August | 2024 | Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray)

1. Howard Schatz’s Images Of Female Athletes. This is an older series of photos, but it resurfaced this week after all the weird gendered body shaming happening at the Olympics. The full series includes male athletes and is pretty amazing.

2. 14 things that the misguided religious establishment doesn’t want you to know from Jim Palmer, a former evangelical megachurch pastor. My favorite is #14: “You are capable of guiding your own spiritual path from the inside out and don’t need to be told what to do. You naturally have the ability, capacity, tools and skills to guide and direct your life meaningfully, ethically and effectively. Through the use of your fundamental human faculties such as critical thinking, empathy, reason, conscience and intuition, you can capably lead your life. You have the choice to cultivate a spirituality that doesn’t require you to be inadequate, powerless, weak, and lacking, but one that empowers you toward strength, vitality, wholeness, and the fulfillment of your highest potentialities and possibilities.”

3. Oliver Chalk Meticulously Turns Found Pieces of Timber into Bold and Voluminous Vessels.

4. This year’s longlist for the Booker Prize.

5. Documentary Area. Watch hundreds of the best documentaries for a simple donation. In related news, The Best Documentaries & Docuseries of 2024 (So Far).

6. Telling the Story of Everest Pioneer Lhakpa Sherpa Took Patience and Trust on Outside. “Five questions with Oscar-nominated director Lucy Walker, whose latest documentary ‘Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa’ debuts on Netflix on July 31.”

7. PHOTOS: Colorado wildfires burn across Front Range.

8. The Newest National Parks Feature? Poetry. on Outside. “Ada Limón, America’s first Latina poet laureate, is helping us rethink wild spaces with some perfectly placed poems at a park near you.”

9. Homeowners are increasingly re-wilding their homes with native plants, experts say.

10. Hummingbird babies. (Facebook reel)

11. Snoop Dogg and Lester Holt one-on-one at Paris Olympics. (video) “Snoop Dogg, deemed the Paris Olympics ‘ambassador of happiness,’ has been making his rounds to almost any sport you can think of this year. Turns out, his love for the Olympic games goes way back. Lester Holt sat down for a one-on-one interview with Snoop before the two caught a Judo match together.” In related news, Snoop Dogg’s Olympics commentary is ‘pure gold.’ How the rapper’s love for Team USA is taking the internet by storm.

12. Recipe I want to try: Lemon Scones.

13. I avoided plastic for a week. Here is what I learned about a plastic-free life.

14. Two American Families: 1991-2024, “a special, two-hour documentary filmed over more than 30 years, is a portrait of perseverance from FRONTLINE, Bill Moyers, and filmmakers Tom Casciato and Kathleen Hughes that raises unsettling questions about the changing nature of the American economy and the impact on people struggling to make a living.”

15. Marc Maron’s take on meditation. (Facebook reel)

16. How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Nap. This article is a few years old, but still relevant.

17. ‘A rumpled paperback showed me I was not alone’: Charlotte Mendelson, Michael Rosen and others on the books that marked their coming of age.

18. Reuse that teabag! Ignore that special offer! It’s time to join the underconsumer revolution. “Most of us already have more than enough stuff. No wonder so many young people are turning their backs on the marketers and influencers.”

19. A Few Wild Things from Laurie Wagner. In related news, Wild Writing Summer Pop Up with Laurie.

20. Love Letter Sent Back in Time to Myself Three Years Ago, another gorgeous and tender poem from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.

21. I have trouble fitting in from Jenny Lawson.

22. ‘Trees show us what community means’. The importance of having access to forests, according to you. “Positive News readers share profound moments you’ve experienced in forests and how being around trees impacts your wellbeing.”

23. Rising and shining: one woman’s mission to demystify the baking of bread. “After making bread lifted her out of a deep depression, Kitty Tait made it her mission to demystify the alchemy of baking – and reawaken others to the many benefits of an honest, unprocessed, crust.”

24. Sinéad O’Connor’s cause of death revealed.

25. Poetry Wednesday: Kinship is a Verb from Patti Digh.

26. 7 Things You Must Abandon for a Simpler Life on Be More With Less from Courtney Carver.

27. Happy Born Day, Ancestor James Baldwin! from Robert Jones, Jr.

28. The Joy of Staying Put from Maggie Smith.

29. 50 Shades of Self-Care: How to Give Yourself TLC for Every Occasion.

30. This collection of images I saved this week.

1. Morning walks. Maybe it’s the rabbitbrush and goldenrod and asters blooming, or the mornings being darker, but this week seemed to turn ever so slightly towards fall — my favorite season in Colorado.

I hadn’t seen many Rocky Mountain bee plants this year, and the seeds we scattered in our garden didn’t take. Then yesterday morning, Ringo and I went to a spot we hadn’t been since spring, and there were purple sparkler blooms and bees all along the trail.

One year, we had a whole bunch of Rocky Mountain bee plants in one of our flowerbeds and they got about six feet tall. My favorite thing was going out and standing next to them, listening to the hum of the bees, so loud I could feel it buzz in my chest.

2. First responders, in particular fire fighters. We still have multiple fires burning here, and so many people are right there, working so hard to put them out, risking their own safety and health to protect property and people along with all the wildlife.

3. Practice. I am so grateful I have it to return to, again and again.

4. Good food. Eric made a peach pie on the grill a few nights ago. He’s been working so much this summer on a special project that it’s the first pie we’ve had. Our raspberries probably still have a few more years before they really start producing, but the single berry I got the other day was so good. And roasted potatoes, red onion, and red pepper for breakfast burritos never disappoint, especially when I have eggs from Chloe’s chickens to go with them.

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. I’m savoring this particular moment in time, before school starts and before I need to make another trip back to Oregon. Nothing compares to the quiet, calm, and comfort that lives here.

Bonus joy: baby deer, hummingbirds, the smell of rabbitbrush, how the top of Ringo’s head smells when he’s been laying out in the backyard in the sun, sunflowers, corn, peaches, ice cream, clean sheets, a/c, plantain chips with dip (yup, still — I tend to get hyperfixated on certain foods), listening to podcasts, true crime documentaries, music, naps, acupuncture, massage, a warm shower, clean laundry, a big glass of clean cold water, peanut butter, the “plug your nose” trick that makes it possible to take the sour bitter Chinese herbs I’m trying for my hot flashes (funny, when I was younger I used this same trick to take shots of tequila), the Olympics, the way my brother and his daughter take care of our mom, “Nana and Papa,” sharing reels and memes, making each other laugh, gummies, down pillows and blankets, libraries and librarians, vaccines, storytellers, poets and poetry, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.