jillsalahub

Image by Eric

1. How to help Texas during winter storm blackouts. In related news, How to Help Texans Recover From the Winter Disaster, and How to help, and what to do if you need it, during Texas’ historic freeze, and When a busy H-E-B lost power, store told Texans gathering supplies to ‘go ahead’ without paying.

2. The ‘Heart’ of Heart Mountain: Japanese American Internment Through The Eyes Of A Child And His Unlikely Friend.

3. This 108-year-old artist proves that age is just a number! (video)

4. When Death Comes: An Oncology Nurse Finds Solace in Mary Oliver.

5. Recipe I want to try: Snowball Cookies.

6. What you’re feeling is grief. “The layers of cultural trauma we experience on top of our personal losses can feel all-consuming. We are isolated. We are lonely. And we are all, in some way, grieving.” 🥺

7. Inseparable gay penguin couple hatch new egg to become dads for a second time.

8. We’ll Have Herd Immunity by April. “Covid cases have dropped 77% in six weeks. Experts should level with the public about the good news.” Look, I realize that no one really knows what’s going to happen until it happens, and this is just another opinion in a vast ocean of opinions, and I can’t do anything more than I’m already doing to change the outcome, but this is the kind of opinion piece I need in my life right now.

9. What to do when you want to keep the slower pace of quarantine.

10. 21 Day Anti-Anxiety Challenge. “Here are twenty-one simple things you can do to help you cultivate a calmer, stronger, healthier mental state.” In my humble opinion, one step got overlooked: don’t call it a “challenge,” it’s too stressful.

11. More Creating, Less Hamster Wheel from Jena Schwartz.

12. Why “Gentle Writing Advice,” Exactly? from Chuck Wendig on Terrible Minds.

13. There can be no more waiting. “For almost the entire time that I’ve been self-employed I told myself that I would rest…later.”

14. The 7 types of rest that every person needs.

15. Fire and Ice from Rita’s Notebook.

16. This Is What It’s Like For Men With Eating Disorders. Diet culture sucks for EVERY BODY.

17. 5 Tips for Spiritual Activists on Lion’s Roar. “Bill Aiken offers five Buddhist insights to be a more effective agent of change.”

18. Austin Kleon interview by Rob Spillman. “The author of Steal Like an Artist talks about his popular, eclectic weekly newsletter where he shares 10 ‘things’ which can include music, TV, movies, poems, and even update s on Coconut the Owl, who has taken up residence in his backyard.” In related news, David Eagleman’s Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives and A house for Coconut.

19. ‘Somatic Exercises’ Stretch the Stress Right Out of Your Poor, Aching Body.

20. The Story of ‘Team Molly’ on The New York Times. “While her daughter was hospitalized, one mother built more room for our national grief.”

21. Beautiful Embroidery Captures Stunning Star Trails With Shimmering Beads.

22. Third graders write letters to God with some very important questions and they’re adorably innocent.

23. Is That the Cosmos or India on Diwali? NASA’s Image of Human Cell Leaves Twitter Bewildered. Our tiny insides are so beautiful.

1. Morning walks. Just like most of the country, we had extra cold temperatures and more snow, so Ringo spent most of the week either not walking (Monday morning was -11 degrees!) or running with Eric, but there was one day where it was 21 degrees and less than an inch of new snow had fallen, so I got to go with.

2. Making something that doesn’t have to be anything. I’ve enlisted my dear friend Mikalina to help me get back in touch with my intuition, my creative wisdom, that thing that inspires everything else. I’ve lost touch with it, (thanks burnout, thanks COVID-19, thanks capitalism), and to do the work I want to do, live the life I want, I need to get that connection back. Mikalina is giving me creative homework each week and it’s softening and unlocking something I’ve missed SO MUCH.

3. Practice. This week I remembered that practice isn’t about making or doing something good or correct but rather showing up, making space for what might arise. It’s not about getting it right, but about seeing where it goes.

4. Comfort. Naps in a dark room cuddled under a down blanket. Hot coffee with tiny marshmallows in one of my favorite mugs. That corner of the couch with the pillows and a blanket. Birds in the feeder. A warm shower and clean pjs. Clean laundry. Sitting in the sauna with Eric. The feel of Ringo’s soft fur and warm body. The sound of a dog sigh. Stretching. Clementines. Watching Antiques Roadshow with Eric. Taking the Facebook app off my phone and staying off altogether for three whole days. Reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.

5. My tiny family. Sure, I’ve experienced some bad luck, disappointment, and other really bad stuff in my life, but my tiny family is my version of winning the lottery.

Bonus joy: Friday morning Wild Writing, the four dogs that live across the street, grocery pickup, sunshine, writing and hanging out with Mikalina, good books, podcasts, comedy, new sheets, Eric and Ringo napping together on the couch, “singing” with Ringo, that at least while he’s the only dog Ringo has all the toys all over, Girl Scout Thin Mints, soft chewy bread, toasted walnuts, texting with my mom and brother and Chloe’, fingernail clippers, scissors, stick glue, Zoom, birthdays, knowing your people are safe, dog rescue, electricity, clean water, snow tires, swimming pools.