1. Morning walks. All the ones I went on this week were to the cemetery and around by City Park, so not a whole lot of pictures. The combo of snow and snow melt and cold temperatures made this route a better option than around the ponds or along the river.
2. Good content. Books, podcasts, comedy, magazines, movies, tv shows, crafts, art, and music.
3. Practice. Helping me keep it together.
4. Tony the Tiger. I got to visit my favorite puppy this week. He’s just so sweet! It’s the first dog my friend and her family has had and they are so lucky they got him. There are just some dogs that you can tell right from the start that they are going to be the best.
5. My tiny family, small house, little life. We are going in a bit to get a Christmas tree.
Bonus joy: mac and cheese, waffles, texting with Chloe’ and Chelsey and Chris and Mom, teaching at Red Sage, getting in the pool, clean sheets, twinkle lights, a soft oversized hoodie, poetry, my moon nightlight, cancelled plans, grocery shopping at 7 am when hardly anyone else is there, snow tires, new windshield wipers, medication and vaccines, Mulnix Animal Clinic, sunshine, naps, a warm shower, reading in bed at night while Ringo and Eric sleep.
1. A vigorous imaginationfrom Abigail Rose Clarke. “There are so many reasons a life-form as strange as us shouldn’t exist, and yet, here we are, for better or worse, in spectacular abundance. We are proof of the possibility of impossible things. And so when I am trying to practice the vigorous imagination required to believe that another world is possible, to practice the deep patience and presence required to hear her breathing, I remember that these are impossible times, but I am an impossible creature.”
2. Want to enjoy the holidays? Learn to Oversupport yourself. “For people who have experienced trauma and loss oversupporting yourself not only allows you to get through the holidays without fear of coming apart—with enough support holidays can actually be times of healing. You will have enough space inside you to both mourn the losses and take in the present—and by holding both you can feel more whole.”
3. You’re Dead, Now What?from Patti Digh. “Don’t leave behind a Chaotic Mystery Mess (CMM) for your family and friends.”
4. Y’all Are a Great Group of Folks!from Robert Jones Jr. “I’m not saying that I want to live in a bubble, bury my head in the sand, or pretend that the world is some kind of Pretty Pretty Princess™ fantasyland. I’m not saying that I never want to think or write about the enormously wicked things happening in the world. I’m saying that I don’t want to allow it to become a kind of addiction/obsession that clouds my thinking and my knowing such that pessimism doesn’t simply become an honest possibility; it becomes my only principle. I’m saying that for my own well-being, I require consistent antidotes to the ongoing malevolence of heartless, gutless, ruthless, truthless people who use their power and platforms in service to local, global, and inner ruin. And so joy, and the celebration of it, becomes revolutionary—especially for those of us whose misery is counted on.”
5. Activist Micro Action Dispatch: Gracefrom Omkari Williams. “So, this week what I ask of you is grace and curiosity. Grace for those who see things differently than we do. Curiosity about why and a willingness to consider that they may have something to offer that can strengthen our idea, our plan, our vision.”
9. Meditation Is Making Friends with Yourselfon Lion’s Roar. “Being our own best friend is a challenging feat. Kate Johnson explains how meditation can help us get to know our inner critics and prevent them from hindering our path to liberation.”
10. Living into All the Honey: Embracing Grief & Joy. (video) “‘What do joy and grief have in common?’ asks poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. ‘…The ability to evoke feeling that pushes us and opens us and helps us to be compassionate and helps us fall in love.’ In this 10-minute video, she reads poems that span grief and joy from her new collection All the Honey. She speaks of what she knows now about grief she didn’t before her son died, of spaciousness and silliness, and how her new collection came to be.”
15. Let’s Go Community Shopping. “You know how I know people are desperate for a new way of organizing their lives? Apart from just selling a book about it? Well, the New York Times keeps reporting on it. Let’s take a look at what they’ve found (and I’ve gift linked all of these, so click away).”
23. Should America Keep Celebrating Thanksgiving?on The Nation. “Sean Sherman argues that we need to decolonize Thanksgiving, while Chase Iron Eyes calls for replacing Thanksgiving with a ‘Truthsgiving.'”
22. Finding Refuge During the Holidays Guidefrom Michelle C Johnson. “A [free] downloadable PDF guide to offer some journaling prompts and practices for how you can find refuge amid all that is swirling inside and around you right now.”
36. On Being with Krista Tippett | Nick Cave: Loss, Yearning, Transcendence. “As a human and a songwriter, Nick Cave is an embodiment of a life examined and evolved. He sat with Krista in the On Being studio in Minneapolis, and the gorgeous conversation that followed is woven in this episode with his gorgeous music.”
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 