1. Morning walks. Even though there are mosquitoes, I wanted to see how swollen the river was with snow melt and all the rain we’ve had, so we walked down to the edge but turned right around after I took a few pictures. It’s nice to get to walk with Eric in the morning, and still sort of weird to only have one dog between the two of us. Ringo, on the other hand (paw) LOVES the fact that he has two humans who both carry treats and he’s the only one who gets (or wants) to eat them.
Image by Eric
2. Making art. It is a particular kind of magic and medicine to sit down at my desk and let myself make something just for the pleasure of making, added bonus if I’m hanging out with a friend on Zoom at the same time.
3. Books. I’m in a phase where every book I read is so good, exactly the book I wanted and needed at the exact right moment.
4. Practice (and peonies). I’ve really been leaning in as I move through some difficult things and as I step back into the role of “teacher,” holding space for other people also moving through hard stuff.
5. My tiny family, tiny home and garden, tiny life. I’m not a fan of summer temperatures or bugs. I am, however, a HUGE fan of the garden and Eric being home more often. Lounging in the backyard or napping or cooking or taking a walk, all three of us together is the best.
Bonus joy: crossing things off my list, completing asks and tasks without having to talk to an actual human, training with Shelby and the gang, weeding (yes, I have absolutely lost my mind), clean laundry, clean sheets, wild-ish writing with my tiny writing group, setting a schedule to teach yoga at Red Sage and getting back on the sub list at Om Ananda, pictures and video of dogs who are no longer here in a dog body, scissors, tape, glue stick, green, clean water and air, good neighbors, texting with Chloe’ and Barb and Chris and Mom, that someone filmed Rita’s memorial service so I could “be there” even though I couldn’t be there, strawberries, cucumbers, stickers, paint, down pillows and blankets, our whole house fan, lawn chairs, the kitty Ringo didn’t see who followed us down the block while we were walking this morning, comedy, listening to podcasts, streaming content, true crime, poetry, ice cream, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.
9. Monday Missive: Alter Egofrom Jena Schwartz. “Let my ego shatter into a thousand shards of light.”
10. The Buddhist Path that Transformed Tina Turneron Lion’s Roar. “From humble beginnings to global stardom, Tina Turner credited her Buddhist practice for her survival, success, and happiness. Following her passing, Donald Brackett shares how her journey exemplifies resilience and looks at the profound legacy she leaves behind.”
13. Wisdom from fabeku fatunmise’s newsletter: “your bodyself is god’s bodyself. your bodyself is nature’s bodyself. same. distinct from one angle. never different. never separate. what is breathing you is same thing that breathes Palm Tree + Octopus + Honeycomb + Fulgurite. you are the same in your substance. in your proximity to the vast loving that makes the ocean dance + seeds grow into flowers that keep us in alive in their beauty. distinct. the way fingers are distinct. not different. anchored in the same thing. extensions of what some call god. others call life. you are that. there is nothing small in you that’s real. we know your name as vast-expanse-of-love, vast-expanse-of-love, vast-expanse-of-love.”
16. Buddhism and Gardening on Lion’s Roar: Dogen’s Instructions to the Gardener (“Karen Maezen Miller on cultivating the three minds—joyful mind, kind mind, and great mind”), and Grow Your Mindfulness in the Garden (“Cheryl Wilfong on how to practice the four foundations of mindfulness in the garden”), and The True Nature of a Flower (“For Valerie Brown, her garden is a teacher of the dharma. In every bloom she sees impermanence, nonself, and nirvana”).
26. Grief Groceries. “Both of those gift-givers knew something I didn’t know – that when you are grieving, you don’t want to make decisions. No, that’s not quite it: You can’t make decisions. You hit decision fatigue really fast.”
35. All the rage: the rise of the menopause novel. “Self-help shelves are filled with guides to surviving midlife, but where is the fiction? Lisa Allardice talks to Marian Keyes, Joanne Harris and others about ‘hot-flush lit’.”
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 