jillsalahub

1. Why People Are So Awful Online by Roxane Gay on The New York Times.

2. New York Bodega Worker Gives Free Snacks To Customers Who Solve His Math Problems.

3. New Documentary Seeks to Understand Anthony Bourdain and His Death on The New York Times. In related news, The new Anthony Bourdain doc is ethically thorny but worth watching, and AI Brought Anthony Bourdain’s Voice Back To Life. Should It Have?, and Bourdain Documentary’s Use of A.I. to Mimic Voice Draws Questions on The New York Times, and Hoax Diaries Were the Original Deepfakes.

4. The spiritual bankruptcy of bottled water. “Selling out a national resource, at 75 billion bottles every year.”

5. The Hidden Costs of Dollar General. When we were in Oregon, I noticed every small town we went to either had one or was building one.

6. What It Feels Like to Lose Your Favorite Season. “I’m so sad for us, for the story that we’ll have to tell ourselves and whatever generations remain: that the opportunity for change was and there, and we failed to take it every day, even as our understanding of the world, the parts that made it most precious and sustaining, crumbled before us.”

7. What Item Is Giving You Joy In A Pandemic? Your Beautiful And Quirky Answers.

8. If You Hate Meditating, Try These Alternatives. Then, read The Truth About Mindfulness: 6 Things You Need to Know and try meditating again. 🙂

9. But seriously on Rita’s Notebook. “Action is not always our best option; if we find ourselves lost in the wilderness, the best thing we can do is stop.” Amen.

10. Take more outdoor walks: Neuroscientists say they’re great for your brain.

11. The Lisa Congdon Sessions, “a podcast for creative folks about living and working with more intention, curiosity, and joy. Most interesting to Lisa is what happens at the intersection between life as an artist and life as a human, with all our baggage, aspirations, hopes and dreams. From big questions to practical ones about business, social media, time management, and finding your way through the winding creative path- each episode Lisa will share stories, tips, insights, and conversations from the heart.”

12. A depressed comedian does a mental health podcast. The punchline is a profound hour of radio.

13. Why It Feels So Damn Good to Laugh at a Funeral. “When my brother died too young, an unexpected dark joke helped my family deal with the grief.”

14. How To Wrap Using A Furoshiki. (video)

15. Recipe I want to try: Breakfast Burritos.

1. Morning walks. I miss the river, but I also like walking through the neighborhoods, and am so grateful we live where we do, one mile from Lee Martinez Park and one mile from City Park, one by the river and one by a lake.

2. The pool. It feels so good to be in the water, and such a surprise to have found this joy later in my life, after years of being afraid and avoiding it.

3. Practice. We are on “summer break” from our Friday morning Wild Writing, so I’m grateful that Calyx and I practice together every Tuesday, summer or not. I miss not having the ocean view when I meditate, but there’s something so cozy about my practice room at home. And even though I could go back to the studio, I’m still enjoying taking Jamie’s Sunday morning class in my pjs in my own living room.

4. Our garden. It’s especially wild this year, and I love it. Other than the flowers, fruit, and vegetables it gives us, I’m so happy it’s a habitat for birds and bugs too, that it feeds more than just us.

5. My tiny family, my tiny house, my tiny life. I am especially enjoying the quiet and ease of my life right now. I have everything I ever wanted and I know how lucky I am.

Bonus joy: Dot’s Honey Mustard Pretzels, daisies, videos of Sam, marionberry jam, lettuce and cucumbers and zucchini from our garden, sitting in the sauna with Eric, soft green grass, butterflies, hummingbirds, reading books, watching TV, listening to podcasts, clean sheets, roasted sweet potatoes, taking naps, hanging out with Calyx, texting with Chloe’ and my mom and brother, the way Ringo goes outside and lounges in the sun until he’s too hot and then comes inside to lounge until he cools off and then goes back outside until he gets too hot and so on and so on all day long, working out with Eric and Shelby, reading in bed at night while Ringo and Eric sleep.