1. Poetry: My Choice by Susan Delaney Spear and Flag Flying at Half-Staff over Woodland Hills Municipal Building by Lance Larsen and iWonder by Michael Stalcup and A Few Questions Before We Go On by Prartho Sereno and Tumbleweeds by Samantha Strong Murphey and Getting the Hands Right by Natalie Taylor on Rattle, What the Heart Wants Now and Unconditional by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, I Vote for Water by Julie Barton, Advice to a Monolith by Talley V. Kayser and On Children by Kahlil Gibran and The Grass Could Be Yours by Emily Lee Luan on The Slowdown with Maggie Smith, Taking Counsel from the Geese by Julia Fehrenbacher, Map by Edgar Silex and Six-Legged Blessing of Strength by Michael Walsh on poets.org, Square One by Maya Stein, Respair by James Crews, Little Epiphanies by Allison Joseph, and What to Love in the World We Live In by Joanne Durham on Heart Poems.
2. The emotions of voting by Seth Godin.
3. Good stuff from Jena Schwartz: The Fragile Line and Loss and the Landscape of Renewal.
4. Good stuff on The Guardian: Bluey’s Daley Pearson on how losing his brother inspired his new film: ‘He was the best thing ever to me’ (“Allen, the first live-action film from Pearson’s Ludo Studio, follows a man who met an alien as a kid – and becomes obsessed with bringing him back”) and ‘Life is like a heartbeat. It’s up and down, up and down’: Michelle Yeoh on casting cliches, marriage at 60 and playing a replicant in Blade Runner 2099 (“Ballet dancer, action hero, Bond girl … The actor won an Oscar for Everything Everywhere All At Once but she’s been through some challenges on the way”) and I wrote a book about death. Here’s what people really think about dying (“In the eight years since my graphic novel on death published, I’ve learned readers of all ages want to talk about loss and preserve their family’s stories”) and My wife and I are in our late 70s and have no children. Who can help us in our old age? (“Getting older and losing your autonomy is even harder without family around. You need to consider both the practical and emotional issues involved”).
5. Wisdom from Cuong Lu: “When we think happiness is better than suffering, we’re declaring war within ourselves. When we know that happiness and suffering are both truths, peace becomes possible. There’s no need to push away impurity. Hold it gently. Even ill will wants to be understood. When you hold the whole coin in your hand—heads and tails—you’re no longer divided or afraid. You are beyond pure or impure.”
6. 9 Small Things I Do When I Don’t Quite Feel Like Myself by Rebecca Harrison on Simple Life Explorers. “For the days when nothing is terribly wrong, but everything feels a little off.”
7. The Complicated Business of Unfawning by Margie Woods on Language of the Soul. “When accommodating others has been your way of surviving, learning to recognize your own feelings can change everything, including your relationships.”
8. How to Get There, Somewhere, Anywhere: What the path to being a writer looks like by Jami Attenberg on Craft Talk. “I guess I know what the path to being a writer looks like now: Get up, every day, and read and write. Do this five days a week until a big pile of words emerge. Build good relationships in your community and industry. Believe in yourself. Be diligent. Try. Keep trying. Don’t stop. And just when you think you’re done, do a little bit more.”
9. Small celebrations, “How to avoid the awfulness of everything” from Jeanette Winterson on Mind Over Matter.
11. The Nordic Exceptionalism: What Explains Why the Nordic Countries Are Constantly Among the Happiest in the World, Chapter Seven of the World Happiness Report. “From 2013 until today, every time the World Happiness Report (WHR) has published its annual ranking of countries, the five Nordic countries – Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland – have all been in the top ten, with Nordic countries occupying the top three spots in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Clearly, when it comes to the level of average life evaluations, the Nordic states are doing something right, but Nordic exceptionalism isn’t confined to citizen’s happiness. No matter whether we look at the state of democracy and political rights, lack of corruption, trust between citizens, felt safety, social cohesion, gender equality, equal distribution of incomes, Human Development Index, or many other global comparisons, one tends to find the Nordic countries in the global top spots. What exactly makes Nordic citizens so exceptionally satisfied with their lives? This is the question that this chapter aims to answer.”
12. Standing Up for Freedom: Kurt Vonnegut’s Unyielding Defense Against Book Censorship.
13. Louisiana Channel “is a non-profit website based at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark. With Louisiana Channel as a platform, Louisiana provides culture to the Internet, extending beyond the museum’s own events. The Louisiana team produces videos about art and culture on an ongoing basis. New videos are posted at the site every week. Louisiana Channel contributes to the permanent development of the museum as a cultural platform, expressing a desire to sharpen the understanding of the importance of culture and the arts. We see Louisiana Channel as an integral part of a museum for the 21st century, capable of engaging a new generation in our cultural heritage, in an intelligent present and an ambitious future. It has always been Louisiana’s role to stimulate discussion of society through the insights of art and artists, and the same goes for Louisiana Channel.”
14. Answering student questions about my books from Austin Kleon. (video) “Going against my ‘Pretend I’m Dead’ policy.”
15. Hands of Light podcast from Kristin Noelle “is a practice of blessing: short, guided meditations meant to calm your nervous system, connect you with the others gathered for this practice, and facilitate your participation in creative, healing energy work in the world at large. This work is mystical AND practical, and meant for beginners as well as seasoned energy work practitioners.”
16. Faculty and Students Show How Reporting Is Done When a University Partners with Local News.
17. Joy Harjo Answers the Orion Questionnaire, “In which we get to know our favorite writers better by exploring the sacred and mundane.”
18. Links to all of Brian Doyle’s contributions to Orion Magazine.
19. I stare at the horizon and listen to the roar by Matthew Harkins on Short Reads. “Therapeutic lies.”
20. Maintaining Positivity about Aging, with a Father Who Has Alzheimer’s by Elizabeth Kleinfeld. “It’s difficult to feel positive about aging while you’re watching a parent age with difficulty.” sigh But also this, “Curiosity reminds me that there will likely be good days ahead, even in a disease like my father’s.”
21. Why Permission Matters from Elissa Altman on Poor Man’s Feast. I’m sharing this in particular because “Last year, I published a series here called The Permission Workbook, which was based on my book, Permission: The New Memoirist and the Courage to Create; the workbook is an examination of creative, ethical, and moral questions surrounding storytelling, story ownership, permission, who gets to write what and why (and why not). Each installment includes questions that every writer and art-makers — seasoned and neophyte — face before and during the creative process, and ends with generative exercises that are meant to get your juices flowing, and to really think about the stories you need to tell, and why you need to tell them. (Revenge might be the answer, and while it’s fine for your journal, it’s not fine for your memoir, and you can go here to find out more.) For the next month, I am taking the paywall down on The Permission Workbook so that everyone has access to it.”
22. Delightful Wooden Nesting Dolls by COMPANY Playfully Reimagine Traditional Designs on This Is Colassal.
23. 50 facts I think all yoga teachers should know from Izzy on Yoga Humans. I’d say this is a useful list for yoga students too.
