Image by Eric

My husband said something that’s really helped me think about where everyone is at emotionally, why everyone seems mad at you or like you can’t do anything right: “Everyone needs more than anyone can give right now.” ~Tweet by Hillary Dixler Canavan

1. Life on the Edge on Lion’s Roar. “Buddhist teacher Joan Halifax describes five ‘edge states’ where courage meets fear and freedom meets suffering.”

2. we’re all here to do what we’re all here to do by Karen Walrond on Chookooloonks.

3. Wild Writing 7-Day Free Series with Laurie Wagner. “Creating a writing practice right now is the way to lay it all down and remember everything. It’s also the way to stay connected to ourselves as we make our way into 2021. Writing is healing, and especially a writing practice like Wild Writing, which asks you to show up as a human being and write something authentic and true.” This is a central practice in my life and Laurie is a fiercely compassionate teacher. You really really really should sign up for this. If you are still on the fence, read this: I mean to make you a life raft.

4. Free Video Series: The 8-Fold Path with Susan Piver. “If you’ve ever wanted to learn a bit about the Buddhist path without feeling weird or overwhelmed by dogma or jargon, please join me for this free video series. Beginning Jan 18, I’ll send you eight videos (two per month, gives you time to digest it all) on these eight steps that are said to lead to freedom from suffering for all.” Susan’s teaching style is at once spacious, luminous, and utterly down to earth practical. IMHO, the magic, the medicine of the Buddhist path is you aren’t required to do anything other than live your life, experience it with wakefulness and authenticity, with compassion and wisdom, with the power of a sane mind and an open heart.

5. Wisdom from Robin D.G. Kelley and his book Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination: “Love and imagination may be the most revolutionary impulses available to us, and yet we have failed to understand their political importance and respect them as powerful social forces.”

6. Free Online Event: Write Your First (or Next!) Book Summit. “The masterclass series to help you keep your butt in the chair, write or revise your fiction or memoir, and send it off for publication. January 18 – 29, 20+ Writers and Influencers.”

9. Blurbed to Death, “How one of publishing’s most hyped books became its biggest horror story — and still ended up a best seller.”

10. Good stuff from Seth Godin: Pain is real, and Natural technique doesn’t exist, and Understanding “popular.”

11. (Re)commit to your role on Anti-Racism Daily. “Each new calendar year, many feel inspired to recommit to solving the causes and challenges we face. And for many, this year is no exception. 2021 may feel like a fresh start after a devastating year, and it’s important to channel those intentions into action. But I propose using the beginning of this year to gain awareness on how your investment can be most sustainable, because new year resolutions are more likely to be broken than executed. And movement work is no exception. My recommendation is to spend some time this week reflecting on your role in the work ahead.”

12. News related to the events of the past week: How to Work Through a Coup, and That Rumor That a D.C. Rioter Tasered Himself to Death Is (Probably) Just a Joke, and This Is America, and The American Abyss on The New York Times Magazine, and Trump Is Finding It Hard To Let Go of Twitter as More Platforms Begin Cracking Down on Incitements To Violence, and Behind the viral photo of Rep. Andy Kim cleaning up at midnight after riots, and The Essential Workers Who Cleaned Up the Capitol Riot, and Twitter permanently suspends his allies who spread conspiracy theories on The New York Times, and As the White House slips into deeper crisis, Trump says he will not go to Biden’s inauguration on The New York Times, and We’ve Seen the Ugly Truth About America on The New York Times, and A Closer Look at the ‘QAnon Shaman’ Leading the Mob, and Trump openly condones supporters who violently stormed the Capitol, prompting Twitter to lock his account on The New York Times.

13. Wisdom from Kristin Noelle: “As you look at your life and our world right now, especially in your quiet moments, when you become still enough to pause and truly see, may you find comfort in the places where you see blossoming happening. And, in light of this, may you find an unexpected layer of patience and compassion for the places where the season for blooming hasn’t yet arrived. Here, too, is where life is underway.”

14. What feeds us from Rita’s Notebook. “The stories we listen to and tell ourselves have everything to do with why and how the world is what it is.”

