jillsalahub

1. Wisdom from Desmond Tutu: “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they are falling in.”

2. Mud-caked feet, berries for breakfast and hiding from hunters: my life as a deer. “When still a teenager, Geoffroy Delorme dropped out of his lonely childhood to live among the animals in the woods of Normandy – and stayed for seven years.”

3. Michelle Yeoh has a new leading role and a new motto: No more turning the other cheek. An interview with one of my favorite actresses about her new movie, which ends with this wisdom, “I think you have to be present. This life is yours. But if you’re not present, it’s wasted. Time waits for no one. When we’re born, we age and then we die, and God forbid, we die before we have lived our lives. So we have to be present in whatever universe, in whatever life, because if you give up on being present, then you give up on your life.”

4. What I Loved (and Feared) About School as an Introvert.

5. Florals, Beads, and Lace Embellish Whimsical Faux Taxidermy and Anatomical Sculptures.

6. People Say Turning 50 Is Fabulous. Here’s What They Didn’t Tell Me. “The truth is, I’m scared. I’m scared that I’m 50 and I haven’t done enough. I’m scared that I’m 50 and I don’t know what to do now. And I’m scared that before I can unravel these fears and grab onto a tangible thread of direction, time is going to run out.” Yup. Same.

7. The Unbearable Whiteness and Fatphobia of “Anti-Diet” Dietitians. “These white female dietitians have helped steal and monetize the body positive movement. And I’m sick of it.”

8. Here’s What a $135 Million New York Apartment With Views of Central Park Looks Like On the Inside.

9. How Serena Williams Saved Her Own Life. “Black women are nearly three times more likely to die after childbirth than white women. Serena Williams was almost one of them. Here, in her own words, she tells her story.”

10. This Map Shows How Much Money You Have to Make to Afford a Home in Each State. Colorado is the third highest after Hawaii and California, and yet, there’s this: Gov. Polis signs bill guaranteeing abortion access in Colorado.

11. Ketanji Brown Jackson Invokes History, Family in Emotional Speech.

12. Ocean Vuong on Taking the Time You Need to Write. “Live your life but tend to the work mentally.” In related news, Ocean Vuong’s Brief But Spectacular take on grief and language, and In ‘Time is a Mother,’ poet Ocean Vuong reflects on life, and time, without his mom.

13. Teachers Are Done. No, Really. “Teachers are either burned out, have lost faith in the system, are disillusioned with their leadership, are sick of the constant pandering to parents and politicians, or all of it combined. Teachers are no longer willing to heal a system beyond repair at their own expense. They are done, and it’s universal.”

14. It’s not just doctors and nurses. Veterinarians are burning out, too.

15. Why on Earth would the Grammys give Louis C.K. an award? “His first comedy album since he admitted to sexual misconduct won big on Sunday night.” So disappointing.

16. So I Bought the Gay Green Couch.

17. Surfer Photographer Captures Power and Beauty of Waves.

18. What to do if you test positive for COVID at this point in the pandemic.

19. People are developing trauma-like symptoms as the pandemic wears on.

20. Twitter Is Discussing ‘Shopping Cart Theory’ To Determine If Someone Is A Good Person. P.S. I’m one of the good ones.

21. Chris Smalls started Amazon’s 1st union. He’s now heard from workers at 50 warehouses. In related news, He was fired by Amazon 2 years ago. Now he’s the force behind the company’s 1st union and A conversation with the warehouse workers who created the e-commerce giant’s first union against all odds on The New York Times.

22. The Rise of Bitcoin and Other Stupid Meme Currencies. (video) “Bitcoin: Is it something nerds made up on the internet or is it the future of currency? Throwback to when Ronny Chieng headed to Wall Street to investigate the surge of the cryptocurrency.” While he’s at it, maybe he can explain what the heck is an NFT.

23. Love Letters to Libraries for National Library Week on StoryCorps. (videos)

24. The Endearing ‘Marcel the Shell with Shoes On’ Returns with a Feature-Length Mockumentary.

25. Do Nothing! Stay in Bed! Be Idle! – How to Live a Bit Better By Doing a Bit Less. “I fill my waking hours with work – and feel bad if I ‘waste’ a single minute. Perhaps I need to learn to embrace the benefits of doing nothing?”

26. Good stuff from Seth Godin: And maybe it’s enough and Convenience and boredom.

27. Wisdom from Omkari Williams: “Lately, it feels like we’re drinking, or trying to drink, from a fire hose. Not a week has gone by without at least one catastrophe. An ice shelf the size of Rome collapsing in Antarctica, the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and the atrocities being committed by Russian soldiers, mass shootings here in the U.S., and more and it all feels…exhausting. It’s in times like these that I remember why it’s so very important to limit the focus of what we attempt to do. Small consistent actions beat swinging for the fence and burning out. Staying in motion matters. Inertia and overwhelm are the enemies of progress.”

28. Good stuff on Lion’s Roar: “A Cloud Never Dies” biographical documentary of Thich Nhat Hanh (“The new documentary tells Thich Nhat Hanh’s life story using original photographic and film archives”), and In Times of Crisis, Draw Upon the Strength of Peace (“When we are called upon to help in a crisis, says Kaira Jewel Lingo, it’s not a question of whether or not to respond — we must respond. But the way we do is crucial”).

