1. Poetry: Ask Instead and Don’t Ask Me How to Live and Autumnal Repose and Luck Shop from Julie Barton, Let Hope Stay and Willingness from James Crews, I want to talk to my body from Hannah Ro Writes, Devotion by Alix Klingenberg, Laura, I Want You Pulling Your Hair Back by Natalie Dunn shared by Maggie Smith on The Slowdown, While Thinking About Letting Go by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Heavy by Mary Oliver, and The Way Through by Lynn Ungar shared on Heart Poems.

2. On breath, “And what helps you breathe” by Pádraig Ó Tuama on Poetry Unbound.

3. Twilight Trees, “An elegy for ponderosa pines in a changing west” by Gary Ferguson on Orion.

4. Julian Brave NoiseCat Answers the Orion Questionnaire, “In which we get to know our favorite writers better by exploring the sacred and mundane.”

5. Too Close to the Canvas. “Stepping back so that I can see” by Jena Schwartz. Jena talked in another post about how she’s leaving Facebook, in which she shares this bit of wisdom, “Like so many things, this decision is as gradual as it may seem sudden. As M.J. always says, ‘Little by little, then all at once.'” I need to follow her, step away from social media, but I’m just not there yet.

6. Good stuff from Open Secrets Magazine: Some People Collect Memories from Their Travels. I Collect Things I Didn’t Pay For (“I didn’t think of the habit I started as a child as stealing until recently”), and Why I Still Want a Delia’s Bucket Hat (“I find comfort in my 90s catalog collection”), and Giving Up the Ghost (“Athena Dixon on letting go of what haunts you”).

7. Love, grief, and tears, “On showing care in whatever ways we can” from Rita Ott Ramstad on Rootsie.

8. The 31 best sci-fi movies of all time, “EW’s picks for a supple genre’s greatest, grossest, and most provocative films.”

9. The Black Locust by Eric Wagner, about neighbors and trees and why you shouldn’t just cut down a tree without careful consideration.

10. 10 More Tiny Steps to Simplify Your Home Without Overhauling Your Whole Life by Courtney Carver on Be More With Less.

11. Important stuff from The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz: A “Christian” Pride Festival protestor stopped me in the grocery store… They’re worse than you think, and Every Day is No Kings Day, and Hitler Has Entered the Chat… and JD Vance and the Republicans are Happy to See Him, and The “Peace President” Waging War on America, and ICE is a Test of America’s Humanity, and Many of Us are Failing.

12. Ballerina Farm Goes Full Wellness Brand, “wtf is ‘Hydration The Way Nature Intended’?” on Culture Study.

13. Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025, the winning images.

14. You Belong Here, a Facebook reel from Listen to Sleep.

15. Bear cub zoomies. (Facebook reel)

16. Bella the blue heeler likes to sit like a human. (Facebook reel) In related news, another funny heeler reel on Facebook.

17. A classic video from Sad but Rad that makes me laugh every time.

18. Life Inside a Singular Artists’ Enclave in Brooklyn, in “The Candy Factory.” “Cory Jacobs and Jason Schmidt’s documentary short follows a creative community held together by collaboration and the efforts of a woman who is part landlady, part fairy godmother.”

19. A caregiver’s survival guide: Advice from people who’ve been there.

20. Marc Maron on the End of His Landmark Podcast on The New York Times. (gift link) “The comedian, actor, and former podcaster discusses his decision to bring ‘WTF’ to a close after 16 years and interviewing its final guest, Barack Obama.” In related news, ‘Like losing a friend’: farewell to Marc Maron’s pioneering podcast WTF on The Guardian (“After 16 years and almost 1,700 episodes, Maron is ending his show – which changed the face of podcasting. No wonder it’s sparking an outpouring of sadness”) and What I’ve Learned: Marc Maron on Esquire.

21. Nick Offerman Woodworked His Way to Playing the President on The New York Times. (gift link) “Once a struggling artist looking to find his way in the acting world, Mr. Offerman leveraged his love of craft into a lasting career.”

22. D’Angelo: 14 Essential Songs on The New York Times. (gift link) “The soul singer, songwriter and producer, who died on Tuesday at 51, released three studio albums of meticulously constructed, vocally ambitious, genre-crossing music.”

23. A Wild and Precious Life: Remembering Andrea Gibson, “Their love made no mistakes” on Poetry Foundation by Amber Tamblyn.

24. Why do we all experience grief so different? (Facebook reel)

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