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1. Leslie Jordan on Instagram. Because Leslie Jordan is our feisty quarantine uncle.

2. Good stuff from Lion’s Roar: Watch “A Steady Heart in Time of Coronavirus,” from Tara Brach & Jack Kornfield, and Exhaling into a Brighter Future, and The Bodhisattva Response to Coronavirus.

3. A compilation of happy/sad COVID-19 videos from NowThis. (Video)

4. Beautiful Writers Podcast, whose latest episode is an interview with Joy Harjo, U.S. Poet Laureate.

5. Offerings worth checking out: 14 Days of Calm & Comfort for only $5 with Courtney Carver of Be More with Less, and Courage & Comfort, a A 2-week online pay what you can writing group with Jena Schwartz.

6. This Pandemic Is Not Your Vacation. “You might not want to spend your quarantine in a city. But the rural places many Americans treat as playgrounds, and the workers who keep them running, will suffer for it.”

7. Wisdom from Jenna Hollenstein: “It is completely normal and human to prefer pleasure over suffering; it is also completely normal for grasping onto pleasure to increase our suffering.”

8. Getting Bored? Here’s A List Of Free Things That Weren’t Free Before Coronavirus.

9. Is Anyone Else Just Barely Functioning Right Now? “Life is strange right now. How you feel is not.”

10. 89-Year-Old Japanese Grandma Discovers Photography, Can’t Stop Taking Hilarious Self-Portraits Now.

11. A Healthy Distraction: 20 Journal Prompts to Explore.

12. Food Psych Podcast #232: COVID-19 and Diet Culture.

13. Resilience: 3 Questions for You from Adreanna Limbach’s latest newsletter. “I’ve been paying close attention to my own moments of loneliness, melancholy and restlessness, and what questions have been useful to deploy — to make this unsettling moment a little more bounce-back-able into some semblance of sanity and ease: without minimizing the reality of what we’re experiencing here. Together.”

14. These are not conditions in which to thrive, “This is a time to survive. Your only responsibility is to get through today.”

15. Rise of the Monarch.

16. How to Work with Strong Emotions in the Time of Coronavirus, a FREE online five-week course with Lodro Rinzler beginning April 8th.

17. The Quarantine Diaries on The New York Times. “Around the world, the history of our present moment is taking shape in journal entries and drawings.”

18. Tips From Someone With Nearly 50 Years Of Social Distancing Experience.

19. The Routines That Keep Us Sane. “More than most, writers have experience with what the poet May Sarton called ‘a limbo that needs to be patterned from within,’ and they provide us with some relevant case studies in how to weave that pattern.”

20. calm: mindfulness meditation for anxiety from Abigail Rose Clarke, “a simple guided meditation to help in moments of anxiety or fear.”

21. Acknowledgments 2020 from Seth Godin. “It’s worth taking a second to think about people who are doing more than expected, more than they have to do, more than we can imagine.”

22. In case you missed it last week: Some Good News with John Krasinski. “We would love to hear Some Good News and share it with the world.”

23. Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale, one of my favorite poems by Dan Albergotti.

24. Exploration of the Day from Keri Smith.

This site is an attempt to bring people closer together during a time of fear and isolation. By participating in the same assignments hopefully we can feel a bit more connected and on a simple level it can give us something else to focus our energy on. There is much joy to be found in the simple, the mundane, and the everyday. We just have to look a bit harder than we have been.

Paying attention is an act of rebellion during a time when distraction is at an all time high. So let us start our own attention revolution. Let us become artists of the everyday and in doing so may we experience a lightness of spirit and a respite from our real world struggles.

25. None Of This Is Normal from Chuck Wendig on Terrible Minds. One of the best things I read this week.

26. Top White House health official warns Americans NOT to go to the grocery store if it’s not essential. In related news, CDC Now Recommends Americans Consider Wearing Cloth Face Coverings In Public, and F.D.A. Approves First Coronavirus Antibody Test in U.S. on The New York Times, and Think You’ve Got COVID-19? Here’s What Doctors Say About When To Seek Help.

