1. Creatures Fly and Swim through Lush Ecosystems in Kinetic Miniatures by Penny Thomson. The seal is amazing.

2. Octavia Butler: Visionary Fiction (2021). (podcast) “Octavia Butler’s alternate realities and ‘speculative fiction’ reveal striking, and often devastating parallels to the world we live in today. She was a deep observer of the human condition, perplexed and inspired by our propensity towards self-destruction. Butler was also fascinated by the cyclical nature of history, and often looked to the past when writing about the future. Along with her warning is her message of hope – a hope conjured by centuries of survival and persistence. For every society that perishes in her books comes a story of rebuilding, of repair.”

3. Finding enlightenment through sitting with discomfort. “Lama Rod Owens [one of my favorite teachers] teaches others the importance of mindfulness and focusing on all of their emotions.”

4. Cutest Koala Compilation of all time. (video) The cutest!

5. Could an afternoon nap really be better than sleeping more at night?

6. Raspberry Crumble Tart Bars, recipe from Smitten Kitchen.

7. The ‘Hedonistic Altruism’ of Plant-Based Meat on The New York Times. “Ethan Brown, the founder and C.E.O. of Beyond Meat, on his moral and environmental priorities.”

8. Creating a Culture of Slow: 8 Ways to Transform the Pace of your Home.

9. Wisdom from Rob Hopkins, “If we wait for governments, it will be too late. If we act as individuals it will be too little. But if we act as communities, it might be enough and it might be just in time.”

10. Peace from Anxiety: Hala Khouri, CTZN Podcast. “Hala Khouri, a brilliant yoga teacher and somatic counselor specializing in trauma joins us this week on CTZN podcast. She just wrote a book called Peace from Anxiety: Get Grounded, Build Resilient, Stay Connected Amidst the Chaos [I just ordered my copy] — which I would imagine is most people’s desire these days. This podcast about trauma and anxiety, but it is also about how we take care of ourselves and one another, how we navigate the chaos of this moment with creativity, and how we practice change in small and big ways.”

11. Solving for stress from Seth Godin. “Along the way, it seems as though we got confused about the best way to deal with the stress that comes from work and from the projects we work on.”

12. Everything I’ve Learned about Being a “Professional” Writer in One Post.

13. 20 Journaling Prompts to Get You Out of Your Head.

14. 7 Anxiety-Reducing Habits to Follow For Better Sleep, According to Psychologists.

15. Pandemic Prayers from Austin Kleon.

16. Vibrant Mushroom Arrangements Photographed by Jill Bliss.

17. Wisdom from Robin Wall Kimmerer, “Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the Earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.”

1. Finding Myself in the Garden on Lion’s Roar. “Valerie Brown returns to gardening to recover her broken spirit, and discovers what really grows in a garden is love.”

2. Wisdom from Alice O’Keeffe: “Even if we can’t escape its consequences, it is not too late to escape the mindset that brought us here.”

3. 25 Reasons Why You Should Write a Book (PDF) from Alexandra Franzen, written in support of her Tiny Book Course.

4. Wisdom from George Saunders by way of J Clement Wall’s most recent newsletter Something about kindness: “I recently heard author George Saunders in an interview talking about how to be a kind human in a cruel world. Saunders said that kindness is the only non-delusional response to the human condition. He said that we’re all in our own little flawed thinking machines, and when we see someone else in their flawed thinking machine, it seems crazy to start judging that person. ‘You might more reasonably say, ‘oh wow, you too.'”

5. How to Help Afganistan’s People Amid Taliban Control. In related news, How to Help Haiti Right Now.

6. 3 Reminders If You Don’t Have It All Figured Out by Courtney Carver on Be More With Less.

7. How We Get Hooked and How We Get Unhooked, one of my favorite teachings from one of my favorite teachers on Lion’s Roar. “Pema Chödrön on shenpa, or the urge, the hook, that triggers our habitual tendency to close down. We get hooked in that moment of tightening when we reach for relief. To get unhooked, we begin by recognizing that moment of unease and learn to relax in that moment.”

8. A sacrifice and a risk from Austin Kleon. Because this: “The sacrifice is that doing The Thing requires not doing everything else we might like to do, at least when we’re actually making The Thing…The risk is that The Thing just might not work — in Buber’s words, it will break, or it will break us.

9. Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID Vaccine Gets Full Approval From The FDA. In related news, Moderna Is About to Begin Trials for HIV Vaccine Based on COVID-19 Research.

10. Dr Natasha Larmie (@fatdoctoruk) on Instagram. A weight inclusive GP who has some important things to say about “diet talk, mental health, ED, medical abuse.”

11. Wisdom from Sharon Salzberg:

“When our efforts to help seem futile, we can trust that in another time and place there may be unexpected results. When we’re trying to address a problem, improve the state of the world, help a struggling friend, comfort a grieving child, it might all appear to be going nowhere.

Yet our actions are like planting seeds in the ground. We don’t know for sure when they will bear fruit, and what looks like failure may be a time of gestation. Our work toward the good can be sustained if we don’t harshly measure the success or failure of our actions by the immediate, and superficially apparent, results.

12. How Julia Alvarez Wrote Her Many Selves Into Existence.

13. How Ross Gay Finds Joy In The Smallest of ‘Delights’.

14. My Secret Weapon Against the Attention Economy. “When you reread the same poem over and over again, you stop scrolling along the surface and dive deep beneath it.”

15. Work Is a False Idol on The New York Times. “Work has become intolerable. Rest is resistance.”

16. On Being with Krista Tippett: Christine Runyan / What’s Happening in Our Nervous Systems? “Clinical psychologist Christine Runyan explains the physiological effects of a year of pandemic and social isolation — what’s happened at the level of stress response and nervous system, the literal mind-body connection. And she offers simple strategies to regain our fullest capacities for the world ahead.”

17. 5 Things You Can Do as an Introvert When You’re Feeling Lonely.

18. Wisdom from the Dalai Lama: “Please don’t think that compassion, love and tolerance only belong to religion. They belong to human life. From compassion we develop self-confidence; that brings inner strength, allowing us to act with transparency and candour. We can make this a peaceful century if we conduct ourselves in this way, if we cherish non-violence and concern for others’ well-being.”

19. Beating Burnout: Author Cait Donovan On The 5 Things You Should Do If You Are Experiencing Work Burnout.

20. Recipes I want to try: The Ultimate Fry Sauce and Slow-Roasted Tomatoes.

21. Hilary Mantel on How Writers Learn to Trust Themselves.

22. The Coronavirus Is Here Forever. This Is How We Live With It.

23. The Best of Tiny Love Stories on The New York Times. “These true stories, each no more than 100 words, pack a punch. We gathered 10 of the most powerful to give you a boost.”

24. An Anarchist Quaker’s Prayer to Soothe Anxiety. “What my therapist said when she closed her office because of coronavirus.”