Monthly Archives: May 2021

Something Good

“Ask yourself: Where am I? Answer: Here.
Ask yourself: What time is it? Answer: Now.
Say it until you can hear it.”
~ Ram Dass

1. Mindfulness and the Buddha’s Eightfold Path on Lion’s Roar. “To understand how to practice mindfulness in daily life, says Gaylon Ferguson, we have to look at all eight steps of the Buddha’s noble eightfold path.”

2. Gifts from Beyond on Lion’s Roar. “When Holly Stocking finds an unopened gift from her late husband, she contemplates what it really means to be gone — and gone beyond.”

3. HAES Health Sheets. “Health At Every Size®-Based Guides for Blame-Free, Shame-Free Explanations of Common Medical Conditions.” I especially like Why We Don’t Recommend Intentional Weight Loss.

4. Americans Have Learned to Talk About Racial Inequality. But They’ve Done Little to Solve It.

5. The 20 best easy cake recipes. Challenge accepted!

6. Online Therapy During A Pandemic Was Exhausting. Here’s Why I Quit.

7. Dr Jen Gunter’s menopause manifesto.

8. ‘We Always Rise.’ A Black-Owned Bookstore Navigates the Pandemic on The New York Times. “Source of Knowledge has been a Newark mainstay for decades. It survived the past year thanks to the generosity of its customers and an owner who provides more than just books.”

9. Seriously, just tax the rich. “Sometimes, the haggling and hemming and hawing over what to do about the debt overshadow a point that many Americans find obvious: It’s simply a good, fair idea to tax the wealthy. They have disproportionately reaped the benefits of economic growth and the stock market in recent years, contributing to increasing inequality in the United States. The divide has become even more obvious during the Covid-19 pandemic, during which billionaires have managed to add heaps of dollars to their wealth even as millions of people were knocked on their heels.”

10. A beginner’s guide to “But, I’m just not into politics!”

11. Sinead O’Connor Remembers Things Differently on The New York Times. “The mainstream narrative is that a pop star ripped up a photo of the pope on ‘Saturday Night Live’ and derailed her life. What if the opposite were true?”

12. Overwork Killed More Than 745,000 People In A Year, WHO Study Finds.

13. These mesmerizing plant moments are a whole mood. (video)

14. Windows on the world: pandemic poems by Simon Armitage, Hollie McNish, Kae Tempest and more.

15. A thoughtful post about grief from Kris Carr, who recently lost her father. It starts, “In our trauma-phobic, mourning-avoidant culture, we don’t have a language for the deep experiences that each of us will face at some point in our lives.”

16. Midcoast Maine gains a new small book publisher and two literary magazines“A new small press has launched in Maine called Toad Hall Editions and its purpose is to give a platform to writers who don’t get noticed in the more traditional publishing arenas.” Three of my favorite people are doing a really cool thing.

17. Pansexuality 101: 5 Key Facts You Need to Know. Today is #PanVisibilityDay!

Gratitude Friday

1. Morning walks. Since Eric is off contract for the summer, the whole tiny family went on a few walks together this week. We are having to route mostly around the river, can’t walk the trails right next to it because with the snow melt coming down from the mountains, they are either muddy or completely under water. To compensate, it’s baby duck and goose season. They are so fluffy!

2. Vaccinations. Now that we have both of our COVID-19 shots, we’ve slowly been adding some things back into our routine. We started doing small group training at the gym with our favorite trainer Shelby and we went out to eat at our favorite Chinese restaurant, the first one we’ve gone inside to sit down and eat in over 15 months. It was delicious and only mildly terrifying. I even have a haircut scheduled for next week, my first one in two years.

3. Our garden. The lilacs are in full bloom and the irises have started — first come the tiny yellow ones, then the larger bearded purple and then the white, and finally the tall spiky white Japanese variety that my friend Ann gave me from her garden the year she died. I have a peony memorial garden where I plant a new one every time I lose someone I love, and I had to add two more this season — a white one for Sam and a deep pink for Angela. Eric put in all the veggie plants he grew from seeds and we went to the nursery last week to pick up the last few things: some Japanese cucumbers, tomatoes, and a couple more strawberry plants.

4. Reading. Besides life, this is the greatest gift my parents gave me. Sure, my teachers and librarians helped, along with all the people who write and publish books, but my parents were the closest and most constant readers in my life, modeled the joy of reading, gave me access to the same for myself, and I will be forever grateful.

5. My tiny family, my tiny house, my tiny life. I sure do love it here.

Bonus joy: afternoon rain storms, sunshine, our whole house fan, my aqua aerobics friends, sitting in the sauna with Eric, training with Shelby, writing and hanging out with Calyx, texting with Chloe’, texting with Mom and Chris, Wild Writing, yoga, getting a few more things done that get us just a little bit closer to our trip to Oregon (Ringo’s annual exam and shots, maintenance on my car, motel reservations for the drive), the smell of lilacs, naps, watching TV, listening to podcasts, roasted sweet potatoes, clean laundry, a warm shower, a big glass of cold clean water, reading in bed at night while Ringo and Eric sleep.