1. Scott Van Pelt’s emotional tribute to his late dog Otis was beautiful. This. Yes and amen.

2. Hidden in a Fire Island House, the Soundtrack of Love and Loss on The New York Times. “In tragedy, music provided solace during the AIDS epidemic, and newly discovered cassette tapes captured two decades of parties and pain.”

3. Donkey That Was Rejected by Mother Finds Special Bond With Humans That Raised Him.

4. People are sharing the ‘one question’ they’d ask God if they could and the responses are deep.

5. What I’ve learned from 10 years of therapy – and why it’s time to stop. “Therapy was like finding a key for a door that had been locked my whole life. Here are the nine things it’s taught me.”

6. Learn How to Practice Healthier Rhythms of Rest. “If you’re tired of going with the flow of this burned-out culture we live in, learn to come aside and rest a while.”

7. Holding Lindo Bacon Accountable for Repeated Harm in the Fat Liberation & HAES® Communities. In related news, Open Letter to: the Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH) and Speaking My Truth.

8. Timelapse Montages of Different Echinopsis Cacti in Bloom.

9. Recipes I want to try: Creamy Spinach Orzo, and Skillet Parmesan Cheese Toast, and chilaquiles brunch casserole.

10. An Illustrated Tour of Some of North America’s Beloved, Diverse Indie Bookstores.

11. Phoebe Bridgers-Friday I’m In Love (The Cure Cover), (video).

12. 70 Days Post-Arrest, Brittney Griner’s Family Are Still Searching for Answers. “The WNBA star is still imprisoned in one of the world’s most homophobic countries.”

13. Your dog is a good boy, but that’s not necessarily because of its breed. “Researchers surveyed the owners of more than 18,000 dogs and analyzed the DNA of about 2,100 animals to see if physical traits and behaviors can be correlated with dog breeds. Overall, the study found that about 9% of the variation in an individual dog’s behavior can be explained by its breed.” This is causing some controversy in the dog world.

14. What the Fitness Industry Doesn’t Understand. “A new generation of fitness instructors teaches simple skills that make a difference. Why is beginner-level exercise treated like a niche?”

15. Your Kids Can Handle Dangerous Ideas on The New York Times. “Parents — or at least the parents who seem to win media attention — are freaking out over everything their kids see, read and do.”

16. Here’s why Dr. Fauci says the U.S. is ‘out of the pandemic phase’. “‘The United States and the entire world is still experiencing a pandemic, but there are different phases of the pandemic,’ he said. ‘And what we are in right now is somewhat of a transitional phase, out of the accelerated component into hopefully a more controlled component.'”

17. Sam Smith – Love Me More (Official Video). He’s like George Michael’s younger brother or cousin.

18. Reasons to Live Through the Apocalypse. “A meditation on small joys & a poem by Nikita Gill.”

19. 24 Hours in the Creative Life on The New York Times Style Magazine. “In our 2022 Culture issue, out April 24, T followed a group of artists — musicians, chefs, designers, writers and others — throughout the course of a day, exploring the intimate moments of their lives that contribute, in ways small and large, to their creative process.”

20. 12 Ways To Support A Friend Going Through A Tough Time.

21. We Have to Stop Thinking of Being ‘Healthy’ as Being Morally Better. “Enthusiasm for wellness can curdle into healthism and concern trolling.” This was posted two years ago, but it is still worth reading and sharing, again and again.

22. Loving Those Whose Lifespans Are Far Shorter Than Our Own: Late Night at the Emergency Vet from Andrea Gibson.

23. Elon Musk Says He Wants Free Speech on Twitter. But for Whom? In related news, We Have To Talk About Twitter.

24. “The Body is Trustworthy”: Decolonizing Wellness with Dalia Kinsey. “Dalia Kinsey, author of Decolonizing Wellness: A QTBIPOC-Centered Guide to Escape the Diet Trap, Heal Your Self-Image, and Achieve Body Liberation, is a queer Black registered dietician whose work focuses on the layered ways in which fatphobia, racism, homophobia, and misogny both show up in the wellness movement and cause real, measurable harm to marginalized bodies.”

25. United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. “The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.”

26. how 2 not be overwhelmed on Sluggish.

27. A letter to that man who emailed me to correct my grammar from Damon Young.

28. Would I do it tomorrow? from Austin Kleon.

29. How a Debut Graphic Memoir Became the Most Banned Book in the Country on The New York Times. “Maia Kobabe’s book ‘Gender Queer,’ about coming out as nonbinary, landed the author at the center of a battle over which books belong in schools, and who gets to make that decision.” In related news, The education culture war is raging. But for most parents, it’s background noise. “It’s definitely an incredibly small minority that’s being amplified with this large, well-funded infrastructure to appear larger and to appear to have more well-founded concerns than they do.”

30. He Came Out of Nowhere and Humbled Amazon. Is Chris Smalls the Future of Labor? “Experts say that the activism of the past few years—from #MeToo to Black Lives Matter to walkouts at major tech companies— has seeped into organized labor. The new model is ‘young people organizing young people, it’s non-white people organizing majority non-white workforces,’ says Wilma Liebman, who served as chair of the National Labor Relations Board under President Obama. ‘Unions clearly have to adapt to the changing demographic of the workforces.'”