1. Poetry: This House, That House by Lynne Knight and In This Essay, I Will by Celesta Cox (be sure to read her explanation of the poem’s origins at the bottom of the page) and Dear Citizen by Ron Koertge on Rattle, Watching My Husband Learn to Make a Bowl by Julie Barton, Poem haunted by the sound of a long e by Kerry Sherin Wright on poets.org, Endless Ways to Pray by James Crews, New York Address by Linda Gregg on The Slowdown with Maggie Smith, because I cannot say it exactly by Maya Stein, and Again It Rears Up, This Familiar Worry by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.
2. Good stuff from Patti Digh: How I shop (or don’t) “Inspired by The Guardian questionnaire” and How to Lose a Glove in Eight Steps “From my ‘how to’ series.”
3. Good stuff from Elissa Altman on Poor Man’s Feast: Last night, we made the pie of grief and Is cruelty addictive? Humans, psychopathology, and the sadistic urge.
4. Good stuff from Jamie Attenberg on Craft Talk: What We Do with Our Flaws “Starting with the questions we ask” and Who Are You Honoring? “One reason to write.”
5. More Than 18,000 Wildlife Species Populate Joel Sartore’s Ambitious ‘Photo Ark.’ “Twenty years ago, National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore set out on a deceptively simple multi-year mission: to create a photo archive of biodiversity. Documenting around a thousand animals each year, his ultimate goal is a portrait catalogue showcasing more than 25,000 species. As of this writing, Sartore has documented 18,567 animals, including the new species of cat recently discovered in Bolivia. In zoos, aquariums, wildlife sanctuaries, and more, he collaborates with conservationists and researchers to document an awe-inspiring yet tiny fraction of life on our planet.”
6. Knocker uppers and candle clocks: How people woke up before alarm clocks.
7. Dog Photography 2026 Awards.
8. The mish-mash feeling “notes from an in-between (which is always)” by Lisa Olivera on Human Stuff.
9. How to Doubt Your Way into a Truer Life by Maria Popova on The Marginalian, which includes Jeff Foster’s Poem “Indecision.”
10. Float, Don’t Flail “& the novelist Ed Park on the one word that can unlock everything” on The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad.
11. Complicated Ancestors and Unexpected Ghosts, “what is passed down to us and what we keep” by Alix on Earth & Verse.
12. ‘I can breathe again’. Readers share their experiences of a more balanced media diet on Positive News. In related news, 118 Things to Do Instead of Doomscrolling on Wirecutter.
13. The Story of Our Piano on Things That Don’t Suck by Megan Falley. “Where do we put all the love?”
14. Things That Are Good to Do. “I used to struggle with life. I still do sometimes. But things have gotten a lot better since I started writing things down. Things that, if I do them, make life a little nicer to live. And now it’s really easy. I just have to remember all of these things, all of the time. And I have to do them. Always. Easy! You can live the life of your dreams too. If, like me, you only remember and follow this list.”
15. So…I Owe the Swifties a Thank You from Frederick Joseph. “How Taylor Swift fans donated over $75,000 to my mutual aid fundraisers, one $13 donation at a time.”
16. 25 Places to Donate Books from Tammy Strobel on Be More With Less.
17. Two useless love stories by Danny Gregory. “A brighter, truer version of my life in dog years.”
18. What the heck is a good life anyway? by Jasmine on The Tiny Joy Project. “Trying to figure out what makes a good life before my coffee gets cold.”
19. A Fun Personality Type. “A comic about what writers do for fun’ by Connie Sun.
20. 8 No-Nonsense Ways To Declutter Kitchen Things by Courtney Carver on Be More With Less.
21. The Job of the Visitor (The assignment for anyone visiting someone with dementia). “Visiting my father with Alzheimer’s and letting the record stay wrong” by Elizabeth Kleinfeld.
22. A Dinner Party Pep Talk on Culture Study. “Now, before people start telling me why a dinner party doesn’t fit their social needs, I get it: this is not the connective mode for everyone. But if you like a dinner party, most of us just need to figure out how to shift the paradigm — as both hosts and guests — to one of ease. So here’s how I went from my personal Dinner Party Desert to Dinner Party Abundance.”
23. Feeling wired? The truth about ‘nervous system resets’ on The Guardian. “The internet is full of warnings about our ‘dysregulated’ nervous systems. But, experts say, you don’t need to reset yours – you might just need to make it more flexible. Here’s how (and no, you don’t need an acupressure mat).”
24. ‘We live in grief-phobic societies’: experts on how to get more comfortable with death on The Guardian. “We are all going to die, and so is everyone we know. So how can you not be terrified?”
25. AI tells me I’m brilliant…are you brilliant too? by Laura Lentz on Writing at Red Lights. “How I feel about using AI to write your stories — and what AI admits it is doing to your writing style.”
26. Pick a free bouquet, stay for the community at a flower garden on Butterfly Lane. “The original plan five years ago was to sell the flowers. But when her neighborhood was hit by wildfires and flooding before the summer bloom, Wilson discovered that the flowers’ real value was in giving them away.”
27. And finally, this bunch of random things I saved to my phone this week.
