jillsalahub

1. Morning walks. They might just stay at this shorter distance, which means I might have to start walking a bit further on my own, without my dog, and that’s just weird. Lilacs are starting to bloom so I think we might start seeing some baby geese soon.

2. Medication, both over the counter and prescription. I had a biopsy this week that was pretty painful and a migraine ever single day since, so I’m feeling extra grateful for the help. Along with that, I’m grateful to myself for allowing the space and time to recover, even though it meant canceling my Thursday morning yoga class, and the knowing that I’m teaching them something about self-care when I do, and to my husband for helping take care of me when I’m “down.”

Mom asked Chris to take her picture so she could “see what she looks like”

3. Finding Mom a new place to stay. I am feeling really good about the situation we found for Mom, in a good location that’s close to Chris and fingers crossed her older sister ends up moving in just around the corner so they’ll be close too, in a room with a view of a garden that gets lots of birds and deer, and a TV with The Hallmark Channel, with the same sort of care and company she’s had this past year, and no need to ever relocate again. Now fingers crossed the move won’t be too disruptive or confusing for her, and she’ll be content and comfortable there.

4. Signs of spring. The trees are blooming and I bought myself a bunch of spring flowers. Tillamook also has my favorite limited availability ice cream back in stock and it was one sale, buy one get one free — although I told Eric no more for awhile because I was eating it like it was my job. 🙂 Chris and Lia have been riding their bikes at the park by the river, and Ringo and I have been spending some time every day sitting in the backyard, where the grass has filled in, soft and green.

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. Comfortable, safe, and loved, hanging out together, making each other laugh. It’s everything I ever wanted. My practice room, a very small area even when empty, has been a disordered chaotic unusable space for the past few months. This week, I finally put it back together. My favorite lesson from my various practices and teachers is just this: you can try again, start over as many times as necessary, and things don’t have to be perfect in order to begin.

Bonus joy: onion buns, a big glass of clean cold water, our new futon, practicing with my Friday morning writing group, books from the library on my Kindle, turning over a new page on my calendar and picking a new image for my desktop calendar, texting with Chloe’ and Chris, Eric finishing the laundry for me, a warm shower, kind and caring medical professionals, being on Instagram again for a bit and sharing reels with Carrie and Kari and Shellie, YouTube shorts, listening to podcasts, my Shakti mat pillow (which it turns out is helpful for my migraines), other people’s pets and kids and gardens, Haflinger wool slippers, down blankets and pillows, the relationship my brother and I have as adults even after (or maybe because of) all the hard things we’ve been through, fruit, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.

1. Poetry: The First Time by Ted Kooser and Before You Put Your Armor On by Wendy Videlock and Where I Come From by Assemay and Poem Written by AI by Eric Markowsky on Rattle, Belief and wonder: Wondering about belief and Courage and rage: And the call to creativity on Poetry Unbound by Pádraig Ó Tuama, Turning Memory into Material “writing our origin stories” on Earth & Verse, i learn what to do by staying “on slowing down enough to feel where i am” by Isabel Abbott, The Want of Peace by Wendell Berry shared by Patti Digh, i didn’t eat the sun by ire’ne lara silva on poets.org, In Case I Forget to Say It Enough by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer on Heart Poems, A Perfectly Good Pitchfork and Half Off on Happy and Writer’s Evening by Julie Barton, Devil’s Advocate: The Ruler Speaks and For What Ails Us and Nothing and For This, I Walk Outside by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, The rules you forgot you wrote by Jasmine on The Tiny Joy Project, Corrective for a Broken Heart by Maria Popova, Poem to Remind Myself of the Natural Order of Things by Donika Kelly on The Slowdown with Maggie Smith, and In Wartime and A Heart of Any Size by James Crews.

2. The Interview on The New York Times: Rebecca Solnit Says the Left’s Next Hero Is Already Here. (gift link)

3. Something Deeper Than Hope: Terry Tempest Williams on Our Stays Against Despair by Maria Popova.

4. Palm Sunday 2026, “Remembrance of time past and present” by Jeanette Winterson. Also from Jeanette, Spring Equinox, “The real start of the year.”

5. Why Are Women Doing Their Husband’s Job-Searching? on Culture Study.

6. Northern Kentucky family declines $26 million bid as data center plans advance.

7. Wisdom on The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz: I’m Not Anti-Trump Supporters, I’m Pro-Humanity and Are Americans Too Lazy to Stop a Dictatorship?

8. This Spanish mountain range has just been named the world’s most beautiful place.

9. On Waiting For Spring. “The Essay In The Age Of AI, Writing After Chat GPT, The Novel, Plus Some Favorite Poems, Stories And Essays” by Alexander Chee.

10. Good stuff on Be More With Less: Feel Happier With Less Effort: 10 Simple Habits That Really Help and Honest Decluttering Advice You Might Not Want to Hear by Courtney Carver.

11. Addicted To Being Busy? How To Overcome Chronic Overwhelm.

12. 11 little ways to fall back in love with reading. I certainly don’t need this, but maybe you do?

13. How to Calm Your Nerves When You’re Freaking Out, According to Experts.

14. Parents at Iranian school bombed by US describe their worst day on The Guardian. “Hours before the world learned that a US missile had hit Shajareh Tayyebeh school, parents were already searching the rubble for their sons and daughters. In this exclusive report, four families describe the events.” WE DID THIS.

15. Kevin James Thornton’s rant about social media. (Instagram reel)

16. The Kinds of Questions We Ask Ourselves, “right as the seasons change” on Craft Talk from Jami Attenberg.

17. On Aging, Dying, Butter Melting, Crafting Legacy and Punching Robots from Chuck Wendig on Terrible Minds. “AI is soulless — so don’t let it sub in as your soul. And when you write, or make art, or do anything, put yourself into it. As wholly as you can. Without reservation. Be unabashedly yourself. Because that’s what goes out into the world. That’s the song you sing. Those are the echoes in this great cave. You’ll live on in others if you allow yourself to. We’re all just melting butter. Glorious, tasty, melty butter.”

18. I met someone because of a shirt, “when small talk becomes real talk” by Brad Montague on The Enthusiast.

19. The Small Miracles We Almost Miss by Andrea Scher.

20. A Snail’s Pace, “a comic about how my writing is going” by Connie Sun, (although, this could have been written by me).

21. Complicated, Before the Alzheimer’s. “Alzheimer’s doesn’t arrive in a vacuum. It lands inside relationships that were already complicated” by Elizabeth Kleinfeld. *sigh*

22. Into the rabbit hole. “The first of two parts. Or maybe three. Or maybe infinity” by Rita Ott Ramstad on Rootsie.

23. The New 100 Etiquette Rules for Modern Life. “Some old social standards really don’t work anymore… Here’s a guide that we hope will stand the test of at least a bit of time for our socially confusing era — until the next great exciting social upheaval.”

24. Do what you want on The Imperfectionist. “If you’re overwhelmed by the feeling that the world is falling apart – or just overwhelmed by your to-do list, or stuck in any kind of rut – there’s a solid chance you’d benefit from reorienting your life in the direction of what you actually want to be doing with it, instead of how you think you ought to be living it.”

25. Harvested Lives. “How work, time, and exhaustion are shaping what it means to be human” by Frederick Joseph.

26. Typos on Short Reads. “Happy mistakes” by Brenda Miller.

27. Leave room for yourself by Jenny Lawson.

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