5. Recipes I want to try (because someone gave me a bunch of apples): Apple Pie Filling (I think it would be yummy spooned on top of a bowl of oatmeal) and Apple Fritter Sweet Rolls.
8. In the TED spotlight, “Some thoughts on a little talk, and a big idea” in which Wendy Mac of DrawTogether talks about how she “stood on that famous red dot and got to share my thoughts about why drawing is essential: how it slows us down, helps us pay attention, look closely and connect with one another.” She also shares a link to her talk.
11. Definitions of important mental health terms. Gaslighting, Love Bombing, The Guilt Trip, Negging, and Emotional Blackmail. Also a few slides about the mental impact of manipulation and how to deal with manipulative people.
21. Understanding Wise Hope by Roshi Joan Halifax. “This is a sacred time we are in, yes, a scary time for many, a terrible time for many, a powerful time of learning for many, and I feel it is important to see that our work on behalf of others is sacred work. I believe that wise hope is a medicine that keeps us showing up for this sacred work of meeting reality, moment after moment with the heart of a bodhisattva.”
This is my 500th Something Good list. FIVE HUNDREDTH. Five hundred weeks, about 9.5 years, I’ve spent scouring the internet for things to share with you here, things I didn’t want you to miss. When I post the link to my Facebook page each week, I caption it: “this week’s list of things worth reading, watching, listening to, contemplating, and sharing.”
Over the years, the content of my lists has shifted. At first, I needed cheering up, so I posted things that made me grateful, reminded me that there are good things and good people. In fact, when I look back at my very first list, I realize that where I started was actually a lot more like my Gratitude Friday posts. When the world started to get more complicated (#BLM, ICE, the climate crisis, the Trump years — i.e. “people behaving badly”), I got very sad and very angry, trying so hard to understand what was happening and what to do about it, and I think my lists reflected that.
Lately, even though the world has gotten even more terrifying and chaotic, the content has balanced out. Things like recipes I want to try, reading lists, amazing art and nature, cute animals and kids, and stuff about grief, mindfulness, and practice continue to be some of my favorite things to include. I post all the good stuff plus some hard stuff that’s worth knowing, but no longer share stuff that’s bad just because it’s bad.
I’m glad you are still here, kind and gentle reader. It makes me so happy to share these things with you. So here we go again, for the 500th time…
2. ‘America’s Oldest Park Ranger’ Is Only Her Latest Chapter on The New York Times. “Betty Reid Soskin has fought to ensure that American history includes the stories that get overlooked. As she turns 100, few stories have been more remarkable than hers.”
3. “The Writer You Are is Enough.” Ruth Ozeki on Process and Acceptance. “Ruth Ozeki’s A Book of Form and Emptiness is out today, so we spoke to her about professors she fell in love with, accessing the liminal fictional space in the early hours of the morning, and the best advice she’s ever received.”
5. Interview: The transformation of Greta Thunberg. “I didn’t have the courage to get friends. Now I have many, I really see the value of friendship. Apart from the climate, almost nothing else matters.”
6. Open Letter to Elena Brower. “The hardest part about this wasn’t never talking to you again, it was losing the community I thought I had while following you. When I shared my experience with others, I was uninvited to the club, friendships ended, people went silent. A few people even came to your defense, claiming you weren’t perfect and told me to accept it or move on. Others said, ‘She’s never been like that to me,’ and went on assisting your classes and supporting your work. I want to remind those of you who are reading this that just because you weren’t harmed doesn’t mean she isn’t capable of harm and shouldn’t be held accountable.”
7. How Not to Be an Invasive Species. “The descendants of settlers and immigrants can’t become Indigenous to the land where we live. But we can follow the models of coexistence.”
13. What About the Heroine’s Journey? on The New York Times. “The Harvard scholar Maria Tatar has made a career of studying fairy tales and folklore. Now she is taking aim at Joseph Campbell and showing us the women he left out of the story.”
20. Last Writes by Chris Bursk. “I am helping clean out my friend Sandy’s apartment after her suicide when I open an envelope addressed to me. There are five poems inside.”
22. Wisdom from Mindy Tsonas Choi, “Trying to heal, while trying to grieve, while trying to live, while trying to dream, while trying to create, while trying to love, while trying to be love, while trying not to try so hard.” *sigh* #same
23. Wisdom from Pema Chödrön, “Instead of asking ourselves, ‘How can I find security and happiness?’ we could ask ourselves, ‘Can I touch the center of my pain? Can I sit with suffering, both yours and mine, without trying to make it go away? Can I stay present to the ache of loss or disgrace—disappointment in all its many forms—and let it open me?'”
24. I am so fucking tired. “Parents like me passed their breaking point a long time ago. How will we ever return to normal?”
28. Revenge Bedtime Procrastination. “This is what happens when you don’t have anywhere to put your rage, your dissatisfaction, your deep sadness that this [waves hands wildly] might be every day, every week, every year for the rest of your life. “
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 