27. Doggerina does a trust fall, once again. (video) Big, wrinkly, cute.

28. My niece Jayda seen her auntie Tanisha do a video like this, ” and wanted to do one as well…we asked her cousins if they wanted to help her make one and they all agreed.” (video) Then it was the boy’s turn. (video)

29. Farmworkers, Mostly Undocumented, Become ‘Essential’ During Pandemic on The New York Times. “Immigrant field workers have been told to keep working despite stay-at-home directives, and given letters attesting to their ‘critical’ role in feeding the country.”

30. Bill Withers, Hall of Fame Soul Singer, Dead at 81. In related news, Bill Withers’ Legacy Is So Much Deeper Than The Hits We All Know and Bill Withers, Who Sang ‘Lean on Me’ and ‘Ain’t No Sunshine,’ Dies at 81 on The New York Times.

31. Zookeepers are self-isolating at wildlife park for 3 months to take care of the animals.

32. King Soopers paying ‘hero’ bonus to employees through April 18 during coronavirus pandemic. How companies treat their employees during this time should inform how we treat these companies from here on out.

33. A message from your granny. ❤ (video) “I see much sadness and stress on my timeline today. I think y’all need some Wee Granny. She’s 93 and trending worldwide with good reason: Wee Granny is the voice we need right now. Thank you Islaanne from Edinburgh!”

34. Kat Zwick gives us her #BriefButSpectacular take on surviving COVID-19. (video) “When you find out that you matter and you didn’t necessarily conceive of yourself that way, I think that does alter how you show up in the world.”

35. ‘Yoga With Adriene’ On Her Rising Popularity During the Coronavirus Pandemic. “As more people are trying to stay healthy while not being able to leave their homes, YouTube’s yoga star becomes more popular than ever.”

36. Dog Finds The Fluffiest Dogs In Daycare So She Can Nap On Them.

37. Cameron Esposito’s New Memoir Offers Two Words of Advice — Save Yourself: BUST Interview.

38. Eight marvelous and melancholy things I’ve learned about creativity from The Oatmeal.

1. Signs of Spring. The birds are returning and things are starting to bloom and turn green. It’s a nice reminder that the earth goes on without us and that things are always changing, coming back around, starting again. Winter happens, but so does Spring, and even when things are bad there is also joy.

2. Good food is still being made and eaten. Feeding ourselves as well as we can and enjoying what we are eating is suddenly the biggest of luxuries, the most essential self-care.

3. Texting and video conferencing. It is always hard to be separated from people you love, but that’s especially true right now. I’m so grateful that my mom has a smartphone now and we can text whenever we want, that I can check in with her more regularly, that it doesn’t have to be something important or interesting enough to warrant an email or phone call.

4. “Yard time.” This is what Eric and I have been calling it when it’s nice enough to sit outside, soak up the sunshine and fresh air, which we try to do for some hours of the day when we can. It snowed yesterday, so at one point we just stood at the sliding glass door, looking outside, as it was too cold to go out. The forecast for the next few days is sunny and climbing to the 70s, so there will be yard time again soon.

5. Normal things in an abnormal time. “Before” when we were away from each other, we’d text selfies to each other, just to check in and say “hi.” We are still doing it, even though we are both home. The other day, Eric was in the backyard and I was inside on the couch, and we sent each other selfies, to remind ourselves we are still here.

5. Time alone. As much as I love my dogs and my person, I still need time alone. Ever since I retired from my job at CSU in May, I spend part of almost every afternoon in my bedroom in the dark. My nervous system was/is fried and needs the time to reset, restore, rest. This ritual has become even more important recently.

6. Morning walks. Getting outside, moving around in the world with my favorites.

7. My tiny family. I am so grateful we are together, safe and healthy. I’m also so glad that as much as we love each other, we also like each other’s company. It’s an added bonus that when you have to be around someone ALL THE TIME, you mostly enjoy it.

Bonus joy: curbside grocery pick-up, a big salad, apples, a glass of clean cold water, good TV (Unorthodox on Netflix was so good, and all of the seasons of House Hunters on Hulu are saving me when I can’t handle anything more serious), good podcasts, good music, good books, meditating and writing in the morning, cuddling with the dogs, naps, having lots of pajamas so I can put a clean pair on every once in awhile, being able to take yoga classes with Jamie and Aramati on Zoom, doing HIIT workouts with Eric, Eric being able to work from home, clean sheets, reading in bed at night while Eric and the dogs sleep.