1. Morning walks. I went along the river for part of our walk one day this week, and there were WAY too many mosquitoes. Just like everywhere, we’ve had the weirdest weather this summer. At this point in late July, there shouldn’t be that much water in the river, and things shouldn’t be as lush or as green. The above picture is one I took just after we watched a deer disappear into the brush on the other side of the river and just before we turned the corner and startled two more.
Image by EricWaiting for the dad
2. Curly hair cut. In the past four years, I’ve had a total of two haircuts, and really it would be more accurate to call them a “trim” because there was no real style there and I prefer to do as little maintenance as possible, wash and wear. As happens, my hair has been changing as my hormones and body do, and it had gotten more flat and fuzzy the way I was wearing it so I decided I wanted to get a haircut and learn a routine that would highlight my curls and lead to healthier hair. I can’t believe how much hair I let her cut off and am amazed I let her do layers but I’m more than happy with the results. Still don’t know if I’ll be able to make it look quite as nice as she did all the time but it feels so much better.
3. Little book and art libraries. Books and art, creativity and play and sharing, are so important and while it seems like the political world would prefer to burn it all to the ground, I’m happy that individual homes and humans in my neighborhoods are committed to keeping those precious things available and accessible.
4. Practice. If I could, I’d spend most of my days meditating, doing yoga, reading, and writing — but then who would do the laundry, go to the grocery store, pay the bills? Adulting is hard, being human is hard, and I’m not sure how I’d stay strong and sane without practice to support me.
5. My tiny family, small house, little life. I’m so grateful that currently everyone is healthy and happy.
Image by Eric, a lily I didn’t even realize we had in our garden
Bonus joy: texting with Chloe’, texting in general (as an introvert, it may just be my preferred mode of communication), Ringo rolling in the grass, zucchini and tomatoes and basil from our garden, HRT, prescription glasses, birds at the feeder, sunflowers, the way green grass feels under my feet, naps, listening to podcasts, watching TV and movies, Aunt Monica’s taco salad, knowing that the choice to not do the thing was the right decision, my in-laws, other people’s kids and dogs, a plane ticket to Oregon to visit family and see the ocean, having the laundry done by 10 am, a/c that allows for baking and laundry even in the summertime, electric cars, bread, lemonade, clean water, clean air, other people’s gardens, good neighbors, poetry and poets, calendars, tape, glue stick, thrift stores, the produce section at the grocery store, not needing to be right, gummies, electric fans, soft clothes, a couch that is more than comfortable enough to spend the night on, the sound of Ringo coming down the hallway, his sighs and dream barks, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.
1. Getting Words on the Pagewith Jena Schwartz, (use the special coupon code CREATIVESUMMER to get 50% off the regular course price until August 31). And this post where she says, “Too often, we keep ourselves from writing because we afraid of not being good, or even good enough. That’s why I come back, both in the course and in my own writing practice, to these three steps.”
3. On a Day When Stillness Seems Possible, a poem from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. In related news, (and my apologies if I’ve already shared this), The Pen and the Sword: Poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer shares All the Honey (podcast). Also, With the Stars All Around, another poem by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer about which she said, “I wrote it for Finn the week before he died–he was struggling mightily while in Ecuador, and we were talking on the phone a lot and I felt so helpless. I wrote it for him, but later, of course, I realize (especially with those last lines) how much I was writing it for me.”
6. This excerpt from A Future We Can Love: How We Can Reverse the Climate Crisis with the Power of Our Hearts and Minds by Susan Bauer-Wu: “If we reflect deeply and examine the psychology of self- versus other-orientation, we’ll come to recognize that many of the fears, anxieties, and stresses that plague us are rooted in excessive self-focus. Excessive self-focus makes us tense, our sense of self fragile, bringing ego brittleness, and it leads us to overreact in the face of a challenge. On the other hand, if we can open our hearts a little bit and orient toward others, this simple shift makes us feel more expansive, even more courageous, I would say. There is a sense of freedom that comes in the absence of the heaviness of self-agenda. We can feel more relaxed even. Also, being in touch with our shared humanity with others, we feel less lonely and more connected with others. So, if we are truly serious about our own long-term well-being, we need to open up our heart and orient more toward others. And, of course, if we truly care about the world and its inhabitants, compassion has to be at the core of how we view the world and relate to others.”
11. From Barbara Kingsolver: (by way of Hugh Hollowell’s Life Is So Beautiful newsletter) “There are days when I can’t live in this country. Not the whole thing at once, including the hateful parts, the misogyny, the brutal disregard of the powerful for the powerless. Sometimes I can only be a citizen of these trees, this rainy day, the family I can hold safe, the garden I can grow. A fire that refuses to go out.” In the same newsletter edition, he shared this (and I’m shook): Antisemitism, False Information and Hate Speech Find a Home on Substack.
13. Good things from Lion’s Roar: How to Cultivate Resilience in Tough Times (“Shauna Shapiro explains how to face difficult emotions, re-center, and find calm”), and A24’s “Past Lives” is a Meditation on Love and Longing (“Lion’s Roar Associate Editor Noel Alumit reviews A24’s new movie, Past Lives, the debut film of director Celine Song”), and The Tathagata’s Ten Wisdom Powers (“The Avatamsaka, or Flower Garland Sutra, details the path and practices of the bodhisattva. Among these are ten powers that arise from the awakened human mind. Rev. Heng Sure on how teacher and student alike might realize them”).
14. Pause for Summerfrom Frederick Joseph, “A poem reminding you all to remember to be alive today.”
15. A great set of prompts to ponder from Alexandra Franzen: “What’s something that angers you? Or, something that breaks your heart? How could you channel your emotions into an art project, a book, or solution?”
16. ‘I was the rejection queen.’“Most wannabe authors would give up the will to write after 98 refusals, but not Bonnie Garmus. The first-time novelist tells Lynn Barber about the female rage that led her to write Lessons in Chemistry and the rescue dog that became one of the book’s best loved characters.”
18. Invite others to imaginefrom Patti Digh. “Our questions make all the difference in the answers we live.”
Please note: I am sitting here having a meltdown because somehow I obliterated items 19-26 on this list as I was working on it and I don’t think there’s any way of getting them back (yes, I checked my drafts) and retracing my steps to rebuild that portion of the list would take WAY too long and be incredibly frustrating so I’m going to start where I am now, call it 19 and move on… *sigh* A few of them were about climate change and white nationalism, so maybe it’s for the best. And, life is just like this: sometimes you lose things, things that mattered, things you can never get back.
26. Sthira and Sukha – Finding balance on and off the mat. “How do we strike the balance between doing too much and straining, and doing too little and feeling like we’re not trying hard enough? Laia explores the concepts of Sthira and Sukha.” I’ve been working a lot with this concept, in my teaching and my own practice.
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 