jillsalahub

1. Morning walks. Eric came with us a bunch this week, which is lovely but also in hindsight wasn’t the best idea since his sprained ankle/foot is still healing and he should probably be resting it more. By Friday it was clear that mosquito season has started — not my favorite. Because of how wet and cool the spring was, there are lots of wildflowers, including my favorite — Rocky Mountain bee plants.

2. Mom. They had to up her meds again this week as her agitation was increasing — trying to get out of bed even though she can’t walk and trying to pull apart her catheter, and it was starting earlier in the day. The more her dementia progresses, the more she’s convinced she needs to be somewhere, needs to get out of bed and go. I really wish she knew and could trust that the place she is and the people who are caring for her really are the best there is and could be completely content there. We are still sending each other selfies. She’s still here and she still remembers us.

3. #1000WordsOfSummer. I did it, completed the challenge — 1000 words a day for 14 days. I’m so grateful to Jamie Attenberg for hosting. I’m so much clearer about “The Book” now, which it turns out is actually six books. Some things I learned:

The only way to start is to just start, and in related news, the only way to finish is to keep going
If I sit down and start, it doesn’t really matter how it goes or what I get done, the act of showing up solidifies the habit and its value, and cultivates my confidence
Knowing other people are doing it “with you” and having a distinct container with a specific goal makes the challenge seem workable, like how much easier it can be to meditate for a full hour with a group at a retreat
Failing to show up would have been disappointing myself and I didn’t want to do that, no one else was going to care if I did it or not but I would
There’s a distinct difference between being full and feeling satisfied
I have been writing and blogging regularly for close to 15 years now, and that means I have a ton of content to sort through and edit, and it is all over the place, which is one thing that had been keeping me from even starting, as it seemed overwhelming
Because so much of what I write is about my life, what I’ve experienced, and some of it is sad and messy, I was avoiding it because I knew it would be hard, that there would be a lot of feelings, and I was not wrong
It really doesn’t matter how long it takes as long as you don’t give up
Trust the process and you just might surprise yourself
Even if you never finish, you won’t regret trying — but you will regret it if you don’t try

4. Good people. All those who showed up for the “No Kings” rallies yesterday, Eric’s D&D friends and wives who gather to do things other than play D&D, people who love to read, my book club, my Friday morning writing sangha, people at the gym, comedians, podcasters, librarians, those who are part of the ALT National Park Service, people doing what they can to thwart ICE, all those currently helping others in places where there is fire and flood, good Dads, good neighbors, people who love dogs, World Central Kitchen, Doctors Without Borders, people who carry Narcan, the ones who harvest our produce, and YOU, kind and gentle reader — and so many more.

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. It is so quiet and calm here, so comfortable. It’s my safe place to land and I love it here, with them.

Bonus joy: Sunday morning Pilates, grocery shopping, grapefruit Bubly Water, libraries, poets and poetry, listening to podcasts, the peonies in my garden, bees, the feature in my image folder on my phone that allows me to search an image online so I can identify a flower or tree I don’t know the name of or be sure the spider I am letting live in my bathroom isn’t poisonous, silver, stickers, all the wonderful professional women who are part of Ringo’s care team, yoga at Red Sage, other people’s dogs and kids and gardens, naps, a warm shower, a big glass of cold clean water, the way it smells after it rains, birds at my feeder, the opportunity to start over as many times as necessary, refillable ink pens, clean sheets, the guy who led the “No Kings” march yesterday on horseback holding a huge American flag, how Taco’s parade was so quiet you could hear the wheels of the tanks squeaking as they rolled by, scissors and a glue stick, indoor plumbing, a/c, our whole house fan, decks and porches, house plants, trees, a bag of oranges, potatoes, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.

1. Poetry: How Do You Know it’s Time? from Julia Fehrenbacher, Ode to a Boring Day and Half in the Sky and Muddy Water by Julie Barton, The Opening from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, and what will you carry to the sun? and what is a poet? from Christopher Sexton.

2. We are All Los Angeles from The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz. In related news, If you need guns, tanks and propaganda to keep us from caring for our neighbors, you’ve already lost, “On love and fear” from Garrett Bucks on The White Pages, and Stop bending the knee to Trump: it’s time for anticipatory noncompliance from David Kirp on The Guardian, “US institutions have been doing Trump’s bidding before he even comes after them. Here’s the counterstrategy.”

3. Write about the Small Things, “sometimes it’s the best way forward” from Laura Lentz on Writing at Red Lights.

4. To Keep or Not to Keep, “& Barbara Becker on simplifying” on The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad.

5. Put Your Hands on the Future, with adrienne maree brown, Hope Portal, Session 2.

6. Getting by with a little help from my friends. “Life feels really weird right now, but also really normal, which is part of why it feels really weird” from Rita Ott Ramstad on Rootsie.

7. I have decided to be water, “It’s all I can do right now” from Patti Digh.

8. The Time I Didn’t Spend from Danny Gregory. “Start late, I tell myself. Start again. Start over. Just start.”

9. My Friends Have So Many Issues, “The healing power of being needed” from Andrea Gibson.

10. Tim Weed: Five Things I Learned Writing The Afterlife Project from Chuck Wendig on Terrible Minds.

11. A vignette in a minor key from Amy Marie Turner, who recently got her cabin in Alaska where she’d lived for nearly two decades ready to sell.

12. Artifact on ShortReads.

13. Reconciling with family and friends, “may be important to the arc of your story” by Laura Lentz on Writing at Red Lights.

14. The Gift of Distance, “Why I don’t regret the twelve-year break I took from my father” from Elizabeth Kleinfeld.

15. Stay with the trouble, “Not solve it. Not fix it. Just stay” from Patti Digh.

16. Secrets of a Great Life (as learned by visiting schools across America this year), “a partial list” from Brad Montague.

17. Owl in Towels. “Wildlife rehabilitators often wrap owls in fabric so they can be weighed, treated, and fed. If not, the owls get in a flap. The result? Loads of pictures.”

18. Jaws at 50: Spielberg’s marine masterpiece transformed the movies – and us.

19. When they chose to die together, my grandparents wrote the final chapter of a love story spanning 70 years. The longer I live, the more suffering and death I see, the more I understand why someone might choose this way to go.

20. Social media star “The Dogist” talks new book, online fame. (video) “The U.S. is dog-obsessed, and social media star The Dogist has tapped into that love, garnering millions of followers for his candid photos of pups around the world. Elias Weiss Friedman, the photographer behind the account, sat down with Dana Jacobson to talk about his new book and how he was catapulted to online fame.”

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