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Winter morning on the Poudre River, image by Eric

1. Take Heart: Finding Celebration No Matter What. “A virtual Valentine’s event for anyone who is divorced, bereaved, broken up, feeling blue, or simply needs an added dose of self-love.” A free mini class from my dear friend Sherry. In related news, Be Your Own True Love: A Self-Compassion Mini Retreat – Body Positive Yoga, a free, 90 minute workshop. It’s on the 13th and Sherry’s is on the 14th, so you could do both!

2. Make your space more inclusive from Karen Walrond on Chookooloonks.

3. All things green and good, a Pinterest board from SF Girl.

4. 200 Women who will change the way you see the world. “200 Women is a book and exhibition founded on original interviews and accompanying photographic portraits. This landmark project is the realisation of an epic global journey to find two hundred women with diverse backgrounds, and to ask them what really matters to them.”

5. Tayari Jones Writes About People with Problems, Not Problems with People. “Her latest, ‘An American Marriage,’ is about race and incarceration—but mostly it’s about three people with feelings.” Y’all, I just started reading this book last night, and I could not put it down! That hasn’t happened for me in a long time, and I’m enjoying it so much. Oprah agrees with me, as it’s her latest Book Club pick.

6. 3 Reasons We Cannot Cater to White Friends Who Say ‘I’m Not Racist’, an older article but it’s clear some of us still aren’t getting it. In related news, How To Easily Be A White Ally To Marginalized Communities, and White Supremacy Roundup: 4 Stories That Show How Institutional Racism Works, and
5 Valuable Ways to Use Your White Privilege to Fight Anti-Black Racism.

7. A Crash Course in Diversifying Your Bookshelf. “Is your reading list looking a little monochrome? We’ve compiled 15 books to help you broaden your horizons.”

8. Teaching Hard History, an important guide from SPLC. In related news, this amazing resource from Charles Preston on Google Drive.

9. Take The Cake: 8 Clues Your “Lifestyle” Is Actually A Diet (& Why It’s Gaslighting).

10. Weight Watchers is targeting teens with a new free program. That’s a problem. My eating disorder started at 14 years old. I struggled and suffered, sometimes to the point of being suicidal, for the next 30 years. The fact that Weight Watchers is making this effort to do the same to other young women, girls, is devastating.

11. You Need Help: Here Is A Worksheet To Help You Talk To Partners About Sex.

12. Because Facts. (video) “Guns, berets, and leather jackets are what we typically associate with the Black Panther Party. But did you know the Panthers were instrumental in bringing healthcare to the communities they served?”

13. 10 Years After She Went Missing, A Black Lab Is Returned To Her Owners. She looks so much like Sam! In related news, Woman Adopts A Senior Dog — Then Realizes It’s Her First Best Friend. “I never thought I’d see my dog again, but I just knew in my heart that it was her.”

14. Watch the funniest girl scout cookie story of all time on Snap Judgement. (video)

15. All The White Supremacists Running For Office In 2018.

16. Why I’m Raising Money For Black Kids To See ‘Black Panther.’

17. Andrea Gibson – “Orlando” Live from Detroit. (video) “In hopes that we continue to remember. In hopes that we not put a time limit on grief. In hopes that we build something much kinder. In hopes that we become the love we are meant to become.” In related news, That Moment Your Secret Comes Out. (video)

18. Hear Their Voices: 10 Must-Reads for Black History Month. In related news, two more great reading lists curated by Camille Dungy: Necessary New Books by Black Writers and Ten Essential Black Authors to Read During Black History Month — and Every Month.

19. Recipe I want to try: Vanilla Clementine Bread.

20. The Betrayal. Two women refuse to leave the side of a stranger who suffers a tragedy while on vacation.

21. Can I Enjoy the Art but Denounce the Artist? “Roxane Gay takes a look at what happens when we find out our favorites aren’t who they appear to be.”

22. Baby hamsters. (video)

23. Black Lives Matter Activist Who Snatched Confederate Flag Killed In New Orleans. I finished reading When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir the night before this news broke. I recommend you do the same, read the book I mean.

24. Nestlé Makes Billions Bottling Water It Pays Nearly Nothing For. “The company’s operation in Michigan reveals how it’s dominated the industry by going into economically depressed areas with lax water laws.”

25. Lina Iris Viktor Says Kendrick Lamar Stole Her Art for His New Music Video. In related news, from The New York Times, Artist Says Kendrick Lamar Video for ‘Black Panther’ Song Stole Her Work.

26. Conscious consumerism is a lie. Here’s a better way to help save the world.

27. James Brunt Organizes Leaves and Rocks Into Elaborate Cairns and Mandalas.

28. There are no white exceptions, wisdom from Jena Schwartz.

1. Morning walks. They’ve been a bit unusual this past week because Sam has had a tiny limp that won’t go away (only happens when he first gets up after having been resting for a bit, and he only limps about 3 or 4 steps, so you barely notice it, but he’s 8 years old now and we have to be careful) so we’ve been making him rest. We have a vet appointment scheduled for next week just in case it doesn’t clear up. You might not know this about me, but anything like that makes me anxious, because I always worry that every little weird thing is the first sign of cancer, and not just cancer but fatal cancer, because it’s happened to us like that two times and I keep expecting it to happen again because so far that’s been our reality. So an extra gratitude linked to this one is that while I worry, in this case Eric isn’t worried and has been able to keep me mostly sane.

2. The sky and the bare trees. The winter can be cold and dark, but it can also be beautiful.

3. Baby Ringo, back when his ears were just starting to stand up.

4. Teaching yoga. I subbed twice this week. This morning was almost a disaster because even though I KNEW I was teaching this morning, I forgot somewhere between Wednesday and today. I slept in and was being lazy, totally forgetting I was supposed to teach. Luckily my phone was in my hand when the notification went off, “Yoga: I’m Teaching!” and I only live five minutes away from the gym where I was subbing.

5. Aqua aerobics and then ten minutes in the sauna. Just look at how happy and pink it makes me.

6. My tiny family, and an explanation — many times when Eric and I text each other, we say “How’s it going?” and then include a selfie of wherever we happen to be at the moment. That’s why there’s a picture in this post of me at Om Ananda as I was getting ready to teach, and me in the gym locker room after aqua aerobics and the sauna, and the ones that follow of Eric and I with the dogs.

Bonus joy: Wild writing, Friday !!!, homemade pizza, a crispy gala apple with peanut butter, a working furnace, warm water, clean sheets, texting, Ringo doing well in his Parkour class even though we hadn’t had time to practice, how much more spacious my schedule is next week, and this cutie…