August | 2022 | Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray)

1. GoFund Me: Joseph’s Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) Diagnosis. My friend Brenna and her husband Joseph need help. And, our heath-“care” system sucks. No one should ever ever ever have to worry that treating an injury or illness is going to cause them to lose everything. They should be supported so they can focus on healing not worrying about money. America is gross.

2. Ogarno: The Infinite Gallery. Here’s a video that explains what “infinite” art is, or check out their Instagram page.

3. Project Street Vet “is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit public charity that provides free veterinary care, treatment, and support to the pets of individuals experiencing homelessness and/or housing vulnerability.” I love watching their videos on Instagram.

4. ‘Quiet Quitting’ Is the Latest Workplace Trend Going Viral on TikTok. In related news, Beyoncé Told Us Not to Let Work Break our Soul. Is “Quiet Quitting” The Answer? and What is ‘quiet quitting,’ and how it may be a misnomer for setting boundaries at work and A Quick Note on ‘Quiet Quitting’.

5. 9 Warning Signs That You’re Mentally And Emotionally Exhausted — A Twitter Thread.

6. It took 20 years for this author to reunite with the teacher who changed his life.

7. ‘A damaged person’: Alan Cumming on playing the schoolboy who was actually 30. “In 1993, a 16-year-old pupil at a Glasgow school was unmasked as a fully grown adult. Now his classmates have made a documentary – My Old School – about the astonishing deception.”

8. UPS Drivers Say ‘Brutal’ Heat Is Endangering Their Lives on The New York Times.

9. Why Is America Obsessed With Racial Trauma? “People of color are pigeonholed almost exclusively into constrained narratives of trauma and rejection, our anguish commodified for consumption. It’s time to change this.”

10. If The “Only Moral CEO” Is an Abusive Narcissist, What Does That Say About Capitalism? “Dan Price was hailed for his commitment to paying his employees generously, showing how capitalism can ‘have a heart.’ Now that he has been exposed as a fraud and abuser, we should reevaluate the idea of moral CEOs.”

11. Poll: 69% of Native Americans say inflation is severely affecting their lives. “No other single group in the country is feeling as much financial strain right now as are Native Americans. A recent poll from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found inflation has caused a staggering 69% of Native Americans significant financial problems.” Again, I say: America is gross.

12. Willie Nelson’s Long Encore on The New York Times. “As he approaches 90, even brushes with death can’t keep him off the road — or dim a late-life creative burst.”

13. Recipes I want to try: Easy No-Bake Granola Bars and Biscuits and Gravy Bombs.

14. The Best Writing Tips from Electric Literature Interviews. In related news, On Writing a Book.

15. Anne Heche died a tragic death. That isn’t stopping people from shaming her.

16. Megan Falley Proposed To Andrea Gibson & We Are Sobbing Rainbow Tears.

17. We Got The Law Involved from Ijeoma Oluo.

18. 3 Ways to Ditch Diet Culture and Forge a Deeper Connection With Your Body.

19. How to Come Home to Yourself (Again and Again).

20. Mom’s “Nesting Party” For Pregnant Daughter Goes Viral Because It’s Genius. No to baby showers and gender reveals and hell yes to nesting parties!

21. Over half of people infected with the omicron variant didn’t know it, a study finds. I still haven’t tested positive and I’m starting to wonder if this might be why.

22. Workcation: I rented an Airbnb for 30 hours | Song Writing, Filming, Cooking & Editing, a new video from Elyse Meyers.

23. Lithops: An Unusual Succulent That Look Just Like Smooth Colorful Pebbles.

24. 30 Words of Advice From People Who Are 100-Years-Old.

25. Good stuff from Andrea Gibson: Playing The Cancer Card: How To Win When Life Deals You a Tough Hand and On Accepting What Is: Even When What “Is” Sucks.

26. Mycelial, a poem about grief from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.

27. What “burnout” actually is.

28. Crash Course. “At Crash Course, we believe that high quality educational videos should be available to everyone for free. The Crash Course team has produced more than 15 courses to date, and these videos accompany high school and college level classes ranging from the humanities to the sciences. Crash Course transforms the traditional textbook model by presenting information in a fast-paced format, enhancing the learning experience.”

29. How a Minimalist Lifestyle Allows Introverts to Thrive. “If you’re an introvert searching for quiet in an overwhelming, overstimulating world, then a minimalist lifestyle might be right for you.”

30. 4 Things I’ve Learned From My Daily Creative Habit.

31. A Construction-Themed Amusement Park Answers the Question, ‘Can You Dig It?’ on The New York Times. “At Diggerland U.S.A., children can experience the pleasures of heavy equipment firsthand. (Adults like it, too.)”

32. On the Persistence of Magical Thinking in the Face of Grief. “Mary-Frances O’Connor Considers the Mutually Exclusive Truths Our Grieving Brains Can Hold.”

1. Morning walks. The rabbitbrush is starting to bloom, a definite sign of fall. We saw our owl friend again and watched a heron catching some breakfast.

2. Texting. As a highly sensitive introvert who likes to stay home and doesn’t like to talk on the phone and whose best friends are also introverted and family lives 1200 miles away, it literally is a lifeline to be able to communicate through text.

3. The turn towards fall. It’s just beginning here, the summer fading and turning to fall — my favorite Colorado season.

4. Reading. Although it never stopped, never truly left me, my relationship with books and reading has returned to a level of joy it hasn’t been in some time, and I am loving it.

5. My tiny family, tiny home, tiny life. Lately Ringo has been reminding me so much of Dexter — the way he gets a toy and brings it to me, the way he comes into my office when I’m writing and naps on the floor next to me, the way he lounges on the step of the back patio in the morning, the way he rolls in the grass of our backyard. Having three dogs gone — one just before he turned eight, one right after he turned ten, and one at ten and a half — makes this time of Ringo’s life (he’ll be nine in November) very tender. I hope he lives to be an old dog, but the knowing that no matter how old, it will still be too soon makes me think of what Jeff Foster said, “Impermanence has already rendered everything and everyone around you so deeply holy and significant and worthy of your heartbreaking gratitude. Loss has already transfigured your life into an altar.”

Bonus joy: hanging out with Calyx, watching good TV and movies, listening to podcasts, writing at my desk in the morning with a cup of coffee, protein bars for when I just can’t manage to cook or make something but I need to feed myself, my compression gloves and thc/cbd creme and hand massager, the hydromassage chair, the pool, the sauna, being able to cry, a big glass of cold clean water, massage, a warm shower, clean sheets, clean laundry, having enough, having a “support team” of various wellness professionals, computer glasses, other people’s dogs, flowers, honey bees, antihistamines, trees, the river, the Pacific ocean, bats, sunrise/sunset, stars, naps, reading in bed while Eric and Ringo sleep.