29. Artist Ema Shin on Instagram. Her embroidery is amazing.

30. A Cow is Born from Andrea Gibson.

31. Needing Each Other is Human. “I’m not independent and I don’t wanna be.”

32. Back to Blogging: Why Writing for Yourself Still Matters. “With an abundance of social media apps to help you log and share your every move, it would seem that traditional blogging would be on its way out. But should it be? Here are 3 reasons it still matters.”

33. Your last 15 minutes before the end of the world, ranked from worst to best. This is a heart breaker.

34. The Thing She Carried. A photo essay in which “Jean-Marc Caimi and Valentina Piccinni documented the predicament of Ukrainian refugees through penetrating portraits. The photographers also asked their subjects to display one important thing they were able to bring with them from home.” In related news, I Am An Artist From Ukraine And I Created These Drawings Illustrating Horrors Of The War.

35. Wholesome Video Shows The Moment A Husky Is Reunited With Its Owner In Bucha, Ukraine, After Separation Caused By Russian Attacks.

36. Movements, Missing Stairs and Lindo Bacon from Lindley Ashline. Of particular interest are the follow-ups and further reading links at the bottom of the post. Oftentimes in the midst of a necessary change so much harm is done by those who want things to stay the same, who don’t want to change, who don’t want to admit they may have been wrong.

37. A Handbook for Abolitionists. “Patrisse Cullors’ new book offers guidance for personal, as well as systemic, change. Breaking the cycle of harm starts with us.”

38. Reader-Submitted Mini Memoirs: High School Scandals. “From an unwanted kiss on a doorstep to toxic rumors in a cornfield, these are our favorite reader submissions.”

39. What Does It Mean to Be Pansexual? “A pansexual sex counselor shares what it means to love people of all genders and beyond.”

40. Sarah Lancashire becomes master — and teacher — of French cooking as Julia Child. We’ve been watching this show and it’s so good — of course we are big nerds and own The French Chef on DVD.

1. Morning walks. Yesterday in my Wild Writing group, I wrote: “It’s an everyday kind of grace, the morning walk.” I won’t share more of that particular entry because it went to a darker place and is something I’m writing about in the book I’m working on, so want to save it back, see where else it might go. In another section, I said: “This morning I noticed now that the grass is getting green, everything else, all the lingering variations of winter, suddenly just looked brown.” Winter started late here so it’s been shorter than usual, milder, and yet like a flower seeking the light, I feel myself turning towards spring, longing for the leaves and blooms to come back. One of the things I love the most is what we started calling “yard time” during the first year of the pandemic. It simply is sitting in the backyard together doing nothing, so when it gets warmer and we can comfortably, it makes me so happy.

2. Practice. The implosion of my Buddhist sangha and the interruption of my teaching efforts due to COVID, burnout, and grief have made the last few years of my practice a little lonely, a bit confusing, and sometimes pretty frustrating. The only thing to do has been to be still, pause, rest, and reconsider just about everything I thought I knew — to wait. This doesn’t come easily to me as I am impatient. My previous (unworkable and unsustainable) strategy was to keep pushing through until I got where I wanted to go or collapsed. That’s the thing about practice, it allows you to meet the current moment just as you are and stay open to it, to let go of the outcome and be present, to trust that if action is warranted your innate wisdom and compassion will guide you. In the book I’m reading by Kaira Jewel Lingo (We Were Made for These Times: 10 Lessons for Moving Through Change, Loss, and Disruption), she says, “I have found the practice of staying present, openhearted, and accepting of changing life circumstances to be incredibly helpful through my own major life transitions and challenges.” Ditto.

3. The support of good friends and good food. Those with whom I make art, write, text, workout, and laugh. All the new recipes I’ve tried and how yummy and satisfying most of them have been. Both elements nourishing and sustaining me.

4. Books and the ability to read. This has always been one of my greatest joys and also one of the primary ways I make sense of the world and my place in it.

5. My tiny family, tiny home, tiny life. This space and these connections keep me going while also allowing me to rest.

Bonus joy: The hydromassage chair, the pool, the sauna, flowers blooming, that spot on the couch, being able to recognize that something is no longer working for me and let it go, paint, berries, new underwear, watching old movies with Eric (this week we rewatched The Money Pit, Mr. Mom, and the original Dune — which to be honest was pretty awful), good TV (Sort Of and Julia on HBO are really good), listening to podcasts, cleaning out closets and cabinets, making space and clearing the way for something new, the trail system in Fort Collins, hot coffee with cocoa and tiny marshmallows, socks, a warm shower, a glass of clean cold water, smoked paprika, garlic, the smell of basil, limes, pain meds, gummy supplements, dental floss picks, paper, house plants, flowers in the bathroom, pictures of other people’s babies and dogs, the way Ringo loves to roll in the grass, that guy on his bike who was nice enough to wait for Ringo and I to get off the bridge before he rode by, the way Ringo comes to check in with me throughout the day, vaccines and masks, reading in bed at night while Ringo and Eric sleep.