jillsalahub

1. Morning walks. This is the time of year when because of the cooler temperatures and more moisture, the sky turns magical, which is why most of my pictures this week were of the sunrise. It was really cute this week when we walked at Kestrel Natural Area because the last two times we’ve walked there, at the very same bend in the trail, we’ve run into my friend Mary Ellen on her morning walk. Well, apparently she’s now also Ringo’s friend because as soon as we got close to that particular corner, he started to speed up, and when he saw her round the bend, his whole body started to wiggle and he was whining, and as soon as we caught up to her, he started barking and tugging on his leash. He does the same thing when we get close to Theresa’s studio, another friend he gets to visit on one of his morning walks with me.

2. Practice. I was back at Red Sage this week and we had a dog friend practicing with us who reminded me a lot of my first dog Obi. We considered skipping our Friday morning writing practice this week. There were only three of us and two of us are big fans of canceled plans and never feel like we have enough energy or time for the day ahead, but we rallied and I’m so glad we did. The poems we wrote to were amazing, the fellowship was as magic as always, and turns out I really needed it. I’ve been meditating extra, doing my regular sitting practice and also a body scan meditation every day, as I’m doing a solo version of the eight week MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) program created by Jon Kabat-Zinn using his meditation app and his book, Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness — because, y’all, being human is hard.

3. Fall. It is officially full on here. I’ve been wearing hoodies and wool socks, using my favorite down blankets to cuddle on the couch, getting in to bed and at first actually being cold (I sleep so much better when it’s cooler), being constantly stunned by the golden trees and sky, saying to Ringo “hurry, get back in here, it’s cold out there!”, and in general enjoying slowing down. If I were an animal, I’d probably be one of the ones that gets real fat and then hibernates all winter.

These are some of my favorite pictures of fall, when the world slows down and turns golden for a brief moment.

4. Mom. Still there, still getting good care and company, still smiling, still remembering us. My brother said recently, as we were talking about how she was sleeping more and quieter in general, “but I can still make her laugh.”

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. It was Eric and I’s 32nd wedding anniversary this week. The smartest, best thing I ever did was marry him, and I’m so grateful, so lucky. Ringo’s belly continues to get better and I’m so grateful for that.

Bonus joy: library books I can check out online and load on my Kindle without ever having to leave the house, getting in the pool, the hydromassage chair, sitting in the sauna, Liminal’s spicy sesame bowl, therapy for both my mind and my body, a massage with Dana, groceries, good TV, listening to podcasts, hot coffee and green tea while I read and write in the morning, cheese, oats, the way the top of Ringo’s head smells, a dog sigh, puppies, other people’s kids and dogs, the last of the blooming things (Seriously, my Rozanne/Cranesbill geraniums never stop! And, the bees love them), strawberries, a warm shower, Grapefruit Bubly, Reese’s seasonal shapes (which I like WAY better than their regular cups because the shapes have more peanut butter and less chocolate), toast, libraries and librarians, poets and poetry, comedy, documentaries, gummies, down pillows and blankets, open windows, my Shakti mat, naps, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.

1. Poetry: Saying Yes on The Weekly Pause by James Crews, Nostalgic for Five Minutes Ago and Going Lightly and Bird Trapped in the Amsterdam Airport by Julie Barton, On place and being in place from Pádraig Ó Tuama on Poetry Unbound, poem in which a stinging thing appears by Maya Stein, Last Picnic by Charles Simic and shared by Patti Digh, The Poem I’d Give You by Daniel Skach-Mills on Heart Poems, and With the Stones of Our Stories and The Change by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.

2. Writing in the clouds from Andrea Scher. When Andrea shares the message of a SoulCollage card she made for her mom who died early this year — “Now I can love you in the way I always wanted to love you” — it makes me think of how I “told” my dad after he passed, “Now is your chance to be the dad I needed you to be.” A strange aspect of loss is that you still have a relationship with the person who is gone, and sometimes you have the chance to heal parts of your relationship you couldn’t when they were still alive in a body.

