Lisa Congdon | Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray)

1. Can We Gain Strength From Shame? Brene’ Brown on NPR.

2. What if forgiveness isn’t about forgiving? Thoughts on consciously relating to people who have hurt you. from Danielle LaPorte.

3. Danielle LaPorte Daily Truthbomb: “Forget about being impressive and commit to being real.”

4. Part of a community… from Seth Godin.

5. Shifting Tides by Dani Shapiro on Positively Positive.

6. A Letter From Fred by Green Shoe Studio, “A short documentary telling a poignant story of life, love and music.”

7. Wisdom from Elizabeth Berg on Facebook,

I just heard from a woman who was in my Chicago workshop. She greatly improved an essay she wrote by taking the risk to go deeper, then deeper still. She got to a truth she’d been hiding from, and it made all the difference. It was painful for her to write and to read aloud, but we all were stuck with the beauty of what she did, and even though we had not been through what she described, we resonated to her words. I think that’s because we’re all struggling with one thing or another here on planet Earth, and when we read about someone telling the truth about what they’re struggling with, it makes us all feel better. The Beatles were right when they said all you need is love. And I believe that part of love is telling the deepest truths about yourself, at least to yourself. It’s not easy. It’s something that for most of us is always a work in progress. But it’s worth it to try.

I get the image, sometimes, of all of humanity on a spaceship, in deepest darkness. But in the spaceship, the light is on, because of what we mean to and do for each other. And in that vast darkness, the light travels far.

8. Official video for Mary Lambert’s She Keeps Me Warm.

9. The perfectionism cure from Everyday Bright, “In this short video, I reveal the surprisingly simple method my daughter came up with to help us both overcome our perfectionism. I talk about how we eventually became comfortable with risk and, more importantly, with ourselves.”

10. 10 Times Calvin And Hobbes Broke Your Heart on BuzzFeed.

11. Ideaphoria: How to Enjoy The Wild Ride of Your Creativity on Scoutie Girl.

12. Got a big dream? Start with one room. from Alexandra Franzen.

13. How To Tell People What You Do — And Be Remembered on Forbes.

14. 6 Powerful Truths to Start Telling Yourself and 8 Things Unhappy People Refuse to Admit from Marc and Angel Hack Life.

15. The Five Languages of Body Love from Rachel Cole.

16. Chat & Chew with Kate Northrup – Money: A Love Story on KrisCarr TV.

17. Interview with Andrea Scher, by Carolan Deacon.

18. Unravel Yourself: Rachel W Cole on Inner Wisdom and Authenticity, an interview with Rachel on Achieve the Impossible.

19. Awesome free event from Omega: FIND YOUR OWN STRENGTH, Live Stream Event with Elizabeth Lesser in Conversation with Brené Brown and Joan Halifax Roshi, September 20, 2013, 8:00pm – 9:30pm.

20. Tig Notaro On Going ‘Live’ About Her Life on NPR, an older interview with one of my favorite comediennes. She’s coming to Boulder in December.

21. random thoughts: the need for analog on Chookooloonks.

22. Moments on Mystic Vixen, (it was her dog Henry I was talking about yesterday).

23. A Tiny Poem to the World from Kid President.

24. Rescued pit bull works as a therapy dog.

25. Read this, next time you want to give up on making a difference, from Marianne Elliott.

26. From Elephant Journal: The Cutest Damn Wedding Video, Ever, and “This is a young girl who wanted her picture taken with her makeshift hula hoop, playing at a dark & depressing charcoal factory in Manila. Hope is everywhere,” and Instructions for a Bad Day, and Eulogy for an Abandoned Black Dog.

27. The Last Séance by Deborah Thompson.

28. 20 Marriage Tips Everyone Needs to Know, written by a guy who just got divorced.

29. Why you shouldn’t be a writer by Rebecca Dickson.

30. 10 Ways to Create a Meaningful Ceremony from Pixie Campbell.

31. Wisdom from Elizabeth Gilbert on Facebook.

32. Ten Tough Truths About Cancer from the Atlantic.

33. From Happy Links on Rowdy Kittens, Where Bloggers Blog.

34. Bill Watterson’s Uplifting Advice To College Grads, Illustrated In ‘Calvin & Hobbes’ Style. on Huffington Post.

35. On Not Feeling Alone from Lisa Congdon.

36. Wisdom from Nancy D. Solomon, “You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.”

37. The Pursuit Of Bravery from Method & Scribe on Vimeo, (shared by Brave Love on Facebook).

38. From Susannah Conway’s Something for the Weekend list,

And,

40. Collaborating with a 4-year Old on the busy mockingbird.

41. “Downton Abbey” Season 4 Trailer Is Here! on BuzzFeed.

