1. My Aim Is To Be True, Not Great. “Rather than becoming great, I prefer to be true. Ordinary. Happy with staying close to home with an adventure here and there if it arises. Happy to run into friends and neighbors when I venture beyond the house. Happy to walk the same trail every day. Happy to be an ordinary human doing ordinary things. This is my freedom. This is my truth.” So much this.

2. Wisdom from Patti Digh: “My thoughts on resisting a possible ultra-conservative presidency following the blueprint outlined in Project 2025: Choose one topic you feel strongly about and work on that topic. There is too much for us to split our attention among all the things that are planned. Know your topic inside and out, donate what you can to organizations advocating on that topic, and make a dent in that topic. Others will choose different topics and do the same. Hit that one topic hard, with all you can muster, given your resources. That is going to be my approach.”

3. Wisdom from Søren Kierkegaard, “The most common form of despair is not being who you are.”

4. All in from Josie George. “What am I opening and closing to? Life itself. My existence entirely. Inconvenient, uncomfortable, surprising, often disappointing, wise, perfect. Terrifying. Terrifying. And the greatest gift there is.” [Thanks to Rita for the link.]

5. Psychologist explains why everyone feels exhausted right now and it makes so much sense.

6. Wisdom from Roshi Joan Halifax: “Keep clearing the mind of psychosocial debris, to the extent that we can, through practice, love, art, and the wilds. and keep aligned with the values of integrity and care, letting wisdom and courage be the guide, not the psychological manipulations of ill-meaning players.”

7. I spent 60 years sneering at yoga. It turns out I love it – and it does make you healthier and happier. “It boosts flexibility, strength, balance, breathing and mood … Here are the stupid reasons I avoided it for so long – and 21 things I’ve learned since I embraced it.”

8. Laura Pritchett considered a life of crime — but only in a kind, fictional way. “A thought experiment at a writing conference provided the impetus for her new novel, ‘Three Keys’ — the second book she has published this year.” In related news, A struggling middle-aged woman takes to the highway in “Three Keys.” “After losing her husband and her job, the protagonist of Laura Pritchett’s latest novel finds a rough start to her journey of self-discovery.”

9. ‘I felt I had no right to grieve’: what happens if your sorrow doesn’t seem appropriate? “When the author Daisy Buchanan lost a series of friends, she felt bereft – yet also that her feelings were misplaced. Here, she explores the notion of ‘disenfranchised grief’ – and learns how to let her sorrow in.”

10. 100 Best Books of the 21st Century on The New York Times. (gift link)

11. PBS Short Film Festival. “The PBS Short Film Festival continues to elevate the reach and visibility of independent films and filmmakers from across the country. For thirteen years, the festival has showcased films about love, acceptance, family, strength, equality, friendship, loyalty and much more. The 2024 festival highlights ‘Story Time’ as we celebrate the art of short form storytelling.”

12. Locusts in your noodles? Singapore approves 16 insect species as food. Confession: This doesn’t bother me. 

13. The Key to Longevity Is Boring on The New York Times. (gift link) **Spoiler Alert**: “Research has long shown that health and longevity come down to five fundamental lifestyle behaviors: exercising regularly, eating a nutritious diet, eschewing cigarettes, limiting alcohol consumption and nurturing meaningful relationships.”

14. Wisdom from Michelle Cassandra Johnson: “The world is rather upside down, and I know this feeling of discombobulation will only continue leading up to the U.S. Presidential election in November. The dog days of summer are upon us in North Carolina, and we are inflamed. The climate is inflamed. The entire globe is on fire. I keep coming back to the light and what opportunity exists here for us to find light in this strange place and land that sometimes feels unrecognizable. And even if, at times, it feels difficult for me to find the light, I know it’s there. I know it exists, and all the darkness and shadow that makes itself known cannot and will not extinguish the light.”

15. Giving up vs. quitting from Seth Godin.

16. Wonder is a Practice, “a conversation with the unrivaled Frederick Joseph.”

17. Now That the Stakes Are Low, a poem from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.

18. Practicing Friendship: Sy Safransky and Sparrow. “In many ways they are opposites. Sparrow is impish, unkempt, chaotic. Sy arranges the pens on his desk so that they’re parallel and makes his bed every morning.”

