1. Morning walks. I only went on one this week. Eric is on a break from work and I was staying up too late which meant sleeping in an hour or two most days, so Eric and Ringo would go without me. Plus we got nine inches of snow over the past few days and when it gets that cold, they usually run instead of walk so they can stay warmer. The one time I went with, I didn’t take many pictures because it was cold so I didn’t want to slow things down.
From their walk
2. Sightings. I wondered when Dad was gone how exactly he’d visit me. I told him to come back and haunt me, but I haven’t had a single visit, dreaming or awake, although one morning, I was half asleep and thought I heard him calling for me. In the middle of the night, that final week, he’d call my name and ask, “Are you awake?”
With Kelly, it’s ladybugs, and with Sam, swallowtail butterflies. In the days before Dad died, I saw a hawk floating in the sky over a cluster of pine trees and I thought something like that would make sense, representative of his love of nature and animals, something we shared.
In the days after he died, I saw heron, deer, and even a moose. It’s never the same form but always covered in fur or feathers. I don’t even necessarily believe it’s literally him, but it makes him feel close by, not so gone and me not so sad.
3. Thanksgiving meals, past and present. Some years, it’s been lots of people and tons of food. This year Eric and I ate comfort food instead of a traditional turkey dinner. It was just as yummy and there were plenty of leftovers. We ate earlier in the day and took long naps and that night we turned on the twinkle lights while it snowed. (The apple pie pictured is technically from my birthday, but it was yummy and deserved to be included).
A Thanksgiving past
4. A better outlook. Y’all, I’ve been struggling. This whole year has been rough, but recently more so. The week between my birthday and Thanksgiving, I was sad and stuck and kept getting bad news and couldn’t see my way out of it. When I woke up this morning, something had finally shifted, just a little bit, and I’m so grateful for that.
5. My tiny family, small house, little life. There’s no place I’d rather be, no beings I’d rather be with, even when I’m feeling stuck and sad.
Bonus joy: Mark Nepo’s The Book of Awakening, my new tarot deck, good TV and movies, clean sheets, my weighted blanket, clean laundry, toast, birds in the feeder (we get more traffic when it snows), crisp lettuce, a banana that’s not quite ripe, listening to podcasts, funny smart women like Leslie Jones, making art, watching other people make art, watching other people clean or restore furniture or clean up landscaping or do a remodeling project (the before and after is just SO satisfying and I don’t even have to do any of the work!), kitchen counter love notes, meditating, stretching, a warm shower, a big glass of cold clean water, music, flowers even in winter, all my houseplants, the opportunity to rest, the chance to start over, twinkle lights, snow tires, our neighbors four dogs (and another’s two and another’s one), Dr. Gaffney and Mulnix animal clinic, texting with Mom and Chris and Chloe’, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.
4. Fight, Flight, and Freeze Embodied, an emotion wheel from Lindsay Braman. “Learning about fight, flight, fawn, and freeze can be helpful, but learning how these responses manifest in our particular bodies is where the magic really starts.”
6. Read Anne Boyer’s extraordinary New York Times resignation letter. “The Israeli state’s U.S-backed war against the people of Gaza is not a war for anyone. There is no safety in it or from it…Its only profit is the deadly profit of oil interests and weapon manufacturers.”
7. Warren Doyle Knows More About the Appalachian Trail than Anyone. He Hates What It’s Become. “Doyle set a speed record on the AT 50 years ago, long before YouTubers and partying twentysomethings had flooded the iconic trail. Through his Appalachian Trail Institute, which he’s run since 1989, he’s still trying to convert a new generation of thru-hikers to his personal philosophy of what the trail should be.”
9. Lama Rod Owens: The Path of the New Saint. (podcast) “Give a listen to this inspiring conversation on how each one of us can become effective agents of social and spiritual liberation. Tami and Lama Rod discuss awakened care and bodhicitta; partnering with ancestral forces and the unseen world; brokenheartedness and our collective emotional labor; disrupting reactivity; the radical act of choosing joy; experiencing our true home; two traits of a prophet: embodying clarity and telling the truth; the New Saint as an ordinary human being; the practice of receiving love; spiritual warriorship and what it means to ‘fight within love’; prayers of protection; the commitment to get free from suffering; consenting to the work of being a New Saint; and more.”
13. Fall in love with Willow the muskox calf. (video) “Watch as our adorable and spunky muskox calf joyfully dives headfirst into her very first pile of maple leaves and turns her leafy playground into a zoomie extravaganza.”
15. The Racist Origins of Marijuana Prohibition. (video) “The legal status of cannabis has been in question in the U.S. since people starting regularly smoking it in the early 1900s. The debate continues today, with Attorney General Jeff Sessions taking a firm stance against legalization and insisting that federal prohibition laws be enforced, even where states have made it legal. But how did it become illegal in the first place? As it turns out, it has some roots in racist rhetoric pushed by politicians and the media in the 1930s, when it first became illegal.”
28. Unpacking the Psychology of Gift-Givingon The New York Times. “When it comes to gift-giving, context is everything. While marketers, influencers and innumerable holiday gift guides might suggest otherwise, whether a present is a home run or an epic fail depends less on cost, design, style, presentation or practicality and more on the giver’s ability to listen, observe and empathize — and perhaps do a little sleuthing.”
36. What to Know About Assisted Livingon The New York Times. “The facilities can look like luxury apartments or modest group homes, and can vary in pricing structures. Here’s a guide.”
41. 35 Thoughtful Questions To Ask At Thanksgiving Dinner. “Thanksgiving gets a bad rap for its association with tense family conversations that sometimes escalate to full-fledged shouting matches. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Gathering immediate and extended family together for a special meal offers a great opportunity for meaningful conversation and the chance to learn more about your own history. With that in mind, we’ve put together a list of 35 questions to promote thoughtful discussions and help you learn more about your family on Thanksgiving.”
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 