jillsalahub

1. Poetry: After the Loss and What Comes Next and Some of the Stories from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, You-Shaped Hole by Tara Mohr, Portals by Alix Klingenberg, Los Vecinos by Alison Luterman, Focus and In Therapy from Julie Barton, Hellifino by Todd Wynn (by way of a link Julie Barton shared), and Kintsugi Again and Keep Reaching from James Crews (can’t wait for his new book), this is for the addicts who never got a love letter, only lectures by christopher sexton, Inside the Mind of a Master Writer — David Whyte (a video interview), and Come Back to Me As Lightning, “Faith, Doubt, and How Andrea Still Leaves Me Love Notes” from Megan Falley.

2. Follow the journey of a Palisade peach from Rocky Mountain PBS. Final destination: my belly!

3. Letting the salty flood wash over me, “And finding a way to a better kind of hard” by Rita Ott Ramstad on Rootsie.

4. Good stuff from Seth Godin: After the chores, Contagious emotions, and Scarcity and abundance.

5. Are you mad at me? “For those who have kept the peace, but lost themselves” from Meg Josephson. I’m reading her new book, Are You Mad at Me?: How to Stop Focusing on What Others Think and Start Living for You, and it’s SO good.

6. From problems to progress: five ways to focus on solutions, not just struggles. “When you’re stuck in a rut, moving forward can feel impossible. Here are five ways to try to progress through struggles.”

7. You can’t tell when strange things with meaning will happen from Patti Digh. “All you can do is be ready—or at least be willing to be interrupted. Willing to be shifted. Willing to say: I don’t know what this means, but I’m listening.”

8. What’s your best travel tip?, a collection from Austin Kleon.

9. Beloved Bother. “A typo in my great-uncle’s obituary held the key to understanding him.”

10. Gardens of Possibility, a curated list of fifteen stories from Orion. In related news, The Unexpected Benefits of Starting a Small-Scale Dahlia Operation.

11. After The Bomb. “Survivors of the Atomic Blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki share their stories.” In related news, Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima photo archive.

12. How to Stress Less and Calm Your Life: What You Haven’t Tried Yet from Courtney Carver on Be More With Less.

13. He Announced His Intention to Die. The Dinner Invitations Rolled In. on The New York Times. (gift link) “On Instagram, the artist Joseph Awuah-Darko asked the world to invite him to dinner before he ended his life. More than 150 meals later, he is still going.” In related news, offered as a counterpoint: This Influencer Told an Incredible Story about his Impending Death by Euthanasia. But How Does This Effect his Followers? “Joseph Awuah-Darko gained hundreds of thousands of followers, money, and dinner invitations after sharing his euthanasia plan on Instagram. But there are holes in his story. And what are the consequences of his posts for followers who are struggling with their mental health?”

14. I thought we’d entered the age of body positivity. Then came ‘shrinking girl summer’ – is everyone getting smaller except me? “It’s been the year of weight-loss drugs, with celebrities seemingly disappearing before our eyes. For those of us left behind, it’s both a torment and a temptation. Spoiler alert: I tried the jabs, too.”

15. Terracotta and Gold Figures by Vipoo Srivilasa Conjure Joy and the Divine. His Instagram page is really fun too. I especially love this figure.

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

1. Morning walks. Sadly, Eric starts back to work in earnest next week, so no more weekday morning walks together. It’s been hazy and sometimes smoky with the wildfires burning here and northwest of us but early mornings are usually still okay so we get a walk in before it gets too bad. Still haven’t gotten many mosquitoes on this side of town yet and now it’s getting close to when that season is over for the year, so we’ve still been able to walk at our favorite places, near the water. I saw some yellow leaves this week, so even though we’ve got a bunch of 90 degree days in the forecast, fall is on its way.

2. Practice. Yoga at Red Sage, my Friday morning writing sangha, meditating, writing, and making art.

3. Family. My cousin was released from the hospital and is going back home, Mom still remembers us and we are still sending each other selfies, and Lia is riding her bike without training wheels and lost a tooth.

4. Late summer season food. The natural stuff — watermelon, corn, berries, and peaches, and the traditional stuff — potato salad, burgers, potato chips, baked beans, pasta slaw, and pie.

Bonus love note was tucked inside the cover of my Kindle

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. We went to a bbq by a lake with friends yesterday and even though I would always rather stay home than anything else, it was fun. I’ve been loving extra on Ringo because our friend Theresa just found out her ghost faced cattle dog Casper who is almost exactly three years young than Ringo and looks so much like him has cancer — send them some love if you’ve got some to spare.

Bonus joy: texting with Chris and Chloe’, sharing reels with Shellie and Carrie and Kari, realizing that having friends who blog is almost like having penpals, so many good books, watching TV, listening to podcasts, clean laundry and clean sheets, a warm shower, a big glass of cold clean water, other people’s kids and dogs and gardens, listening to other people’s funny or sweet or surprising stories, making each other laugh, a cooler day in the midst of so many hot ones, Sunday morning Pilates, therapy, how much the bees and other bugs love the blooms on our mint, baby deer and their spots, Sunday afternoons, fry sauce, a good watermelon, our whole house fan and fans in general of all kinds, a/c, the view, how Ringo sometimes chooses to hang out with me even if Eric is home, gummies, grapefruit Bubly water, dogs with spots and stripes, baby elephants, stickers, wi-fi, prescription glasses, naps, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.