January | 2025 | Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray)

1. How to help victims of the Los Angeles wildfires. “As wildfires continue to devastate Los Angeles, leaving thousands displaced and causing widespread destruction, experts urge long-term support and careful giving.” In related news, Community groups provide relief as LA staggers from wildfire emergency, and Destruction of L.A. Fires Includes a Historic Black Community, and Fire survivors feel forgotten, and The Pain of Altadena Burning, “The Fight to Preserve Black History Amid California Wildfires” from Frederick Joseph, Displaced Black Families GoFund Me Directory (Google doc), and The California Fires are a Disaster. The American Cruelty is a Tragedy on The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz, and The Wildfires In LA from Chuck Wendig on Terrible Minds, and How do you love your neighbors when your houses are on fire? on The White Pages, and Only Indigenous ways prevent wildfires from Rowen White on Re-Seeding Imaginations.

2. Poetry. From Julie Barton: Nose Dive, A Few of the Ways I’ve Failed, The Cormorant’s Dilemma, and After I Asked About The Stars and You Struggled to Answer. From Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer: Letter to the Others in the Dark. Also, poetry plus some: How Do We Bear It? from Jena Schwartz and Do Not Spare Yourself by Maria Popova on The Marginalian. Also, Three Poems to Live By. And this book from Ollie Schminkey, which is currently wrecking me: Dead Dad Jokes. Next up, I’m reading three of Rudy Francisco’s poetry books.

3. Good stuff from Seth Godin: Slow down to speed up and “That will never work.”

4. To resist the climate crisis, we must resist the billionaire class. “I choose to focus my energy on the climate crisis because a habitable planet is a prerequisite for everything worth fighting for, and because the prospect of losing a planet feels horrific and sad to me in a primal way that I can’t express with words. I’m also simply in love with the Earth. But planetary overheating is really just the most geophysical symptom of extractive colonial capitalism – ‘billionairism’ – a system designed to pump wealth from the poor to the rich, creating billionaires, the healthcare crisis, the housing crisis, genocide, hierarchies like racism and patriarchy, and a great deal of suffering.” Amen.

5. Good stuff on Be More With Less: How To Slow Down: 101 Ways To Adore Your Life This Year and 25 Ways To Simplify Your Life In 2025.

6. The Seven Types of Rest Every Person Needs.

7. Five ways to bring more awe into your life.

8. ‘What have we here?’: how asking yourself a simple question can transform the way you think about your life. “Forget generic self-help advice and focus instead on the unique set of hang-ups, character traits and personal circumstances that stop you living your best life.”

9. 7 Ways To Have More Energy In 2025. “Doctors share the physical behaviors and emotional habits that can help you feel more ready for the day.”

10. Do you feel overwhelmed? Here’s why – and how to fix it. “Modern life is so demanding that it can lead us to feel chronically drained. How can we address the problem before everyday stress turns into burnout?”

11. 5 Organs Your Body Can Live Without.

12. Why Do We Say “Up the Wazoo”?

13. A university releases its 2025 list of banished words.

14. Meta SUCKS. A new era of lies: Mark Zuckerberg has just ushered in an extinction-level event for truth on social media (“The Meta boss’s decision to drastically change Facebook and Instagram’s factchecking programme has set the stage for a fact-free four years online”), and Meta is ushering in a ‘world without facts’, says Nobel peace prize winner (“Maria Ressa warns of ‘dangerous times’ for journalism and democracy after move to end factchecking in US”), and Meta has ‘heard the message’ from Trump, says whistleblower Frances Haugen (“Mark Zuckerberg’s move to end factchecking in US reflects president-elect’s views on social media, says Haugen”), and Meta terminates its DEI programs days before Trump inauguration (“Meta, fresh off announcement to end factchecking, follows McDonald’s and Walmart in rolling back diversity initiatives”).

15. Kindness of strangers, a new series on The Guardian. “Sometimes a random gesture or act of generosity can change the way you think about your day – or your life.”

16. From iced buns to brussels sprouts: nine nutritionists on what they really eat (it may surprise you). “Is it all green juice and overnight oats, or do health experts enjoy the occasional burger or chocolate eclair? They reveal their tips and treats.”

17. Artful opportunities: five ways to be creative every day.

18. What went right in 2024: the top 25 good news stories of the year.

19. Open Me: A Conversation with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer on Embodiment Matters. (podcast) “In our conversation, Rosemerry reads several of her gorgeous poems, from All the Honey and The Unfolding, and we move through many rich themes including grief and gratitude, ways to be with someone who is grieving, the power of poetry, holding paradox and the stretch of the human heart, and being opened by life.”

20. What 15 Very Different People Hope to See in 2025 on The New York Times. (gift link)

21. I’ve Been Making Ina Garten’s Tuscan Soup for Over 10 Winters—It’s Still My Favorite. And for dessert, these oatmeal cookies.

22. World Central Kitchen (WCK) Founder José Andrés Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom. WCK is my current favorite place to donate money.

23. “The paradox of staying online”: Talking screen time, digital detoxes and New Years resolutions with author and art therapist Amelia Knott.

24. These gorgeous photos of indigenous people dressed for powwow from Clark Dunbar.

25. And this collection of things I saved on my phone last week.

1. SNOW!!! It makes me so happy. It wasn’t much, but I’ll take it.

2. Morning walks, and more importantly that when I can’t do it, Eric can. We both got “the crud” (not COVID or the flu or any of the fancy ones, just plain old crud) around New Year’s, him a few days before it got me, so I spent my whole week canceling plans and staying home on the couch. We’ve had some pretty cold mornings, so a few times even Eric couldn’t take Ringo so sometime after lunch, he and I would do a walk around the block and Eric walks him a bit more when he gets home from work.

3. Being able to cancel plans and spend the week resting. Every day, I wake up thinking I’ll be better and then spend the day on the couch again — first it was a really sore throat and fatigue, then it was sneezing and fatigue, and now I’ve moved into the “my nose won’t stop running but I’m also stuffed up and my head feels like it’s in a vice” and fatigue stage. Hopefully next week will be better.

4. Wild Writing. I canceled everything else this week, but I was able to show up and write this morning. I love that practice so much, and I can’t wait until I’m through this particularly unpredictable moment in my life so I can start scheduling more things and sharing it more with other people.

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. It’s the best place to rest and recover when I’m not feeling my best. And yes, my Christmas tree is still up.

Bonus joy: grocery pick up (that saved me this week because I could NOT face going inside and doing the shopping myself, did NOT have the energy), getting the laundry done (even though it took close to four days), a hot mug of green tea, my weighted blanket, my Shakti mat, tissues infused with lotion, lip balm, lemon mint throat lozenges, tortilla chips, a warm shower (finally), down pillows and blankets, an 11 year old dog who isn’t too concerned if he doesn’t get a walk first thing after breakfast, blackout curtains, a white noise machine, twinkle lights, a working furnace, my aunt Cindy getting her health back, my uncle Bruce hopefully in a place now that will take good care of him so my aunt Monica can recover her health and not have to worry about him, all the caretakers that help my mom (especially since I can’t be there to do it myself), good books, my new Kindle, libraries and librarians, poetry and poets, comedy, true crime, listening to podcasts, Ringo’s continued good belly health, the chance to start over (a million times, if necessary), getting to write with Chloe’ and Cynthia, trading memes and reels with Kari and Shellie and Carrie, pistachios, hard boiled eggs, berries, prescription glasses, first responders and other essential workers — people who run towards the danger (“There are two kinds of people in the world – first those who run away from danger, then there are those who run towards danger, to see if someone needs help.” ~Abhijit Naskar), reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.