1. Morning walks. Things are really starting to turn green and come alive. There was lots of owl magic this week, along with a few deer and a tiny bit of snow.
Image by Eric
2. Good trouble. And all the good people who are willing to get involved.
3. Tokarski Home. Mom is doing so well there and it’s such a relief. I guess last week when “the twins” (the one set in Mom’s family) were visiting, Mom kept asking them to roll her out of her room and down the hall. When they asked her why, she said, “so I can see Jill.” I miss you too, Mom.
4. Pacing myself. I’ve really practiced this recently, trying to honor my limits. It can be hard because other people get disappointed and I have a long history of making sure everyone else is okay even when I’m not.
5. My tiny family, small house, little life. I love it here. With spring on its way, Ringo and Eric spend lots of time lounging in the yard, which reminds me to do the same.
Bonus joy: Texting with Chris, listening to podcasts, eating good food, a big glass of clean cold water, Pilates, yoga at Red Sage and Raintree, getting in the pool and the sauna, the hydromassage chair, plantain chips and dip, KIND nut clusters, marionberry flavored gummies, stretching, grocery shopping, poets and poetry, libraries and librarians, comedy, true crime, books from the library for my Kindle, daffodils and forsythia, yellow, other people’s kids and dogs, how soft new grass is, all the different kinds of bread, down blankets and pillows, my Shakti mat, my weighted blanket, the way cats purr, horses, bonsai trees, tiny brass animals, flowers in the bathroom, naps, a warm shower, houseplants, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.
2. Synonyms for Hope from Abigail Rose Clarke. “But hope can also be a synonym for belonging. This hope is alive. This hope strengthens. I belong to a future where we care for each other, I hope we all live to see this. I belong to a future where all people are safe in their homes and in the streets, I hope we live to see this. I belong to a future where all people are free to love who they love and live in their most liberated expression, I hope we live to see this. I belong to a future where the lands and waters are protected, and the more-than-human world is honored as teachers and kin, I hope we live to see this.”
9. Get a load of all these stickers. “Collective action, even on the tiniest scale, is still pretty damn terrific” from Garrett Bucks on The White Pages.
20. Wisdom from Britchida: “I used to think that the more I did, the more I’d be able to do. But it didn’t work that way for me. Living without edges just led to me bleeding out my energy, unable to tell where other things ended and where I began.
Now, my life is smaller. I can hold it in my hands. I say no to opportunities, I rest when there are still things to do. There is no one I am trying to become. I might be missing out on some ‘best’ life, but I am not missing out on me.”
26. “Taking in the good”: A simple way to offset your brain’s negativity bias. “Psychologist Rick Hanson’s HEAL method encourages people to dwell on positive experiences to offset the brain’s negativity bias. It’s based on the idea that repeated mental habits can shape the brain over time through neuroplasticity. While the science remains preliminary, the method is a safe and accessible tool that could extend the shelf life of life’s good moments.”
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 