1. Morning walks. Things are really turning green right now, getting rowdy in all kinds of ways — like the line from this poem, “April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.” We missed one walk because we got snow and cold yesterday, but on the others we saw a heron and some deer and of course stopped by Your Best Day Ever to visit Theresa, get some love and treats for Ringo.
2. Mom. There was a hiccup with Mom’s catheter this week that caused a false alarm, a phone call to advise us she may be in kidney failure which led to me consulting Dr. Google, even though I already knew what they would say because kidney failure is exactly what prompted us to place Dad in hospice care, and wondering how soon I might be on my way to Oregon again. Turns out, as my brother had already suspected, that they just needed to switch out her catheter, which had simply gotten “disconnected.” It’s so hard, knowing Mom wishes I was there and knowing at some point things will take a turn and this will all be over, feeling so stuck in this liminal space, this in-between. And yet, I’m still so grateful she is where she is, has such good care and because of that, my brother gets some relief, and that I’m home in my favorite place.
Mom, Chris, and “the girls”
3. Practice. Yoga at Red Sage, writing with my Friday morning sangha, sitting in my practice room early in the morning.
4. Therapy, again. I’m getting closer to finding a therapist. I’ve been in and out of therapy for 35+ years. Lately, with everything going on in my own life and the world, I’ve been feeling the need to go back, but that meant finding someone new, which is always such a complicated and even discouraging process. I already have a primary care doctor, masseuse, acupuncturist, and nutritionist, along with a Pilates and Yoga instructor on my “care team,” but it’s been feeling like I’m going in regularly to get my teeth cleaned when this whole time I’ve been walking around with a broken leg (heart?).
5. My tiny family, small house, little life. The more I lose, the more that goes wrong, the more certain I am how good I have it here, with them.
Bonus joy: getting to spend time with Stacey and Heather, seeing Chloe’ irl, videos and pictures of Hendrix, other people’s kids and dogs, good food, making each other laugh while practicing yoga, aqua aerobics, sitting in the sauna, the hydromassage chair, lounging in the backyard with Ringo, sitting on the couch with Eric, hugs in the kitchen, listening to podcasts, watching TV, going to Mt Everest Cafe with Eric, making a new recipe and it turning out to be really good, sunshine, forsythia, a warm shower, a nap, down blankets and pillows, my Shakti mat, poetry and poets, libraries and librarians, comedy, true crime, documentaries, the chance to start over again, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.
2. The 2025 Uber Lost & Found Index, “the ninth-annual Uber Lost & Found Index, our yearly snapshot of the most commonly forgotten and most unique items left behind in Ubers.”
7. Good Belly. “I think we could use this practice right now. (And always.)” on Seeds of Possibility from Erin Geesaman Rabke. Also from Erin, On Immensity & Savoring the Berries, “On being stretched into openness.”
9. embracing a maximalist garden style. “More isn’t always better, of course, but in the case of the gardens profiled in the new book ‘Garden to the Max,’ it definitely is, whether more color, more texture, more drama or all of the above, and then some, smartly used for maximum impact. The many faces of maximalist gardening, plus perhaps some inspiration for turning up the volume in your own landscape, was what I talked about with the book’s author, Teresa Woodard, who gardens near Columbus, Ohio. With photographer Bob Stefko, Teresa has created ‘Garden to the Max: Joyful, Visionary, Maximalist Design’ which looks at 20 gardens around the country–from a 700-square-foot patio to a multi-acre estate–each created by extreme plant lovers with a maximalist approach to garden-making, no matter the size of their space.”
11. The Meth Lunches. “A book I want you to read so we can discuss it” from Patti Digh.
12. Escaping the Social Media Trance — Community + Agency with Elise Granata. (podcast) “Elise is here to chat with me about how social media erodes our agency + community building efforts — even if these platforms started as supportive relational hubs. Join us as we wind through our teen years on Tumblr, how we dissociate on the apps, what inspires us to get offline, the dangers of optimized communities, adjusting our aesthetic expectations, ‘sweatshirt-level friends,’ and how to start your community practice.”
13. Being Here with Fleeting Joy and Persistent Worry from Elizabeth Kleinfeld. “Caregivers learn to hold contradictions: to be both heartbroken and grateful, to maintain boundaries while offering boundless support, to plan meticulously while remaining flexible. Perhaps most importantly, we learn to exist fully in imperfect moments—finding fleeting joy even as worry persists.”
15. I’m a Reformed Hoarder—Here’s How I Was Finally Able to Let Go of My Stuff. “Erin Rooney Doland once had so many things that she literally couldn’t move. It wasn’t until she analyzed her reasons for getting into such a mess that she was finally able to purge. Here are her best clutter cures.”
16. low-energy habits that improved my mental health. “there was a time when i thought self-care had to be loud—morning alarms at 5 am, skincare routines with 12 steps, planners filled with color-coded tasks. but i was tired, and no amount of productivity hacks could fix the deep exhaustion that settled in my bones. so instead of chasing a version of self-improvement that felt like a second job, i started looking for small, almost invisible things that made life feel softer. things that required no effort but still felt like care. here are the habits that changed everything—not in a life-altering way, but in the i feel okay today way, which honestly, might be more important.”
17. Trying to inhale deeply in a shitstorm. “It’s harder than it looks, and the shit’s way more granular, almost like tiny shards of glass” from Patti Digh.
18. Don’t Break The Spell. “What can I tell you? I was blessed by a dead Irish poet” from Josie George.
22. The Imperfectionist: No escape. “We want to find some person, or some philosophy of life, that will spare us the fear or discomfort or self-doubt or tedium that so often seems to come along for the ride, whenever we try to make progress on things we care about. We hate feeling yoked to reality in such an unpleasant way; we long instead to soar above it, in a realm free from problems. And it’s the mark of a bad self-help book, a dodgy spiritual guru or an incompetent therapist that they’ll be only too happy to encourage the illusion that this might one day be possible.”
23. Finally, in a real way, warts and all. “Seeing what it really looks like to make space for creative work while in the midst of grief and injury” from Rita Ott Ramstad on Rootsie.
24. Being human from Jo Hanlon-Moores. “We’re far from being the first generations to live through crisis, but perhaps we are the first to do so while being this connected to information, while disconnected from our bodies, our communities, and the living world around us.”
25. A Crackling Fire of Hope. “Kentucky poet laureate Silas House on how poetry serves as a theological lesson, a source of community, and a lifeline during the upheaval of 2025.” Because, this: “Like many of us, lately I’ve been trying to find a balance of remaining informed without being overwhelmed by witnessing the toxicity on display. And I’ve discovered that poems are the antidotes to misery. They are also lessons in moderation. Poetry refuses to look away from the horrors of the world, but it also holds our faces firmly in its hands and forces us to witness the wonders, as well. To hear the singing.”
28. The best sci-fi movies of all time, ranked. “From human clones to alien invasions: we asked scientists, filmmakers and writers to select the best sci-fi films in cinema history.”
30. Wisdom from As Above Astro: “Don’t let social media or any media convince you that the world is a terrible place. Yes, there are those in the world who do terrible things and have immense power, but regular people outnumber these people by the billions. Don’t let the loudest darkest parts of humanity convince you they represent us as a whole. They don’t. Most beings are harmless and simply trying to survive, love, and live in peace… just like you.”
34. Let Yourself Rage With Poet Laureate Ada Limón on the Modern Love podcast on The New York Times. (gift link) “I think we’d all be better off if we encountered poetry on a regular basis, because it reminds us to feel, that we’re not supposed to numb out, that the weeping and the rage and the grief leads to feeling alive.”
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 