Monthly Archives: September 2024

Something Good

Image by Eric

1. Poetry from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer: For When I’m Rushing, and What the Gardener Knows, and Once grief was a bonfire. I will never understand how someone can be both so prolific and consistently offer so much beauty — I mean for as much as she writes and publishes, HOW does she never bomb?!

2. On Self-Trusta pep talk from Maggie Smith.

3. If a Steel Magnolia Falls in a Forest: R.I.P. Madeline Mabry Lippman, 1931-2024.

4. How to make new friends as a grown-up from Sas Petherick.

5. Dream Maintenance Crew, a poem from Out With Lanterns, “a daily poetry practice.”

6. There Is Still Beauty: Being Here and Resilient in a World on the Brink from Frederick Joseph.

7. Chelsea Bieker Tells Us About the Work of Loving Yourself from Cheryl Strayed’s Dear Sugar. P.S. I recommend Chelsea’s books.

8. Practical approaches for more effective teamwork from Seth Godin. I’d say this list applies to families and other communities as well as “the work place.”

9. Recipes I want to try: Lazy lasagna, and Chicken Pot Pie Pasta, and Lemon Chicken Orzo (Instagram reel), and Loaded Burger Sweet Potato Rounds (Instagram reel), and Mediterranean Creamy Vegetable Soup (Instagram reel), Sticky Ginger Sesame Tofu (Instagram reel), Zucchini Cornbread Loaf (Instagram reel), and and One Pot Brown Butter Orzo with Butternut Squash, and Big Soft Ginger Cookies.

10. ‘Love and service make us rich’: Anne Lamott on aging“NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly talks with Washington Post aging columnist Anne Lamott about what it means to get older in the United States.”

11. The 44 Best High-Protein, Low-Carb Foods, According To Nutritionists.

12. Exclusive: Two more women accuse Neil Gaiman of sexual assault and abuseThis is why we can’t have nice things, and why I don’t like to say out loud that I like anyone these days — because it seems like everyone is hiding something awful.

13. ‘No Ordinary Love’: Roxane Gay on allowing yourself to accept love“The author talks about ongoing love stories, overcoming differences, and other lessons from working with a real Hinge couple for the ‘No Ordinary Love’ anthology.”

14. Who were the 6 hostages killed in Gaza? Make it stop…

15. Easy Crowdfunding Principlesor “how to convince people to give you money.”

16. My Top 10 Favorite Fat Coaches, Trainers, etc.

17. After a Splashy Book Deal, I Got Dropped By My Publisher, But I Kept On Writing“Why stubbornness is the most fundamental skill an author can have.” 

18. Unreasonable Love, “Elizabeth Gilbert & Nancy Reddy on love that changes you” on The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad.

19. On Still Grieving The Dog, from Out With Lanterns, “a daily poetry practice.”

20. These Famous Brands Used To Have Different Names.

21. Five ways to avoid burnout.

22. A photographer captures life in America’s last remaining old-growth forests.

23. The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time on Rolling Stone.

24. 17th Annual iPhone Photography Awards 2024 Winners.

25. 10 Simple Tips To Help You Get Off Your Phone And Into Your Life from Tammy Strobel on Be More With Less.

26. How To Calm Down And Reduce Your Anxious Thoughts Fast, According To Psychologists.

27. 100 tiny tricks to help with everything from digital overwhelm to lumpy sugar and unpaid bills. “Ever feel like you’re lurching from crisis to crisis, or chore to chore? Here’s how to knock at least some of them on the head – and lay the foundations for a less stressful, more organised existence.”

28. I Had to Leave My State of Tennessee to Get An Abortion Post-Roe v. Wade Even Though My Health Was At Risk.

29. 5 Signs You’re Dealing With Unresolved Grief.

30. How Embracing My Introversion Changed My Life for the Better.

31. The Prince We Never Knew on The New York Times Magazine. (gift link) “A revealing new documentary could redefine our understanding of the pop icon. But you will probably never get to see it.”

32. And finally, this poem from Jessica Jocelyn.

Gratitude

1. Morning walks. This week, we saw a few heron and some raccoons, heard a few owls, and saw the two mama deer and their four babies. It is for sure fall here and that makes me so happy, except that it’s dark for most of our walk so I don’t get to take as many pictures.

2. Practice. Yesterday was the 10 year anniversary of my completed initial 200hr yoga teacher training. I can’t believe it’s been ten years already. I’m so grateful for the humans at Red Sage Vets that practice with me every week.

3. Good books. I mentioned something recently about The Galveston Diet book I was reading, that I was thinking of trying it. Blergh… I can’t believe after all this time, I get caught up in what a plan like this promises, that I don’t know better than to avoid any sort of restrictive way of eating (Eat more protein and fiber — I can do that! Never eat another slice of bread or any added sugar — I will eat ALL the donuts!), especially when it’s presented as, “this is not a diet, it’s a lifestyle!” Anything like this is clearly unhealthy for me (as a 45+ year bulimic), as well as unworkable and unsustainable. As a palate cleanser, I started reading The Wellness Trap this week, and I already feel so much better, so much more sane.

4. Good TV. I have a lot of subscriptions to streaming services, and there are a lot of shows and movies I’d like to watch, but I’ve found it hard lately to start and stay with anything. This weekend, I started watching The Perfect Couple on Netflix, and it is FUN, beautifully shot. It’s like a combination of The Affair and The White Lotus.

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. I am soaking it all up, as in a few weeks I’ll be heading back out to Oregon, exactly one year after the trip I made to care for and be with my dad when he died. As it’s been a year since my mom’s stroke and she hasn’t improved, sadly won’t ever be able to live independently again, I’m going to sit down with what is left of our family, her and my brother, and see if we can’t figure out a better long term plan. In the meantime, I’m getting all the hugs and cuddles and taking all the naps in my favorite place with my favorite beings.

Bonus joy: after an August break my writing group is going to start meeting again this week, the comfort of knowing that at least financially my mom doesn’t have to worry, texting with my aunts and Chloe’ and Chris, cooler temperatures, donuts, trying new recipes, the confidence to know I can follow a recipe, stickers, clean sheets, vaccines (even though after getting both my flu shot and covid booster yesterday, my arm is so tender), getting in the pool, the sauna, the hydromassage chair, training with Shelby and the gang, good neighbors, grocery shopping, peaches, finally with Eric’s help getting all the towels folded and put away, new handtowels and washcloths so I don’t have to worry about running out anymore, how on the weekend Eric and Ringo spend so much time lounging in the backyard, trees, a massage with Dana, the tiny two month old black labradoodle named Izzy I got to say “hello” to as I was leaving Dana’s studio — she was SO soft!, books from the library, being able to download books from the library on to my kindle, breakfast burritos, blue sky, cedar fences, paint, Rocky Mountain bee plants, turtles, the ocean, the produce section, buying myself flowers with the $20 off coupon I got from the pharmacy for getting vaccinated, knowing that my trip to Oregon brings people I love relief before I even get there, naps, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.