15. We saw important social activism last year. Here’s how to maintain it in 2021. “Commit to making social change a lifestyle choice, rather than a crisis response.”

16. 24 Women of Color Revolutionizing the Wellness Space.

17. Good stuff from Austin Kleon: What to say when you don’t know what to say, and 100-day Practice and Suck Less Challenge, and KEEP GOING: Virtual Event with Austin Kleon on Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad on January 13th at 7 pm MT.

18. Birth of a friendship on CBS Sunday Morning. (video) “ICU nurse Caitlyn Obrock has treated hundreds of COVID patients at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, but one patient stands above: 28-year-old Monique Jones, who came to the hospital deathly ill – and six months pregnant. Correspondent Steve Hartman reports on an example of a bond forged in the midst of terrifying hardship.”

19. How to Actually Have Civil Political Discussions With Your Family. “We’re in a polarizing moment, but productive conversation with the people you love is possible.”

20. The Trauma Response of ‘Fawning’ (aka ‘People-Pleasing’) – Part One.

21. Voices From the Front Lines of America’s Food Supply on The New York Times. “Eleven workers, from the factories and farms to the highways and supermarkets, tell how they got themselves — and us — through a catastrophic year.”

22. The cycle of inaction, a really helpful infographic from Danielle Coke. “When HORRIFIC INJUSTICE takes place, We won’t be overtaken by SHOCK & CONFUSION, as if the fruit of systemic oppression is surprising. Our EMOTIONAL RESPONSE will be marked by empathy & compassion, Leading to a rejection of PERFORMATIVE ALLYSHIP in exchange for the real, vigorous work. And, should GUILT & FATIGUE try to settle in, we’ll recenter the needs of those yearning for liberation, Remembering that INACTION & PASSIVITY are detrimental to justice, And that APATHY is the antithesis of unconditional love.”

23. The Coming Resurrection of a Sleeping Art Nouveau Palace.

24. Recipes I want to try: miso sweet potato and broccoli bowl, and Goi Cuon, Fresh Vietnamese Spring Rolls, and Smoky Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas, and coconut brown butter cookies, and No Bake Cookies, and The Perfect {Bakery Style} White Cake, and White Snack Cake Recipe.

25. This Doctor Says Humans Actually Need 7 Kinds of Rest (and You’re Probably Not Getting All of Them).

26. Food is Political: Diet Culture, Healthism, and Intuitive Eating: A Primer.

27. 8 Signs You Have an ‘HSP Hangover.’ “When overstimulation and emotional exhaustion combine, the result is a tidal wave that can knock highly sensitive people out for a day or more.”

28. Letters from an American by Heather Cox Richardson, “A newsletter about the history behind today’s politics.”

29. Introducing The Moth Story Map, “a 5-part outline of story elements that can help you focus a big story, or find the meaning behind a single moment.”

30. On Top Of Saving Our Democracy, Stacey Abrams Also Found Time To Write A New Novel.

31. The self-help industry needs to grow up.

32. SFW: Perspectives — Three Simple Lines & The Color of Wind, a three-day webinar with Natalie Goldberg and Eddie Soloway, 27-29 January 2021.

33. walking it off from Karen Maezen Miller.

34. Wisdom from Tulku Thondup: “The more peaceful that person becomes, the more joyful, wise, and helpful they will be to others. That is a clue that our human nature in its normal, undisturbed state is not violent or harmful, but loving.”

35. Books To Add To Your Reading List In 2021. In related news, Our 10 Favorite Books By Eric Jerome Dickey.

36. ‘The Prophets’ Explores Black Love and Memory in a Time of Trauma on The New York Times.

37. 25 Awesome Pictures of Balcony Gardens Around the World.

38. This Artist Creates the Most Amazing Paper Cranes with Feathery Details.

39. Meet The Black Women Who turned Georgia Blue.

40. Pharmacist Accused of Tampering With Vaccine Was Conspiracy Theorist, Police Say on The New York Times.

41. Magical Photos of Winter in Finland Under the Northern Lights.