3. When the Shadow Speaks, “lessons in resistance, strength, and creativity – letter 3 {Falling Gently}” from Alix Klingenberg on Earth and Verse.

4. On The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz: Congratulations, Trump Supporters, You’ve Owned the Libs and Now That Fascism is Here.

5. How to Contemplate Death on Lion’s Roar. “Lisa Ernst on how to be mindful of death—and live with more wisdom, freedom, and gratitude.”

6. 37 Simple Pleasures That Deliver Joy Without Draining Your Bank Account by Tammy Strobel on Be More With Less.

7. Give yourself a break. “On the necessity of recharging the spirit in order to keep fighting” by Jennifer Sahn on High Country News.

8. 12 New(ish) Reading Recommendations. “Orion approved books to kick off your fall reading plans,” recommendations from Orion Staff.

9. Good stuff from Patti Digh: No circus stays in town forever, and some comets never come back, and The power of a shape, and The 7 Types of Rest.

10. Vernacular Architecture and Mossy Trees Fill Michael Davydov’s Tiny Worlds. “In the miniature world of Michael Davydov, tiny houses, moons, trees, and barns balance precariously in clusters and stacks. Observing the architecture and flora around his home in the Nizhny Novgorod region of Russia, he taught himself how to draw and eventually began assembling small sculptures.”

11. What was going on when I was born? “Enter your birthdate to find out.”

12. Swiping less, living more. How to take control of your digital life. “In an always-on world, our phones have become lifelines – but at what cost? In Smartphone Nation, digital ‘nutritionist’ Kaitlyn Regehr explores our tangled relationship with screens and makes a case for reclaiming control through honesty, intention and digital literacy.”

13. The Guardian Documentaries. “Real people, untold stories” from The Guardian.

14. The Imperfectionist: Five short thoughts, “in the return of an occasional series, here are five ideas that helped things click for me in recent weeks. I hope some of them might do the same for you.”

15. Truth Hurts: Scrolling at Night Is Cooking My Brain. “In this, his first column, John DeVore confronts an ugly truth about bedtime.” P.S. “‘Truth Hurts’ is a monthly column about accepting who you are, where you are, and how you’re doing. It’s written by John DeVore, a writer who doesn’t always feel comfortable in his own skin.”

16. A Thought on Normalcy in Fascism. “Fascism does not break normal life, it feeds on it” by Frederick Joseph. “History has already shown us how this story unfolds. Fascism is not built only in the camps and cells. It is built in the shrug, the silence, the insistence that life can go on as if nothing has changed.”

17. A Glossary for the Unspoken by Isabel Abbott. “So much gets lost in translation between the lived knowing and the words to say it. is not the absence of vocabulary exactly, but the way language keeps running out just when life is most alive. We have words for weather, but not for the way dusk bruises the sky and makes the body ache like a memory. We have words for grief, but not for the hollow shape it carves in the air where someone used to breathe. We stumble through love with metaphors and approximations, while whole galaxies of feeling go unnamed, shimmering just beyond the reach of our tongues. I keep thinking there should be more, an alphabet wide enough to hold the weight and the wonder of what it means to be here.”

18. Why I’m Leaving Academia after a Decade of Contingent Labor. “Roughly 70 percent of faculty are contingent. This exploitative hustle is driving dedicated teachers out of academia.”

19. The Coloradans Exercising Their Right To Die—and a Doctor Who Helps Them Find Peace. “More terminally ill Coloradans than ever are turning to Denver Health’s Medical Aid in Dying clinic. We spent the summer witnessing the quiet decisions and final moments of those who chose when—and how—to say goodbye.”

20. Sharing Your Life With a Dog: 5 Benefits.

21. Omar Mendoza’s Natural Pigment Paintings Radiate the Power of Ancestral Knowledge.

22. Bryan Sansivero Documents Otherworldly, Forgotten Houses in ‘America the Abandoned.’

23. And finally, this small random collection of things I saved to my phone this week.