks.

2. The Creative Process in 43 Hayao Miyazaki Screengrabs.

3. Book Lists: 19 Woman-Authored Books You Need to Read in 2021 and 43 Books By Women of Color to Read in 2021.

4. AOC on her experience of trauma at the Capital and why we cannot wait to act. (video)

5. Good stuff from Patti Digh: The Art of Activism: Hard Conversations Book Club 2021, and Hard Conversations: Deep Dive Into Racism and its Undoing, and Hard Conversations: Whiteness, Race, and Social Justice, and Writers in the Pandemic.

6. Good stuff from Andrea Gibson: “Write Your Heart In” an online writing workshop and Steal My Diary Show.

7. Chair Yoga with Amber Karnes. 15 classes and three audio guided meditations, pay what you can.

8. I Want To Say Something, But I Don’t Know What on Terrible Minds by Chuck Wendig.

9. The Worry Trap: 10 Simple Ways To Break Free on Be More With Less by Courtney Carver.

10. How to Cope With Grief and Loss as a Highly Sensitive Introvert.

11. What Is Japandi Design? “The perfect fusion of Japanese and Scandinavian, Japandi design focuses on simplistic, minimalistic designs that are aesthetically pleasing but rooted in function.” Yes, please.

12. Recipes I want to try: japanese vegetable pancakes, and Apple Pie Muffins, and Coconut Bonbons.

13. From snowy Yukon, a Punjabi dance warms Canadian hearts.

14. HSPs Are the Activists We Need — Even in a Chaotic World.

15. A Family of Four and a Home Office, in 660 Square Feet? on The New York Times. “For one couple looking for a place in Brooklyn, natural light mattered more than space. They knew they’d make the compact apartment work.”

16. Whimsical Gardens Grow From Silk Teacups and Mossy Patches in Rosa Andreeva’s Embroideries.

17. This week in white supremacy: The dangerous magical thinking of ‘this is not who we are’, and The Things You Are Getting Wrong About White Supremacists Is What Allows Them To Grow, and 6 Reasons so Many Spiritual People Have Been Fooled by Qanon, and GOP Reps Accused of Giving “Reconnaissance” Tours of Capitol Before Mob Attack, and Rebecca Solnit: On Not Meeting Nazis Halfway, and White Supremacy is an Emergency.