1. Love at First Sight streaming on Netflix. “After missing her flight from New York to London, Hadley (Haley Lu Richardson) meets Oliver (Ben Hardy) in a chance encounter at the airport that sparks an instant connection. A long night on the plane together passes in the blink of an eye but upon landing at Heathrow, the pair are separated and finding each other in the chaos seems impossible. Will fate intervene to transform these seat mates into soul mates? Based on the wildly popular novel, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, by Jennifer E Smith.” Not everyone liked this movie, which is rated 6.9/10 on Rotten Tomatoes. Some reviews said things like the movie was “an absolute stink fest,” “painful to watch,” “booty cheeks” or “absolute buns” (?), and simply a waste of time. I, on the other hand, LOVED it. It was exactly what I needed, easy and sweet.
2. First Aid for The Soul & Ebb and Flow on A Grace Full Life. Kari has been in a sweet and tender place recently and her blog posts reflect that. The Nikita Gill poem she shares was exactly what I needed this morning.
3. 17 Ways To Open Your Heart. “Building an emotional survival kit” from Andrea Gibson on Things That Don’t Suck. This post is restricted to their paid subscriber community, but it is just one of 1000 reasons you should subscribe. And there’s this, “Since early on in my cancer diagnosis I have been writing and speaking about how amazing it feels to have an open heart. By open heart I mean many things: To feel at ease in my being. To be in love with living. To be guided by gratitude for each precious day. To appreciate the lessons learned through challenges. To interact with everyone I encounter knowing they are my teacher. To not be burdened by the weight of grudges or blame. To be present in the moment.” If you know me at all, you know what a fan I am of an open heart. ❤
4. Poetry: Crows by Mary Oliver on The New Yorker and Terce from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.
5. Author Rebecca Solnit Found ‘Half’ Her Books in a Dataset Used to Develop AI, an interview. I don’t know exactly how I feel about AI, am disappointed by the theft of the intellectual property of so many artists, and yet, also this past week I had to send an uncomfortable text that was necessary but because of my emotional connection to it and the potential outcome I didn’t trust myself to effectively communicate my point, so I tried ChatGPT for the first time and it was SUPER helpful.
6. Good stuff from Seth Godin: The Pizza Principle, Writing your book, It could have easily gone the other way, Different kinds of people, and No thank you.
7. Tips&tricks #1: You’ve hit a chronic illness flare. Here’s what to do with your writing practice from Esmé Weijun Wang, who has been there, done that.
8. Containers are my weakness from Patti Digh.
9. For introverts and those who love them: 5 Annoying Questions That Introverts Are Tired of Hearing and 9 Things Introverts Never Have to Do.
10. Objects, a documentary. “There are two kinds of people. To some, objects are the root of clutter and materialism. To others, objects are a way to keep a treasured record of their lives. Objects follows three unique people who have held onto something that gained incredible meaning for them over decades.”
11. When Museum Workers Take Over Their Institutions’ Walls. “The Met’s staff art exhibition made headlines when it opened to the public last year. As it turns out, these shows are anything but rare.”
12. One Thing at a Time, Lady! My Week of No Multitasking. “I started slow, with a ban on multitasking while talking on the phone or running around the city. No more texting while walking the dog! That went well, so for the final week I decided to tighten the screws and eliminate multitasking entirely. It nearly killed me.”
13. Two sets of 11 things from Jena Schwartz: 11 things (spread over us a shelter) and Still I Can’t Cry.
14. For those of us confused and trying to make sense of things: What is Hamas, and what’s happening in Israel and Gaza? A really simple guide, and What to know as the war between Israel and Hamas continues, and Israel-Hamas war: what has happened and what has caused the conflict? And for those who want to keep going, get deeper: The Lines that Whisper Us, and What Preceded the Killings in Israel and Gaza Was Not “Peace” — It Was Apartheid, and How Was Hamas Able To Launch Such A Devastating Attack On Israel?, and How should the US respond to the Israel-Palestine crisis?, and What the Mainstream Media Never Told You About Palestine.
15. On Turning 40. “As I reach this milestone, there are three things that are on my mind that I want to share with you.”
16. Letters to my home from Susannah Conway. “I don’t want to travel the world. I don’t have or need a bucket list. I want to plant the deepest roots I can and finally have a place that’s mine.” #same
17. Kaira Jewel Lingo’s October newsletter, No One is Excluded from My Heart, which includes this difficult but necessary truth: “Not excluding others from our heart does not mean we do not say ‘no’ to injustice and oppression. We must challenge all forms of discrimination and systemic violence, while never forgetting that whatever others do, they are still part of our human family and even perpetrators and the tragic situations they create still have the capacity to transform and be healed.”
