1. Morning walks. This week the sunrise was extra special — and yet, it was because of smoke from wildfires, both just west of here and in Montana and Idaho — but the light. *swoon* Another special treat this week was the day we ran into Carol and Rizzo, our backyard neighbor and her dog, who Ringo loves. It’s so cute because with a fence between them, they do that thing where they bark like they want to kill each other, but when we run into them on a walk, it’s all good.
2. Books. I will never get to read all the ones I want to but I will die trying.
3. Crossing things off my to-do list. Usually the list is in my head but today I wrote some of it down just to have the satisfaction of crossing things off. It’s also nice to be able to write it, put it down and walk away, not have to carry it around with me. When I was still working at CSU, I’d add things to my list that I’d already finished that day just to get to make that line through, to feel a tiny sense of accomplishment.
4. Rain. During late spring and summer, Fort Collins typically has 30 days of 90-degree temperatures. This year so far, we’ve had at least 62 90-degree days. For this reason, the cooler temperature and rain of the past few days has been glorious.
5. My tiny family, tiny home, tiny life. How many times can I say it before you get bored of hearing it, kind and gentle reader? — I LOVE my little life, it’s everything I ever wanted and there’s no place I’d rather be.
“Can I haz some?”
Bonus joy: zucchini egg bake, having a washer and dryer in my house, electricity and clean water, the internet, prescription drugs and vaccines and masks, watching good TV and movies, listening to podcasts, the hydromassage chair, the pool, the sauna, training with Shelby and the gang, hanging out with Mikalina, texting with Chloe’ and Mom and Chris, the pictures of Jessamy’s kids, electric cars, a/c, my practice room, my office, our backyard, the slow fading of our front garden, good neighbors, other people’s dogs, babies, wombats, lemurs, elephants, honeybees, butterflies, hummingbirds, herons, oranges, limes, lemons, strawberries, grapes, down blankets and pillows, organizing a drawer or closet, mint, grapefruit bubbly water, bird feeders, all the ponds and the river and the Pacific ocean, chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants, veterinarians and techs who are willing to get down on the floor and go slow with Ringo, knowing that he trusts me which is his version of love, naps, sleeping in, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.
5. Essential, a gorgeous poem from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.
6. The Signing Line. “But we don’t write toward the signing lines! That jazzy, excited feeling you get if there’s a long line, I know that it doesn’t linger. But the work always does. That satisfaction, that feeling of finishing, completing this beautiful task, making a piece of art, is the memory that nestles inside. We write toward that.”
10. My Body Is Causing Me Pain – anti-diet approaches from Jenna Hollenstein. “Even though the go-to for many doctor’s is the suggestion to lose weight – and perhaps now this is something that comes up in your own mind as well – there is actually a lot more to do when working with everything from the occasional aches and pains to chronic and debilitating pain that HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WEIGHT LOSS!”
12. About Wabi-Sabi on Lion’s Roar: Wabi-Sabi For Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers (“Lion’s Roar presents an excerpt from Leonard Koren’s gem, Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers, considered a class statement on this Japanese aesthetic”) and Wabi Sabi Is Imperfect Beauty (“Prizing newness with its sleek and perfect lines has some ugly consequences. An aesthetic alternative, offers author Elizabeth Farrelly, is wabi sabi, a philosophy with roots in Zen tea ceremonies, which posits that beauty lies in what is flawed”).
16. The White House on Twitter, a thread throwing shade at congresspersons who are complaining about student loan forgiveness but had their own PPP loans forgiven. In related news, Wealth is the Missing Piece, “If you want to talk about student loan cancellation, you have to talk about wealth.”
28. Wildlife Photographer of the Year Image Gallery. “View the Wildlife Photographer of the Year images from the current and previous years’ competitions. These images were awarded for their artistic composition, technical innovation and truthful interpretation of the natural world.”
36. Creepy, tiny, beautiful. NoelleBurd Creations on Instagram: “Miniature Artist | Tiny Abandoned Explorer. 1:12 scale miniatures inspired by the abandoned and magical.”
39. Barbara Ehrenreich, Explorer of Prosperity’s Dark Side, Dies at 81on The New York Times. “Her book Nickel and Dimed, an undercover account of the indignities of being a low-wage worker in the United States, is considered a classic in social justice literature.”
45. ‘I’m Not Broken’ is about being broken — and building a new life. “Jesse Leon’s I’m Not Broken is about being broken — but also about changing, growing, and building a new life. A sad, brutally honest, and emotionally gritty memoir about ‘a poor, sexually abused, drug-addicted Chicano kid,’ I’m Not Broken is the kind of narrative that vividly brings to the page the realities of someone ignored by the system and trapped by the streets.”
47. In a Japanese Nursing Home, Some Workers Are Babieson The New York Times. “They get paid in formula and diapers, and their work hours are flexible, in a program that connects people across generations and brightens lives.”
55. Former media exec who found new calling saving donkeys sees surge of adoptions, donations. “Reevaluating his life in the midst of the pandemic, former media exec Ron King found a new mission, saving donkeys from slaughter. Lead national correspondent David Begnaud, who introduced us to King six months ago, talks with him again for the ‘CBS Mornings’ series How Are You Now?'”
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 