jillsalahub

1. Morning walks. To be honest, I didn’t go on any this week. We got snow and it was cold and Eric is on a break from work, so he and Ringo went running every morning. However, this morning when I was coming back from picking up groceries, the sunrise over the river was so pretty that I turned around and parked by the trail to get some pictures. Just as I was walking back to my car, Eric and Ringo came running towards me on the trail, so I got to say “hi” and walk with them a little bit.

2. A whole new year. I really really want it to be better than this one, but I also accept that even this could have been worse and there was so much to be grateful for, still.

3. Practice. I was thinking the other day how all my practices — writing, meditation, yoga, and even dog — all intended for me to meet myself where I’m at, to be with what is arising in this very moment, and that by being gentle and open, I am my truest and strongest self. May it be of benefit.

4. People doing their jobs, keeping it all going. Last night around 6 pm, a water main broke on our block. The utilities company had people there right away, and they stayed ALL NIGHT working to fix the problem, in the cold and wet and dirt, and they had it all done and cleaned up and working again by 7 am. What a miracle that we have access to clean water, that there are those who understand how to make that system work, and when something breaks down, they are right there working on it until it’s fixed — in this case while we did nothing but watch and sleep. People every day making sure we have access to food and vaccines and electricity, keeping the rest of us safe and cared for and comfortable. We are so lucky.

6. My tiny family, our little house. This week was sweet and quiet and wonderful.

Bonus joy: books, music, TV, movies, podcasts, clementines, getting in the pool, sitting in the sauna with Eric, our Christmas tree lights, naps, hanging out and writing with Mikalina, tea with Chloe’, texting good wishes to people I love, Christmas cards, pay day, having all the laundry done and put away, snow, tiny birds at my feeders (I have two now), down blankets and pillows, texting with my mom and brother and nieces, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.

Image by Eric

1. How to Work with the Winter Blues on Lion’s Roar. “Perhaps,” says Sylvia Boorstein, “these days of less sunlight are opportunities for more contemplative time, more looking deeply to see what can only be seen in the dark.” Elsewhere, in related news, You Can Get through This Dark Pandemic Winter Using Tips from Disaster Psychology, and A Scandinavian local explains how to make it through winter.

2. Lily Diamond and Rebecca Walker: Your Creative Power to Write a New Story. “In this episode of Insights at the Edge [Podcast], Tami speaks with Lily and Rebecca about the power of the right question to move us in the direction of claiming our narratives and using the power of our imagination to create our future. They discuss the importance of telling our own stories in the ways only we can. They also explore how rewriting the stories we tell about ourselves and our world can ignite the alchemical process of everyday evolution, moving us in the direction of healing society, the Earth, and our own spirits.”

3. 5 Things 2020 Taught Me About Being a Highly Sensitive Person. “Let’s not pretend we’ll all emerge stronger, but there are five key lessons highly sensitive people can carry forward.”

4. On Being Krista Tippett. “For almost two decades, Krista Tippett has been asking questions about faith, grief, hope, and the human condition. 2020 has given her a lot to talk about.”

5. Recipe I want to try: chilaquiles brunch casserole.

6. Future Gazing: What If Care Was the Organizing Principle of Our Society? “With a challenging year soon to be behind us, we asked community members to share their vision of what they hope becomes of our city post-pandemic.”

7. Dear HSP With a Bad Childhood: There Is Hope.

8. For Ijeoma Oluo, Books and Bedtime Are a Perfect Combination on The New York Times.

9. TikTok discovered a Netflix movie hack — and it’s a game-changer.

10. How to Be a Dog, a poem by Andrew Kane.

11. ‘Solidarity, Not Charity’: A Visual History of Mutual Aid. “Tens of thousands of mutual aid networks and projects emerged around the world in 2020. They have long been a tool for marginalized groups.”

12. The Best Reviewed Essay Collections of 2020.

13. COVID-19 related news: Doctor Who Recorded Final Days Battling COVID-19 Said She Had To Beg For Proper Treatment: ‘This Is How Black People Get Killed’, and Cause of Life on The New York Times (“The more than 300,000 people we lost to the pandemic in 2020 form a portrait of America. For this series of short films, we asked five people to celebrate the life of someone close to them”), and ‘My Bank Account Has $4’: Pandemic Has Left Millions Of Livelihoods In Limbo.

14. Cleo Wade’s “It is okay (a poem of validation for the year 2020)”. “The poet and bestselling author sends out a year unlike any other with the promise that it’s okay if your banana bread never came out right— and it’s okay if you’re not okay.”

15. The Best New Podcasts of 2020 on The New York Times.

16. Giant Fabric Butterfly and Moth Sculptures Hand-Crafted by Yumi Okita.

17. A Woolen Menagerie of Miniature Creatures by Natasya Shuljak Exudes Joy and Whimsy. Something you might not know about me: I love all things small and felted.

18. 25 Modern Love Essays to Read if You Want to Laugh, Cringe and Cry on The New York Times. “The popular column, which began in 2004, has become a podcast, a book and an Amazon Prime streaming series. Here are some of its greatest hits.”

19. ‘An absolute powerhouse’: Short film tells the incredible survival tale of Ada Blackjack. “A new Alaska short film tells the story of Ada Blackjack, an Iñupiat woman who survived alone on a remote island after an expedition gone wrong in 1921.”

20. The Art of Activism: Hard Conversations Book Club 2021 hosted by Patti Digh.