18. Somatic Therapy: 12 Easy Ways To Shift Your Mood With Your Body from Courtney Carver on Be More With Less.
19. How to Experience the True Nature of Mind on Lion’s Roar. “Mingyur Rinpoche shares step-by-step instructions to experience the basic nature of mind.”
20. Eclipse New Moon: Practices for Collective Grief and Grace from Mindy Tsonas Choi, which includes this advice, “Take what concrete actions you have the capacity for, when you can. Reach out to our Jewish and Middle Eastern friends in whatever way you are able. This might look like sending a note, baking a batch of cookies, donating to an organization, sharing critical information, calling your local government officials, or showing up to a rally in solidarity. All of it matters and makes a difference.”
21. Good stuff on The Marginalian: Roxane Gay on Loving vs. Being in Love and the Mark of a Soul Mate and The Importance of Trusting Yourself: Nick Cave on the Relationship Between Creativity and Faith.
22. Moving Poetry: In The Name of Beauty, “and inevitable discomfort” from Sarah Blondin.
23. LitBuzz Presents | Spill The Tea With The Bees : Amy Marie Turner. “Bee Tanya sits down virtually with author Amy Marie Turner to chat about her book Voyage of The Pleiades, Amy’s personal practices of both research & writing as well as her unique life path to becoming an author of many forms.” P.S. I’m reading and loving Amy’s book. It can be an uncomfortable thing to read the published work of someone you know. There’s always the concern that it won’t be good, or more specifically that you won’t like or enjoy it (which is really the only way we measure if something is “good” or “bad”, as all art is ultimately subjective and our evaluation says more about us than it does the work), and then what do you say to them about it? I don’t have to worry in this case, because instead of not knowing what to say, I keep catching myself as I’m reading thinking, “Amy WROTE this! It’s so good! I can’t wait to finish it and tell her how much I enjoyed it, how impressed I am with the research she did.” 🙂
24. How Jesmyn Ward Is Reimagining Southern Literature on The New York Times. I just preordered her latest novel. She is one of my favorite living authors.
25. How the Land Back Movement Is Unraveling Manifest Destiny. “Across Indian Country, tribal nations are buying back their land one parcel at a time.”
26. Positive News, “the online and print magazine for rigorous journalism about what’s going right. Our mission: While most of the news overwhelms people with negative narratives, instead Positive News is here to offer a lens on the world that helps give people a fuller picture of reality, supports their wellbeing and empowers them to make a positive difference. In doing so, we’re showing the rest of the media that good news matters.”
27. The 5 secrets to my success from Danny Gregory. “I’ve been teaching myself to draw for 25 years. Here’s what I’ve learned matters most.”
28. Shedding Our Stuff While Living as Nomads Was Easier Said Than Done.
29. Itches to Scratch by Jami Attenberg.
30. Life bruises us in ways we cannot see from Patti Digh. “It’s not only the big things that bruise us. It’s those little ones, too. And those bruises mean we are alive.”
31. A Bridge Amidst the Hardship from Frederick Joseph. “On the ‘Five For Families’ campaign helping 150 families.”
32. Patrick Stewart says his time on ‘Star Trek’ felt like a ministry.
33. Death in Paradise’s Ralf Little reveals set secret as filming draws to a close. This is a silly, sweet show.
35. Ozempic Can’t Fix What Our Culture Has Broken on The New York Times.
36. Elliot Page asks about ghosts on the Handsome podcast. I adore this show and its three handsome hosts, and this is one of the best episodes yet.
38. See Eddie Murphy wreak holiday havoc in 1st trailer for ‘Candy Cane Lane.’
39. Gary Meikle’s rant on eyebrows in this Facebook reel is hysterical. His accent makes it even funnier somehow.
40. A Celebration of Life for David Bartecchi to be held on Sunday October 22nd, 2023 at 1 pm at CSU. If you would like to provide support to the Bartecchi family in this uncertain time, please consider contributing to their GoFundMe campaign. “Dave was a true friend of the earth and a ‘good relative’ to all people.” Read more about Dave here.
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 
I discovered that Nikita Gill poem in a poetry book I believe you were reading. I’m not sure. Your Goodreads lists help me find THE BEST BOOKS. 🖤
What you said about Chat GPT made me laugh so hard. I want to hate AI. I really do. But, man…🤣
🙂 ❤