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

1. Yard-Sale Bowl Revealed To Be Rare Chinese Artifact Worth Up To $500,000.

2. Photographer Creates His Own 78-Card Tarot Deck Inspired by His Sleep Paralysis.

3. Anne Lamott on Writing a Book for Those Feeling Hopeless.

4. Kazuo Ishiguro: A Dystopian Book in Dystopian Times.

5. In COVID news: Covid-19 vaccines are great — here’s why you also still need to wear a mask for now, and CDC Says It’s Safe For Vaccinated People To Do These Activities, and Posting less, posting more, and tired of it all: How the pandemic has changed social media.

6. If paul revere was gay. This made me laugh. (video)

7. A natural water park you’ve never seen before. Very cool. (video)

8. The Life Altering Practice of Making Cuts by Courtney Carver on Be More With Less.

9. Wisdom from Pema Chödrön: “We can become the world’s greatest experts on anger, jealousy, and self-deprecation, as well as on joyfulness, clarity, and insight. Everything that human beings feel, we feel. We can become extremely wise and sensitive to all of humanity and the whole universe simply by knowing ourselves, just as we are.”

10. How to Practice Mindfulness.

11. Creative Resilience from Jamie Ridler.

12. No I’m Not Ready. Because this: “We can start clearing trail for our paths away from this pandemic year. We just have to make them meandering, with ample stops for rest. We will be collectively discombobulated and bewildered, working through layers of bittersweetness, anxious and angry and thrilled. Our post-pandemic selves will contain multitudes, and I cannot wait to get reacquainted with myself, with all of you. But it’s okay that I’m not there, not quite yet.”

13. The Radical Act of Letting Things Hurt: How (Not) to Help a Friend in Sorrow. “Why our instinctive efforts to salve another’s sadness tend to only deepen their helpless anguish and broaden the abyss between us and them — and what to do instead.”

1. Signs of spring. It is warming up here, even as there’s still some snow on the ground. I am looking forward to our garden and to getting vaccinated and to maybe, just maybe, making some travel plans…finally.

2. Finally getting some stuff in the mail. I’ve been trying to stay away from the line at the post office, so I had a bunch of stuff that had piled up, needed to be sent, and I finally did it last week. Since most of it was sending good things to good people, it was especially nice. It felt like a big accomplishment.

3. Practice. I am starting an online writing class this weekend with Natalie Goldberg, who I consider my first writing teacher, and I’m really looking forward to it, in particular experiencing her perspective on writing as practice from close up.

4. Comfort. I’ve been craving cake so I made a vanilla buttermilk snack cake with buttercream frosting (the kind with cream cheese AND butter). I made too much frosting, so I’m going to “have to” make a chocolate cake this weekend. I told Eric I’m feeling like a much more confident cook lately, in particular because even if we don’t have something I need, I can figure out a substitute, like last night when I was making honey cornbread and didn’t have any whole milk but I did have yogurt. Even when I try something and it doesn’t work out exactly how I wanted, the mistakes are usually delicious.

5. Morning walks. I miss Sam like crazy, but walking just one dog is SO much easier, even if he is the one who delights in eating stuff he shouldn’t, like various kinds of poop and old food and sticks.

6. My tiny family, my tiny house, my tiny life. I am so lucky to have such a soft, safe place to land.

Bonus joy: getting a tax refund (for at least 20 years, Eric and I owed, so these last few years of getting money back has been nice), new sheets, getting in the pool, sitting in the sauna with Eric, warmer weather, sunshine, things starting to bloom, meeting a new neighbor, a new baby on its way, the weekend (which still means something even though I’m not working), friends getting new puppies and posting lots of pictures and videos of them, clementines, snack size cucumbers, gummy vitamins, naps, clean sheets, down pillows and blankets, having a washer and dryer at home so I don’t have to drag things to the laundry mat or hoard quarters, so many good books, podcasts, a big glass of cold clean water, birds in the feeder, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.