1. The emergence of a yellowtail butterfly. (video) Then, there was this related wisdom from Morgan Harper Nichols: “Kindness to yourself is like the patience the butterfly exhibits. It is understanding that not all processes happen immediately and that growth needs both effort and rest. You should not be harsh with yourself if you are not ready to soar right away. Instead, you should give yourself time to adjust, to let your wings dry, knowing that with patience and attention to your own needs, you will find the strength to rise and embrace the new heights that change brings.”
2. During my first case of Covid, a gorgeous poem from Jena Schwartz that isn’t about Covid at all, but rather everything else, “a leaf, a raindrop, the most beautiful feathered thing.”
3. Principle, a gorgeous poem from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, “tossed again and again into the waters of difficulty, each toss another chance to practice buoyancy.” In related news, Whatever It Means, because this: “The weight of loving another, that weight without which I would be nothing.”
4. Start With What You Love, a gorgeous post from Laurie Wagner. “You know there are larger things looming, and they hurt to think about. How could you not feel them. You’re a human animal – you feel everything. So start with what you love, start there.” Also from Laurie, Alison Luterman & Laurie Wagner | True Confessions: How We Create Intimacy, Trust and Connection In Our Work.
5. How forest schools boost children’s immune systems. This article jives with another post I saw. (Instagram reel)
6. Comedy shows I want to watch: Pete Holmes: I Am Not For Everyone, and Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man & The Pool, and Joe Dombrowski – Don’t Eat the Crayons, and Nate Bargatze on SNL.
7. Never Been Better (Official Lyric Video) from Ben Abraham.
8. Good stuff from Seth Godin: Patience, The power of expectations, Two ways to defend the status quo, and Confronting consciousness.
9. Activist Micro Action Dispatch: Text “CEASEFIRE” to 51905.
10. Good stuff from Jamie Attenberg on Craft Talk: The Problem of the Story and When to Share Your Work.
11. When Your Process Isn’t Working For You, Change Your Process from Chuck Wendig on Terrible Minds.
12. The Benefits of Yoga for Introverts.
13. On losing friends as an adult from Patti Digh. “Watching the fallout is the most enlightening part.”
14. The Friendship Dip from Culture Study. “The loneliest decades are not what you think they are.”
15. The World Inside You from Sarah Blondin, “a guided meditation on accessing your inner strength.”
16. Read It, Don’t Weep. “A surprisingly positive post about grief.”
17. The Israel-Palestine conflict: a brief, simple history. (video) In related news, Dr. Gabor Maté on Israel/Palestine. (video) And this, Palestinians, Victims of Liberal Hypocrisy from Frederick Joseph, which shares these horrifying statistics:
“As I write this, over 9,500 souls have been extinguished, and amongst these, children make up more than 40% of the deceased. These are not mere numbers; these are stories cut short, dreams unfulfilled, and futures eradicated.
This is not to say that Israel has not suffered losses of its own, or that the hostages taken by Hamas are somehow unimportant. But we cannot, in good conscience, ignore the staggering disparity in the scale of harm. Over 1.5 Million Palestinians have been displaced, over 26,000 Palestinians have been injured, more than 48,000 homes have been destroyed, and over 100 health facilities have been decimated. Not to mention resources such as water, food, electricity, and internet being cut off.”
18. There Are A Million Ways to Say “I Love You” from Andrea Gibson. “Prank Calls, Mammograms, and Klondike Bars.”
19. 7 Reasons to Celebrate ‘Elf’.
20. The Joy of Missing Out: I’m Embracing JOMO This Season, and Here’s Why You Should Too.
21. Wisdom from Pema Chödrön: “If spiritual practice is relaxing, if it gives us some peace of mind, that’s great—but is this personal satisfaction helping us to address what’s happening in the world? The main question is, are we living in a way that adds further aggression and self-centeredness to the mix, or are we adding some much-needed sanity?”
22. Recipe I want to try: Cornbread breakfast muffins.
23. ‘We’re sedating women with self-care’: how we became obsessed with wellness. “The industry claims to offer answers for all our stress and symptoms – but we ‘still lack the fundamentals of wellbeing’. How did this happen?”
24. Ugandan man’s pure joy at seeing snow for the first time.
25. On Being with Krista Tippett | Clint Smith: What We Know in the “Marrow of Our Bones”.
27. Monumental Paper Installations by Marianne Eriksen Scott-Hansen Bring Vibrant Flora Indoors.
28. How to be a writer.
29. Lovely porcelain pieces patterned with quirky cartoon-like figures by Sandra Apperloo.
30. It’s good to remember: We are all on borrowed time by Anne Lamott.
31. Poetry on Facebook: Let the sun into your heart by David Whyte and Do you know from Andrea Gibson.
32. ‘A call to action to love ourselves’: how women in their 50s can leave the shadows. “As roles and circumstances change, women in their 50s can look inwards and find a deep acceptance of themselves.”
33. Why All Introverts Need Regular ‘Me Time’.
34. How To Keep Going from Ijeoma Oluo. “The struggle for liberation is more than struggle.”
35. Wisdom from Jena Schwartz: “Life is made up of so many different narratives that converge and diverge at different moments, and we can all tell our stories in many different ways. I could tell the story of my queerness, for example, or the story of how creativity and writing have continuously unfolded and evolved, or my professional story, or the story of my body.”
36. You Don’t Have to Write Every Day to “Be A Writer” from Esmé Weijun Wang, “aka, Building a Writing Habit While Living with Limitations.”
37. The Courage to Be New. “How do you have the courage to be new? How do you even head into the ‘new?’ How can you learn to tolerate wings when all you knew were legs?”
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 