19. What Your Grocery Cart Says About You on The New York Times. (gift link) “We combed through a month’s worth of receipts from more than two dozen people across the U.S. to better understand our relationship to the food we buy.”

20. Fine, Let’s Talk About The Election from Chuck Wendig on Terrible Minds.

21. 24 Ways To Simplify Your Life In 2024 from Courtney Carver on Be More With Less.

22. This is Where I Live Sometimes from Jenny Lawson.

23. Wednesday Thread: Quick Revision Tricks from Jami Attenberg on Craft Talk.

24. Later on Short Reads.

25. Smash Burger Tacos. (Instagram reel) We finally made some of these yesterday, and YUM.

26. Trail cam videos are one of my favorite things. For example:

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A post shared by ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝 ℝ𝕚𝕔𝕖 (@neil.rice85)

27. And finally, this cute video.

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A post shared by Lilly Davis (@dear_and_darling)

1. Morning walks. It has been over 100 degrees for the past few days and in the upper 90s the ones before that, so getting out to walk in the early morning before it gets too hot has been extra nice.

2. Good healthcare. This is born out of big disappointment in how awful healthcare is where my other family live. People have to wait way too long for just about everything, mistakes get made, some necessary things aren’t considered or offered or even available, and more suffering is generated where there’s already too much. It’s so disheartening that my dog has better access to care than most of my human family does. That said, it makes me even more grateful for the access, opportunity, and support I have. Also, in related news, I’m seeing an acupuncturist next week to hopefully get some measure of relief from my hot flashes, which I told my primary care doctor should be called “hot splashes” because I sweat SO much when they happen.

3. Air conditioning. I know there are still a lot of people who resist it or think it’s bad, who even feel somehow morally superior because they don’t have or use it, but with global warming and climate change, it’s becoming as essential as having a heating source or refrigeration for our food, and I’m so glad we have it in these long summers where 95+ is just a normal day. I’m also grateful for power grids that can support and sustain our choice to use it, and the whole house fan and inside blackout curtains and outside bamboo shades that help us not need to use it so much.

4. Rest. The past few weeks have been tough and I realize that things won’t get any easier any time soon because “life is always life-ing,” so I’m so glad that I can rest when I need to — which is a lot, and that I have a safe, quiet, cool, comfortable place to do so.

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. Having the company and comfort, making each other laugh, loving and being loved, hugs in the kitchen, cuddles on the couch, sharing food, the way Ringo smells, the weight of Eric in bed next to me.

Bonus joy: a visit with Chloe’, plantain chips and dip (I have a problem…), herons, other people’s dogs, fans, listening to podcasts, documentaries, fiction, grapefruit Bubly water, being able to make appointments online or using an app (i.e. not having to call), the pictures Chelsey sent, texting with Chris, sharing reels and memes with Carrie and Kari and Shellie, everything my brother does for my mom, my niece’s ability to mother both her own kids and her grandma so well when she didn’t get that from her own mother, the sticker H. gave me that I’m going to put on my next notebook, texting with Eric, taking care of each other, making each other laugh, hugs — you know the kind where you really mean it?, watching TV, listening to music, meditating, the pool, the hydromassage chair, training with Shelby and the gang, sitting in the sauna (where I never complain that it’s too hot), how Eric likes to sit in a lawn chair in the backyard even when it’s hot out, how excited Ringo got seeing a cat this morning, how he always checks for racoons in the canal up the road from us and insists on turning to walk down that one street because he knows the woman who lives there puts treats out for dogs, the tiny barn sparrows by the bridge this morning, the Merlin app I use to identify birds by their song (it’s seriously so cool), dog adoption, animal rescue, the way the river smells mixed with the dry grass, all the things that are in bloom, how quiet it is early in the morning, seeing the sun rise, the honey locust that is still there even though for years Barb threatened to take it down, the blooms on our golden raintrees and how much the bees love them, naps, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.