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

1. Morning walks. We were gifted at least one more week of brilliant fall colors. No need to drive up to the mountains to see the aspens turn, I just step out my front door to see all the color. For quite a few years now, we’ve had at least one early, wet and heavy snow, so rather than turning color, so many of the leaves simply went from just starting to turn to dead in the course of a single storm. This year the colors are lingering and I love it. So much that I uploaded only my very favorite pictures from this week, because there were just so many. You can see the full sets on my Instagram.

2. Healthcare access and availability. This is true for both us and Ringo. We have such good primary doctors, people who really care about us and want to help, and also a whole host of excellent specialists, and of course all the various staff and technicians that support them.

3. Good food. I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with when and what I eat lately, and I’m finding some really good things that feel very supportive, that give me all kinds of joy and nourishment.

4. Practice. When it comes to ease and comfort and resilience, I can be my worst enemy, my biggest obstacle. I’m so grateful I have various practices that allow me to work with that.

5. My tiny family, tiny home, tiny life. I got to see Eric a bit more this week and that was so nice. Ringo had two different vet appointments, and he was so good at both. I really do have just about everything I ever wanted and I’m so grateful.

Bonus joy: How many birds are still coming to our feeder and bath, the giant birch tree in the yard behind us that towers over our house and is on fire with gold and doesn’t get the chance most years to show off like that, taking a fitness class with Eric, a lunch date with him, sitting in the sauna, getting in the pool, naps, listening to podcasts, cooking, clean sheets, clean laundry, a big glass of cold clean water, a warm shower, seeing Chloe’ and getting to hold the baby and love on her dogs, making art with Calyx, cancelled plans, watching TV cuddled up in my favorite corner of the couch, down blankets and pillows and jackets, wool socks, chrysanthemums, hot coffee with cocoa and tiny marshmallows, when Ringo comes and finds me and tells me it’s time to get up from my nap, giving him a new toy (and that he’s able to break the squeaker the first day so we don’t have to listen to it constantly), my kind and gentle readers, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.

1. How to Practice Paying Attention. “5 ways to steer it in support of your values.”

2. What’s That Feeling? Oh, It’s Fall Regression. “Is this the part of the pandemic when we’re happy? When we’re angry? When we’re hanging out or pulling back, when we’re hopeful or dismayed, when we’re making plans or canceling them? The calendar moves forward but we’re stuck. In old patterns, in old understandings of how work and our families and the world should be. That’s the feeling of regression, I think.”

3. Remarkable Trees Throughout The World. I agree, but they forgot this one: 1,400-Year-Old Chinese Ginkgo Tree Drops Leaves That Drown Buddhist Temple In A Yellow Ocean.

4. I am a compost heap from Austin Kleon.

5. Why Highly Sensitive People Can’t Watch the News That Often.

6. As Jane Goodall grieves climate change, she finds hope in young people’s advocacy.

7. Adam J. Kurtz | Art, Life & Backhanded Optimism on The Good Life Project Podcast.

8. I Forgive You, For Everything by Laurie Wagner.

9. Netflix’s CEO Is Wrong. Transphobic Media Causes Real Harm. In related news At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle’s special on The New York Times.

10. Plant-Based Food Companies Face Critics: Environmental Advocates on The New York Times. “Some analysts say they cannot determine if plant-based foods are more sustainable than meat because the companies are not transparent about their emissions.”

11. The dark side of wellness: the overlap between spiritual thinking and far-right conspiracies. “Extreme right-wing views and the wellness community are not an obvious pairing, but ‘conspirituality’ is increasingly pervasive. How did it all become so toxic?”

12. The ‘Black Sherpa’ summits every Colorado 14er in a push for more diversity in outdoor recreation.

13. Chinese Boy Accidentally Finds 66-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Eggs. Whoa!

14. The Act of Vanishing Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest 2021 First Prize, Nonfiction by Megan Falley.

15. Texas Superintendent Apologizes After Official’s Holocaust Remarks on The New York Times. “State lawmakers and the Anti-Defamation League condemned a school official’s advice to ‘make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust, that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.'”

16. Loss and the Beauty of Hope with Jessica Patterson on the Inner Peace Yoga Therapy Podcast. “In this episode I interviewed Jessica Patterson. Jessica is a friend, fellow yoga teacher and the owner/director of Root Center for Yoga and Sacred Studies in CO Springs. She describes herself as a writer, teacher, and puller of threads. In this podcast, we pulled a few threads together. Specifically we spoke about the volume of loss we have experienced as a global society over the past 20 months and the quiet tolls these losses are taking on people. We also spoke about some specific losses she has experienced, and what has helped her navigate those times. Finally, we talked a bit about hope and where we go from here.”

17. Susan Orlean: “Is It Possible to Be Truly Wild?”

18. After 2 Years, a Tire Is Removed From an Elk’s Neck in Colorado on The New York Times.

19. The Dieter’s Diet. “Noom, the popular weight loss app, promises to teach you how to eat better, not less. (Except also, eat less.)”

20. “People vs. Fossil Fuels”: Over 530 Arrested in Historic Indigenous-Led Climate Protests in D.C. There are no words for how disappointing this is.

21. Words Mean Things: Understanding Colonialism.

22. How Getting a Dog Has Helped Me as an Introvert.

23. Guy Finds Lost Egg in Pet Store and Brings It to Life.