1. Morning walks. It’s starting to get a bit colder, but still no snow. 😭
2. Celebrating the new year with friends. We gathered with friends on New Year’s Eve to eat snacks and play games. We had planned to only stay until 10 pm, but were having so much fun, we stayed until after midnight — and paid for it the next day, when I barely made it off the couch for more than ten minutes at a time. Then a few days later, I got to go to lunch with Carrie to celebrate her upcoming birthday (which is actually today!) and visit Tony the Tiger, who is a full grown dog now and still as good a boy as he ever was, except apparently he hates baths and nail trims and having his teeth brushed.
3. Twinkle lights. On the Christmas tree, in the window, in the yard, and on other people’s houses.
4. Comfort. In hustle and grind culture, comfort gets a bad rap. For me, it’s absolutely necessary for survival, and can be found in the simplest things: a soft blanket, clean sheets, a good pillow, a good book, a dog sigh, a text from a friend, a poem, a shared meme or reel, my favorite podcasts and songs, a hot cup of tea, a good meal or a snack, a glass of cold clean water, a hug.
5. My tiny family, small house, little life. This is my home. I am content here. There’s no place I’d rather be.
Bonus joy: being retired (only working when I want to, doing what I want to), being in the pool, sitting in the sauna, training with Shelby and the gang, writing with my Friday morning group (even when only two of us can make it), seeing other people happy, comedy, true crime, my Shakti mat, remembering that when I practice yoga on my own I get to do what feels good to me, wool, down, mint, caramel, chicken noodle soup, roasted veggies, being able to start over as many times as necessary, eggs, gummies, salt, chocolate chip cookies with walnuts, my weighted blanket, heating pads, new calendars, having my own space, cuddling with Ringo and Eric on the couch, libraries and librarians, poets and poetry, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.
1. 10 ways to be prepared and grounded now that Trump has won. “The key to taking effective action in a Trump world is to avoid perpetuating the autocrat’s goals of fear, isolation, exhaustion and disorientation.” I’m pretty sure I shared this when it was first published, but if you are like me and feeling anxiety and dread about the coming new year, it might help to take another look. In related news, and another one I probably already shared, ‘Don’t burn out’: nine activists and therapists on coping with post-election overwhelm. “We spoke to activists and therapists across the US about how they were dealing with the news of Trump’s win and how they plan to take action.”
4. A Confession: The Five Lists & a New Year’s Journaling Challenge on The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad. “I have an allergy to the whole ‘new year, new you’ way of thinking—of making pie-in-the-sky resolutions that are nearly impossible to see through. But I have always loved this time of year as an opportunity for a reset, as the holiday craze starts to wind down, before we jump back into the flow of things. To me, it feels like a sacred pause, where I have a chance to reflect, to take stock, to regroup, to course correct. This year, perhaps more than any before, it feels so necessary.”
7. What Life Has Taught Me About Uncertainty. “In these uncertain times, there is so much we don’t know about the future. This can be terrifying and disorienting when so many terrible things are happening or threatening to happen in the world, but it can also be exciting. We don’t know what’s going to happen this year or next, and that means that so much is still possible. The path ahead is uncertain, and we don’t always have as much agency in the outcome as we’d like. Yet the future is not yet written. There are plenty of possible hereafters still left to create.”
16. A Changing Community and Lived Experiences Converge in Leroy Johnson’s Mixed-Media Houses. “From collaged and painted found materials merged with elements of photography and ceramics, Leroy Johnson (1937-2022) created an eclectic vision of life in his hometown of Philadelphia. Through layered, multi-dimensional portraits of houses, the artist represents loci of family life and community in conceptual assemblages that also confront racism, poverty, and gentrification.”
17. Queer Liberation Library (QLL) “is fighting to build a vibrant, flourishing queer future by connecting LGBTQ+ people with literature, information, and resources that celebrate the unique and empowering diversity of our community.”
20. Marieanne Cavaciuti on Instagram. “Handmade nature inspired Ceramic tiles and Airbnb at Coaxdon Farm in beautiful Devon countryside near Jurassic Coast, South West England.”
21. We may see it differently after they’re gone from Janelle Hanchett. “If you read anything about grief, trauma, and psychology, you’ll learn that the most complicated relationships with parents involve the most painful and complex and enduring grief. Because hope of the relationship ever changing is gone. We should probably read that again. The hope of the relationship ever becoming what you, as a yearning, innocent child needed, worked for, begged for, will never arrive. The curtain has closed. What we had is what we had. There is no tomorrow to hope for. It is, with all the fucking finality we can ever expect, exactly what it is.” So much this…
24. New Year’s Liberation Lists from The Wonder + The Haunting. “Ditch the goals to liberate your desires.” If you don’t read anything else off this list this week, read this one. It’s SO good.
25. And finally, this collection of things I saved to my phone this week.
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 