1. Andrea Gibson, 8/13/75 – 7/14/25. “On July 14th, at 4:16AM, Andrea Gibson died in their home surrounded by their wife, Meg, four ex-girlfriends, their mother and father, dozens of friends, and their three beloved dogs…Andrea would want you to know that they got their wish. In the end, their heart was covered in stretch marks.” I knew this was coming, and yet… One of the last comments I left on Andrea’s blog was, “I do not love a world that will someday be here when you are not. I will also one day desperately love a world where you have been, that holds your open heart, your voice, your poetry in the stars and the sun and the grass and the bunnies and and and and…I love you. ❤️” 💔

2. Poetry: Messages from Home and My Aimless Love and When Answering Your Calling and A New Dark Age from Julie Barton, In Passing by Lisel Mueller, and Remember by Joy Harjo. And these:

3. Five Steps to Walk Away from Empire. “On finding new shapes and embracing nonlinear meanders” by Nicholas Triolo.

4. Advice for Getting Through Grief on Lion’s Roar. “Miriam Tarcov on how to navigate the pain of losing a loved one and—ultimately—reconnect with joy.”

5. Dear Fanny, Don’t Worry, I Know You’re Dead. “Ezra Fox on Working With Fanny Howe on Her Last Book.”

6. Choi + Shine Architects Collaborate with Communities Around the Globe to Crochet Monumental Lace Works.

7. ‘I felt pure, unconditional love’: the people who marry their AI chatbots. “The users of AI companion app Replika found themselves falling for their digital friends. Until – explains a new podcast – the bots went dark, a user was encouraged to kill Queen Elizabeth II and an update changed everything.”

8. The River House Broke. We Rushed in the River. “On July 4, the Guadalupe ripped our home from its pillars, pulling my family into its waters and into the night. Then morning came.”

9. Seane Corn and Lama Rod Owens: Steady Breath, Steady Heart on the Sounds True Podcast. “How are you doing these days? Exhausted? Heartbroken? Outraged? All of the above? In this era of uncertainty and instability, you may feel like your only choice is to forge ahead and just get through the week. If so, this podcast with two beloved Sounds True authors was created just for YOU. Here, Tami Simon speaks with Seane Corn and Lama Rod Owens to hear their personal insights for navigating our rapidly-changing world from a place of deep connection to our most important values, to the people who give us strength, and to those with whom we may feel hopelessly divided.”

10. Good stuff from Patti Digh. Reclaiming Sonder: The Profound Realization of Other Lives and The ghosts of becoming: A lineage of selves, lost.

11. Practice Delight, with Ross Gay: Hope Portal, Session 7.

12. The FOMO no one talks about: Am I missing my own life? by Meg Josephson.

13. Journaler’s Routine No. 2: Melissa Febos on The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad. “There are few moments in a day more peaceful and satisfying than these.”

14. 8 Ways to Embrace “Deep Casual Hosting” (So You’ll Actually Do It.) by Katherine Goldstein. “How to prioritize connection over exhausting Instagram expectations.”

15. And finally, this random collection of things I saved to my phone this week.