jillsalahub

1. Poetry: Loving In A Broken Time by Frederick Joseph, Untether Yourself and Scientists Say Cats Are Perfect by Julie Barton, Song “A” translated from the Navajo by Washington Matthews, Believing and belief on Poetry Unbound from Pádraig Ó Tuama, Life Lessons in an Uber in Atlanta and How and After Effects from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, If the month of November was your friend from HannahRoWrites, A Sense of Grace by James Crews, What We Wanted by Carol Moldaw, Green Burial Unsonnet by Dante Di Stefano shared by Patti Digh, The Night Where You No Longer Live by Meghan O’Rourke on The Slow Down podcast, and Fourth of July by Rob Arnold.

In related news, Is poetry happening to you? and are you avoiding it? from Alix Klingenberg, and Emerging Form Episode 151: Alison Luterman on Striving.

2. I’m Devastated By America, So I’m Getting Out on The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz. And when he says, “getting out,” it’s not what you think.

3. ‘Come See Me in the Good Light’: The Sweetness After a Terminal Diagnosis on The New York Times. (gift link) “The film chronicles the poet Andrea Gibson’s final year of living with cancer and trying to make every second count.” It came out on Friday and I haven’t been able to watch it yet.

4. Change One Thing and Everything Changes. “Reflections 11 days after leaving Facebook” from Jena Schwartz.

5. A House of My Own Making from Laurie Wagner.

6. I’m now offering therapeutic journaling workshops! “Two options–and one is free!” from Elizabeth Kleinfeld.

7. There Can Be No Reasoning with MAGA by Robert Jones, Jr. “Like I have said before: Cults cannot be shamed and they cannot be reasoned with. They can only be stopped.”

8. The truth about distraction from Oliver Burkeman, which suggests “a more fundamental solution to distraction, one that’s incredibly simple, but not at all easy: just stop expecting hard, important, meaningful things to feel constantly comfortable and pleasant. Consider the possibility that mild discomfort – butterflies in the stomach, a sense of difficulty, a moment of boredom – might simply be the price of doing things you care about.”

9. Love Immortal: the man devoted to defying death through cryonics from The Guardian Documentary Films. “Alan has promised his wife, Sylvia, that they will be cryogenically preserved upon death, and reunited in the future. However, when Sylvia dies all too soon, Alan, now 87, falls in love with another woman and is forced to reconsider his future plans. An extraordinary love story, told with humour and tenderness about how we deal with loss, our own mortality and the prospect of eternal life.”

10. ‘I’m not as fierce as I seem’: Glenn Close on growing up in a cult, marching against Trump – and being unlucky in love. “She’s Hollywood’s biggest character actor who terrified a generation of men with her ‘bunny boiling’ turn in Fatal Attraction. Now, Close alternates the glamour of the red carpet with living in a red state. She talks about the joy of her ‘undefined’ life.”

11. The works of art that changed your life, and why. “We asked readers which book, film, song or art work changed the course of your life. From soul-stirring poems to unforgettable paintings, this is what you said.”

12. Slowly Growing. “A list of noticings…” from Erin Geesaman Rabke.

13. Asking questions leads to more questions by Laura Lentz on Writing at Red Lights.

14. All Praise to the Lunch Ladies on the Bitter Southerner. “Blessed are the women who watch over America’s children.”

15. Guilty pleasures are more than just giving in to temptation. “Psychologists are discovering what’s going on when you do something you enjoy, but also feel weird or embarrassed about.”

16. Freaky Caesars & More Restaurant Trends You’ll See In 2026.

17. How We Do Our Best Work, “three shadows and their bright opposites” by Brad Montague.

18. The Way the World Answers, “why i believe in magic” by Isabel Abbott.

19. A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher. I just finished this and really liked it — before I checked it out from the library, I researched to ensure that nothing bad happens to the dogs in this book. I use this site regularly to do so for movies, TV, and books: Does the dog die?

20. Jeff Hiller in Conversation with Special Guest Murray Hill. (video) “Comedian and Somebody Somewhere actor Jeff Hiller joins us to dive into the grit and grind of climbing the Hollywood ladder and the struggles, triumphs, and humiliations that shaped him into the wonderfully imperfect person he is today.”

1. Morning walks. This is probably my favorite season for morning walks, as it’s cooler but not super cold, we leave in the dark but get to see the full sunrise, and the sunrise because of the cold and moisture in the clouds can be a particular kind of magic.

One morning this week, we got to the trail head and heard a noise I couldn’t place. I looked around but didn’t see anything at first. Then, my headlamp reflected in the green of some animal’s eyes. We see a lot of deer there but these eyes were too close to the ground and it’s head moved different. I was starting to think it might be a bobcat when I put on my glasses so I could see more clearly and realized it was a deer, with a large heavy rack of antlers and head hovered low to the ground eating apples which he’d earlier knocked off the tree using the same antlers, explaining the strange noise we’d heard.

2. My brother and his tiny family. He has become the “head of the family” hard and fast, and does such a good job of it. And as Papa 2.0, he’s a much gentler, kinder, easier going version than we had growing up. Three sweet things about him this week: I found out that the apples Mom is always eating when he sends a picture are because he brings her one special when he goes to visit her. Also, even though he’s the one who typically does most of the shopping and all the shipping for my birthday and Christmas presents, he always makes sure to have his WHOLE family, both girls and both grandkids, sign my card. And finally, another sweet story about where some of Mom and Dad’s furniture that we don’t want is ending up — this time it’s a small loveseat that is going to a woman that is building a “tiny house” for her dogs!!! He knew I’d like that one. Even though the last two years have been especially hard for us, we are closer than ever, and I am grateful for that.

3. Seeing the Northern Lights from our front porch. Even more fun was sharing the pictures with everyone who wasn’t there to see them and seeing all the pictures other local people took.

4. Practice. Yoga at Red Sage plus one puppy, Friday morning writing sangha, writing and reading in the morning, and meditating in the quiet of my practice room.

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. I’m really looking forward to when Eric doesn’t have to work so hard, and to celebrating Ringo’s 12th birthday next week — the oldest dog I’ve ever had by a whole year and a half!

I got the neighbor’s new baby her very own blue heeler. 💙

Bonus joy: seeing our friend Mary Ellen on our walk, visiting our friend Theresa at her fitness studio every week on our walk, all my dogs — here and gone, texting with Chris and Chloe’ and Shellie and Kari, sharing books with people, book club, getting the laundry done, grocery shopping, hanging out with Ringo all day, good TV, new music, listening to podcasts, slippers, breakfast burritos, other people’s dogs and kids, stickers, citrus, fry sauce, plantain chips, grapefruit Bubly, down blankets and pillows and coats, wool socks, gummies, making each other laugh, owls, finally a chance of snow in the forecast, remembering good people, Sesame Street, a warm shower, naps, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.