1. Wisdom from Seth Godin: “Markets often persuade us that we don’t have enough. Communities remind us that we do.”
2. Friendly, foul-mouthed crow befriends entire Oregon elementary school.
3. The Loveliest Children’s Books of 2021. In related news, The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021, and The Best Reviewed Graphic Literature of 2021, and Queer Books We Loved in 2021, and The Best Reviewed Fiction of 2021, and Times Critics’ Top Books of 2021 on The New York Times,and 75 of the Best Queer Books of 2021, and 11 Books to Give and Share.
4. Rest Is a Radical Act — And We Need It Now More Than Ever.
5. Perimenopause can trigger high anxiety. Nobody told these women that it’s normal.
6. Wisdom from Esmé Weijun Wang: “Horrible things happen. Art cannot be a band-aid for all of them. But it can be a balm. If you can find something—a song, a painting, a poem—and use it to keep yourself afloat, you will be joining a long lineage of suffering people who take art and stuff their broken hearts with it.”
7. A Single Map is Enough. “To search closer to my front door than ever before for the things that matter to me: adventure, nature, weather, wildness, exercise, surprises, silence, new people, wanderlust, and curiosity.” LOVE this.
8. Abandoned Southeast. “In 2016, my obsession with the forgotten and abandoned inspired me to create this blog. My goal is to showcase the obscure, sometimes historic, forgotten places I have visited across the Southeast. I hope to preserve the past through documentation and photographs since many of these amazing places are often lost to neglect, demolition, or renovation.”
9. Self-care: Why play hard? on The Hedgehog Review which “offers critical reflections on contemporary culture: how we shape it, and how it shapes us.”
10. The Practice of Emptiness, a dharma podcast. “Roshi Joan Halifax unpacks the three doors of liberation, Vimalakirti’s gift to us: emptiness, signless, and aimlessness. She reminds us that ‘liberation isn’t just about freeing your body or mind from suffering, liberation is actually about being free from all preferences, [it’s about] being radically open to what is.’ She calls us to practice beyond duality, and engage with the teaching of ‘Not one, Not two.’ It is from this place of non preferential mind and emptiness that we can answer Vimalakirti’s ‘imperative for the bodhisattva to engage the everyday world for true awakening to be manifested.'”
11. The Trouble with White Women, “A Counterhistory of Feminism with Kyla Schuller”, author of the book with the same title.
12. A Craftivism Zine. In related news, Inside a hollow library book, a secret [zine] library.
13. Finding Refuge, “a book designed to guide you through exploring what is breaking your heart, where grief resides, and how it affects you.” Yes, please.
14. 120 Things To Remove From Your Life on Be More With Less.
15. These Are the 78 Best Documentaries of All Time on Vogue.
16. People Share What Surprised Them the Most About the Pandemic. I felt this one: “How much it divided us. I always sort of thought that if we, as a species, ever faced some sort of external existential threat, like aliens coming to wipe us out or some horrible natural catastrophe, we’d band together to help each other. Turns out; nope, we’ll try to make money off each other, use the situation for political gain, and refuse to take basic precautions to protect each other basically just out of spite.”
17. Recipes I want to try: Twisty Cinnamon Buns, and Spinach and Cheese Strata, and Chewy Lemon Snowdrop Cookies, and Mexican Wedding Cookies.
18. 4 Recent YouTube Short Films That You Don’t Want to Miss.
19. Why All Writers Should Play Dungeons & Dragons.
20. Andrea Gibson: On love and loss. **Spoiler alert** their recent scans came back clear of any cancer. 🙂
21. Stop being so mean to yourself. Here are 5 tips to help you break the cycle.
22. Sashiko: Simple Japanese Stitching. In related news, How the Japanese art of Kintsugi can help you deal with stressful situations, (“Whether you are going through a job loss or divorce, this practice of fixing broken things may help heal what’s broken in you.”)
23. A Grim, Long-Hidden Truth Emerges in Art: Native American Enslavement on The New York Times. “Two exhibitions highlight stories of Indigenous bondage in southern Colorado, in an effort to grapple with the lasting trauma.”
24. “Christmas Is Canceled” Is Horrifying, Hilarious and Surprisingly Gay. In related news, The Best Queer Holiday Movies to Make the Yuletide Gay (although, I disagree with the addition of Happiest Season on this list, as it is not one of the best or even good, IMHO).
25. Jeffrey Marsh | How To Be You on The Good Life Project Podcast.
26. Stages of a Cold a cartoon from Gemma Correll.
27. 80,000 Honey Bees Found in Wall of Shower (Also, 100 Pounds of Honey) on The New York Times.
28. My Icky Sticky Evolving Relationship With Consumerism from Ijeoma Oluo.
29. On Being with Krista Tippett / Jane Hirshfield: The Fullness of Things.
“The esteemed writer Jane Hirshfield has been a Zen monk and a visiting artist among neuroscientists. She has said this: ‘It’s my nature to question, to look at the opposite side. I believe that the best writing also does this … It tells us that where there is sorrow, there will be joy; where there is joy, there will be sorrow … The acknowledgement of the fully complex scope of being is why good art thrills … Acknowledging the fullness of things,’ she insists, ‘is our human task.’ And that’s the ground Krista meanders with Jane Hirshfield in this conversation: the fullness of things — through the interplay of Zen and science, poetry and ecology — in her life and writing.”
30. ‘Worry Burnout’ Is Real on The New York Times. “Even in a pandemic, our capacity for catastrophe has a limit. Here’s how to spot the signs.”
31. The Secret Lives of Adjunct Professors.
32. How to Write (Almost) Anything: A Very Serious Guide by Tom Bissell. In related news, 20 (More) Pieces of Advice for Writers and Introducing: Your Worst Writing Nightmare.
33. The world as we know it is ending. Why are we still at work? “From the pandemic to climate change, Americans are still expected to work no matter what happens.”
34. bell hooks, Pathbreaking Black Feminist, Dies at 69 on The New York Times. In related news, In Praise of bell hooks (published in 2019) on The New York Times, and bell hooks, Groundbreaking Feminist Theorist, Has Died at 69, and bell hooks, Notable Feminist And Author, Dies At 69, and Trailblazing feminist author, critic and activist bell hooks has died at 69, and ‘The world is a lesser place today without her.’ Acclaimed author bell hooks dies at 69.
35. Aimee Mann: A Musical Voice.
36. Vertical Dwellings Nestle into the Floating Miniature Landscapes of Rosa de Jong.
37. 15 LGBTQ podcasts you need to listen to right now.
38. What We Talk About When We Talk About Food. A follow up to last week’s Bros., Lecce: We Eat at The Worst Michelin Starred Restaurant, Ever.
39. One man packed his grill and drove to a tornado-leveled Kentucky town to ‘feed the people’.
40. Get To Know The Future Med Student Whose Illustrations Of A Black Fetus Went Viral.
41. Anti-Capitalist Gift Giving.
42. A Photographer Documented The Housing Crisis By Asking People How They Became Homeless.
44. Exquisite Hairpieces by Sakae Recreate Flowers and Butterflies with Resin and Wire.
45. 12 Eco-Friendly Alternatives to Wrapping Paper.
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 
My five-year journey through perimenopause was fraught with so much anxiety, which is why I wrote a book about it. NO ONE had prepared me for that. So I’ll definitely read and share the article you linked to. I felt compelled to leave a comment since you provide such great posts, and each time I feel as if I can relate to them. 🙂
Yeah, doing retirement, burnout, perimenopause, and a global pandemic all at once isn’t something I’d recommend 🥴
Oh man. I’m so sorry. I entered menopause in September of 2020, so I understand.