42. Into the Woods, a beautiful picture I saw on Reddit.

1. Before and After, a beautiful poem and image from Vivienne McMaster.

2. This quote from C.G. Jung, “The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.”

3. Be Cool & Don’t Be An Assh*le on Elephant Journal. I love this. At the entrance to my paid work office, I have two postcards. One says “Don’t be a jerk” and the other says “The time is now.”

4. We All Die and How I am Finally Becoming the Person I Betrayed at 19 from Girl on Fire.

5. The confrontation waiting to happen, wisdom from Seth Godin.

6. Andrea Scher’s start a foolish project on Jessica Swift’s blog, (Andrea’s new course, Start a Foolish Project, starts on July 1st, so there’s still time to register).

7. Speaking of foolish projects, this weird and wonderful ninja art installation I discovered on our morning walk. I have no idea what it means, but I give you “Plastic Animal Butts.”

8. Bryan Kest: A different kind of yoga teacher on The Examiner. This is the kind of yoga teacher I want, want to become. Just some of his wisdom shared in this article,

“Most people bring their shit to yoga and turn their yoga into shit.”

“Yoga is meant to free us from our agenda,” he explained, but most people bring their agenda to class. In yoga our body is talking to us. Most people aren’t listening because they’re trying to make the pose a certain way. Your job is to quiet your mind and figure out where you should be in the pose.”

“The only thing yoga will tell you is wake the f#?k up.”

9. The Practicality of Forgiveness from Create as Folk, pure wisdom from Laura Simms.

10. Validating your pain is the first step to getting stronger, wisdom from Danielle LaPorte.

11. The Best Foods To Help You Eat The Rainbow & Boost Your Energy on MindBodyGreen.

12. Make Me: Paper Patchwork Art on Decor8. I am itching to try this. As you may or may not know, I have an aunt who is an amazing fabric artist and I have a large collection of quilts, bordering on obsession, and yet I am not a seamstress myself, haven’t yet learned the art form — but scissors, glue and paper I could do.

13. Reasons to Avoid the Beach from Jason Good.

14. 6 Conversations You Need To Have With Yourself and 4 Reasons to Hold On a Little Longer from Marc and Angel Hack Life.

15. Spit & Polish: Romping with Laurie Wagner from Jennifer Louden. I’m registered for this workshop, knocking on wood and keeping my fingers crossed that everything works out and I get to go. These are two powerful, compassionate and wise teachers.

16. Everything you could want for a nuclear fallout from Kleenex to unappetizing cans of ‘multi-purpose food’: California couple discover perfectly preserved 1961 fallout shelter 15 feet below their backyard.

17. 15 “Summer Camp Style” Friendship Bracelets You Can Make Right Now. It doesn’t matter how old I get, I’m still a sucker for these.

18. The Unicorn: A Motel, A Metaphor + Meth from Feed Me Darling.

19. On Getting (and Using) Another Chance, an older post from Lisa Congdon that’s worth another look.

20. Some Fucking Writing Tips from Matt Haig, (obviously if you are bothered by the language in the title, do not read this post).

21. How I Got Fired from the Job I Invented from Turner Barr. Idea theft, intellectual property robbery at its worst.

22. 10 Vegan Foods Packed with Protein from One Green Planet.

23. Healthy Living: Part Two from Decor8.

24. 5 Of The Coolest And Most Powerful POV’S On The Block (And Why This Matters To Your Business) from Jac McNeil.

25. 344 Illustrated Flowcharts to Find Answers to Life’s Big Questions on Brain Pickings.

26. Amber Valletta: Blaze Your Own Trail on The Conversation.

27. A Better Way to Die: Bringing together medicine and spirituality for end-of-life care, shared by Patti Digh on her Thinking Thursday list.

28. Who to Fall in Love with First: 6 Ways to Love Yourself and 9 Ways You May Unwittingly Deprive Yourself of Love and Fulfillment on Tiny Buddha.

29. Living the Tiny Home Life: An Interview With Tammy Strobel on Mother Earth News.

30. This quote, shared by Positively Present Picks, “Now and then its good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy” ~Guillaume Apollinaire.