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

1. Poetry: Letter to the Others in the Dark and Right in the Middle of the Day from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, a love letter to the ones who cry in languages no one’s ever translated from christopher sexton, Love letter from the afterlife from Andrea Gibson shared by Patti Digh, and On Non-Attachment from Julie Barton. And also, these:

2. Remembering Andrea Gibson. My social media feeds have been flooded this week with all things Andrea, and if it were up to me, they would stay that way forever. Here’s just a few things that were shared:

~From Tiny Pricks Project

Andrea Gibson, a Poet of Love, Hope and Gender Identity, Dies at 49 on The New York Times. (gift link) “A master of spoken-word performance, Gibson insisted that poetry, especially when read aloud to an audience, was a political act.”
The Poet Who Advocated Radical Tenderness on The New York Times. (gift link)
Some Days I Can’t Swallow the Sky: In honor of Andrea Gibson from Jeannine Ouellette on Writing in The Dark.
How big is your voice? “Meeting Andrea Gibson for the first time, in a snowstorm” by Patti Digh.
This collection of poems and posts in honor of Andrea: The Best Teacher from Julia Fehrenbacher, when andrea spoke, my scars stood up and clapped from christopher sexton, Ticket Holders (for Andrea Gibson) from Shane Koyczan, When a poet dies from Leslé Honoré, In the Good Light on The Weekly Pause from James Crew, and The wild current of love and grief flowing from Jen Lemen.
And the best, most heartbreaking of all, Andrea’s wife Megan Falley is going to keep posting to Andrea’s blog, Things that Don’t Suck. Here’s the first two tender posts: Andrea Gibson 8/13/75 – 7/14/25, “The poem isn’t over. A letter from their wife, Meg” and A List of Things I Want To Tell Andrea, “Now that they know everything.”

3. Looking, “and looking at your looking” on Poetry Unbound by Pádraig Ó Tuama.

4. Good stuff from The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz: Confessions of a Radical, Woke Leftist and The I.C.E. Atrocities Should Be the Final Straw for Decent Human Beings and What to Do If You’re Losing Your Faith.

5. 7 Simple Shifts to Trade Overwhelm for Joy on Be More With Less from Courtney Carver. Also on Be More With Less, 10 Gentle Ways to Break Up With Your Phone (Without Missing It) from Tammy Strobel.

6. From Seth Godin: Lunging and Resilience is a practice.

7. The Everything in Everything. “The biggest puzzle of all right now – what on earth to do about it all?” on bimblings by Josie George.

8. Put down your need for validation by Laura Lentz on Writing at Red Lights.

9. Procrastination can wait from Danny Gregory.

10. Scrying the Photograph, “Using images to access the unseen,” a cool writing exercise from Alix Klingenberg on Earth & Verse.

11. Everything Is Fine And So Am I, “Postcards from the edge of despair,” a comic from Connie Sun.

12. What it means to stay open-hearted in a wounded world on Nonviolence Radio. “Canticle Farm co-founder Anne Symens-Bucher on grief, forgiveness and the wisdom of environmental activist Joanna Macy.”

13. This “Snail Mail Swap” Is Rewriting Adult Friendships. I miss having pen pals.

14. 99 Compliments That Are Meaningful And Memorable.

15. Why memento mori is the ultimate life hack. “A mid-flight scare reveals how embracing death can bring purpose and meaning to everyday life.”

16. Sweden’s Secret to Well-Being? Tiny Urban Gardens on The New York Times. (gift link) “Known as koloniträdgårdar, they provide city dwellers access to nature, fresh produce and community.”

17. ‘Too loud’, ‘too messy’, ‘too much’ … why should women be expected to shrink and shut up? on The Guardian. “As Lena Dunham’s new show reminds us, whether they’re at work or on a date, women are expected to tone it down if they want to get on. What if they refuse to play ball?”

18. What Would a Real Friendship With A.I. Look Like? Maybe Like Hers on The New York Times Magazine. (gift link) “Chatbots can get scary if you suspend your disbelief. But MJ Cocking didn’t — and wound up in a relationship that was strangely, helpfully real.”

19. Bridget Everett on how she ended up as “Somebody Somewhere” on CBS Sunday Morning.

20. Maddie, a Coonhound Who Awed Instagram by Balancing on Things, Dies at 14 on The New York Times. (gift link) “In thousands of photos, Maddie stood tall and seemingly unbothered atop fences, cars, road signs and tires, garnering 1.2 million Instagram followers along the way.” Good girl, Maddie. 🐾💔

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

1. Morning walks. I’m getting used to Eric going with us so I’m not going to like it when he has to go back to work. I’m amazed how few mosquitoes we have this year but glad because that means we can still go near the water, the ponds and the river.

2. Mom. She yelled at one of her sisters this week (“don’t tell me what to do!”) and it was a surprise because her sister said she’s never heard Mom yell at anyone in her whole life. She’s really into her snacks and I like that for her because for most of her life she was so careful with what she ate, so hard on herself when she did allow herself a treat. At this stage in her life, I think she’s earned the right to all the chips, candy, cake, and cookies she wants. We are still, with my brother’s help, sending each other selfies, and she still remembers who we are. And, it’s still so hard.

3. Our garden. It’s been a few years since we’ve done much of anything new with it and we haven’t planted vegetables in a few years either — because “life” — and from year to year in any garden some things thrive and others fail no matter what you do, and this year there was an unfortunate situation where Eric was trying to get rid of a particular invasive plant in our front berm and accidentally got rid of some things we’d planted on purpose — and yet, there is so much life there still. (videos and images by Eric)

4. Practice. Making art, writing in the morning with a mug of tea and my HappyLight, doing yoga at Red Sage, meditating in my practice room, and writing with my Friday morning group.

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. Loving it here with them, as always. Eric made a strawberry pie yesterday and peaches are here, so he’s already planning a peach tart. We are going to our book club today and it’s been nice to read the same book once in a while. It’s been almost a full year that Ringo hasn’t had a wonky belly, has been healthy in that regard, and his arthritis seems to be holding steady — I’m so happy to have an older dog, especially an older him.

Bonus joy: books from the library on my Kindle, ice cream, magazines and scissors and glue stick, peaches, grocery shopping, a big glass of cold clean water, listening to Dateline on the radio while I cook, clean laundry, the yellow mums Eric got me still going, being able to start over as many times as necessary, being a bit nicer to myself, good TV (finally watched Four Seasons on Netflix and it was sweet, a wonderfully easy watch), listening to podcasts, making myself playlists with new music, sharing memes and reels with Shellie and Kari and Carrie, texting with Chloe’ and Chris, how my Facebook feed has been flooded all week with all things Andrea Gibson, Pilates, a physical therapy referral, therapy, naps, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.