1. Poetry: Summer Grass by Carl Sandburg, What the Desk Might Have Said Back and The Fall and Real Love and One in the Garden by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Da Mystery of Supercooled Liquids by JeFF Stumpo, After the Mourning by Julie Barton, On My Mother’s Birthday and Something More Beautiful by James Crews, Don’t Hesitate by Mary Oliver shared by Patti Digh, Field Trip by W. Travis Helms, and Why I Wake Early by Mary Oliver on Heart Poems.
2. Andrea’s Final Wish by Megan Falley.
3. The real reason many Americans are cutting ties with their parents and siblings. In related news, A New Explanation for Family Estrangement.
5. Fat people cannot win, regardless of what we do. And I’ve had enough on The Guardian. “Using weight loss drugs like Ozempic is not ‘cheating’ – and why does it matter how a person changes their body anyway?”
6. Pep Talk: You get your own best time by Maggie Smith. I agree with Maggie, but not entirely with this: “If I have ten minutes to scroll Instagram, or fifteen minutes in a waiting room, or a half hour on the sidelines of a soccer field during my son’s warm-ups before the game, I have time to start something.” The reality is the ten minutes you have to scroll, etc. aren’t the always the same ten minutes you have to write about the color red, or the neighbor’s cat, or your first kiss. They simply just may not be the same ten minutes, so give yourself a break.
7. The Resilience of Uncertainty: How to Hold the Universe in You by Maria Popova on The Marginalian.
8. Cursive is making a comeback. But does it deserve one? When I first heard they’d stopped teaching this in schools, I thought it was a joke.
9. You can’t argue your way out of a limiting belief. “You don’t talk yourself out of it. You out-evidence it.”
10. Five nature prompts for a slow week, “activities to reconnect with the natural world wherever you live.”
11. ‘It exists only for pleasure’: does ice-cream have a future in the age of wellness fads and weight-loss drugs? on The Guardian. “As fitness-conscious consumers turn away from processed foods, the industry is scrambling for new ideas, including nutrient-rich lollies and protein-packed tubs. Will they take the fun out of this summer treat?”
12. Radical Self-Care in a National Nightmare on The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz. Also from John, Most People Still Supporting Trump Aren’t Stupid. They Know Exactly What He Is.
13. It’s the Tiny Things – The First Day of School Sign. “Nostalgia and regret can be haunting.”
14. The Books of My Life by Patti Digh.
15. On How to Know When You’re Done from Jami Attenberg on Craft Talk. Also from Jamie, I’d Rather Write This Than Go on Goodreads, “Tracking all the books I’ve read lately.”
16. Not Today by Elizabeth Kleinfeld. “On Buddhism, disability, and choosing rest without calling it defeat.”
17. 5 Relatable Things Keeping Your Home Cluttered from Courtney Carver on Be More With Less.
18. Buddhist Practices to Prepare You for Death on Lion’s Roar. “Death is a journey into the unknown. Like any journey, it goes better if you’re prepared. Andrew Holecek shares teachings from Tibetan Buddhism to help.”
19. What Happened To The Analog Life Project? “On creative pressure, unrealistic expectations, and learning to let a good idea unfold at a human pace.”
20. The story of Witch Island would make a really good novel.
21. It’s Not the Event. It’s the Meaning You Give It. “On how perspective changes everything, and how to find it when you’re spiraling” on Notes From My Phone.
22. Art Can Be A Good Companion. “A comic about doing what makes you come alive” from Connie Sun.
23. Goldenrod on Short Reads by by Emily Hall. “In search of color.”
P.S. Kind and gentle reader: My computer is being dumb, so I had to put this list together on my cranky, slow, awkward, old laptop that I only use for Zoom, and it was no fun. It would have been easier if I’d written you a list by hand!
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I’m sorry about your computer, but this was such a good list. I’m going to work on the books of my life this week for an upcoming post.
I also really appreciated reading about cutting ties with family. I felt less alone reading it. I stopped communicating with some of my cousins after my dad died, and it was comforting to read that I’m not the only one who has experienced something like this.
I got it limping along again, but it’s just time to get a new one.
I want to work on a books of my life too, but I’m afraid it would be too overwhelming to try and narrow things down that way. Maybe I need to take each section as a single prompt? I just have so many favorites, so many that have had an impact, SO MANY I still want to read… It will be one of the regrets of my life, maybe the only one — that it wasn’t long enough to read all the books I wanted to read.
There’s been a lot more available recently on that topic, a more public conversation. Some say it’s because it’s a “new trend” or that there’s a surge in the number of people doing it but people have been doing it as long as there have been people. I’m glad it was helpful. 💜