1. How Bisa Butler Went From Being a High School Art Teacher to an In-Demand Quilter. “We spoke with Butler about her whirlwind year, why finding success in her 40s has been a blessing, and how she recharges in stressful times.”

2. It’s Time to Defund the Causes of Suffering on Lion’s Roar. “Following the police killing of Daunte Wright in Minnesota, Constance Kassor examines how calls to defund the police can be linked to the Buddhist call to eradicate causes of suffering.”

3. Q: Why Blog? A: Blogs Are Great.

4. Poet Ross Gay Discusses How The Pandemic Has Given “The Book Of Delights” New Meaning.

5. Tressie McMillan Cottom on Angela Davis, Gwendolyn Brooks, and the Books She Re-Reads the Most.

6. Author Jenny Lawson Talks Humor, Depression, and the Underrated Virtue of Kindness.

7. Watercolorist Carries On Centuries-Old Tradition by Painting Ethereal Designs on Silk.

8. If You Find These 10 Things Overwhelming, You Might Be an HSP. In related news, Why Highly Sensitive People Are Attracted to Jobs That Burn Them Out.

9. A sign language performer, in the field of music, translates “Feeling good” by Nina Simone. (video) Make sure to turn the sound on.

10. What to do instead of calling the police. “These alternatives can help keep communities safe for everyone.”

11. LaDonna Allard Dies at 64; Led Dakota Pipeline Protests on The New York Times. “She started a resistance camp that turned into a movement that opposed fossil fuels while it embraced tribal sovereignty and environmental justice.”

12. After Growing Up In A Cult, Lauren Hough Freed Herself By Writing The Truth. In related news, Book Review: ‘Leaving Isn’t The Hardest Thing’ Isn’t Just A Cult Memoir.

13. The rare and unnerving reality of catching COVID after being vaccinated.

14. The Salvific Power of Writing Through Terrible Grief.

15. Moonlit Forests, Fish, and Branches Populate Kirie Silhouettes Cut from a Single Sheet of Paper.

16. Maslow Got It Wrong. “It’s time for us to let go of narratives like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the American Dream, which leave out any mention of participating in community well-being and tell a story only of individual flourishing. This is a profound distortion of reality and leaves us living in illusion, needing to wake up. As Daniel Suelo says in The Man Who Quit Money, ‘there’s not a creature or even a particle in the universe that’s self-sufficient. We’re all dependent on everybody else.'”

17. Flora and Fauna Intertwine in Delicate Mixed-Media Artworks by Teagan White.

18. There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing on The New York Times. “Languishing is a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield. And it might be the dominant emotion of 2021.”

19. There Can Only Be One: Battle Of The Joshes Brings Hundreds To Nebraska.

20. Prayers for India, a poem from bentlily. After you read this one, take some time looking around at her others. You won’t regret it, and if you do: why are we even friends?

1. Forget aging gracefully. Here’s how to age joyfully. “I’ve delved into the research on aging, and pulled out a few insights that can help us think about joyful ways to feel well as we grow older.”

2. Jobs to be done from Seth Godin, which says, among other things, “As soon as you sign up for a social network, it becomes a job to be done.”

3. So You’re Fully Vaccinated —Here Are 5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Traveling Anywhere.

4. 13 Things to Throw Away Right Now.

5. Good stuff from Austin Kleon: Exhausting dialogue and conversational shortcuts and A quilt made of days.

6. 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.”

7. Luxury Fashion Won’t End Fatphobia. “We can’t simply cloak fatphobia in beautiful fabrics or shop our way out of a widespread, deadly stigma. It’s great that Dunham has begun the baby steps of loving her newly larger body, but we can’t mistake her for the voice of fat liberation.” In related news, The Problem With Lena Dunham’s New Plus-Size Clothing Line Is Lena Dunham.

8. Poetry: Bruce Banner #3 by Kenyatta Rogers, and Nothing Wants to Suffer by Danusha Laméris, and New Address by Camille Dungy.

9. CDC declares racism ’a serious public health threat’. “Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, said the agency would take steps to address an issue affecting ‘the health of our entire nation.'”

10. Rachel Hollis’ Instagram is The Bad Place. “I wish to have a word with you about Rachel Hollis, toxic positivity, and women as a commodity.”

11. Oregon community raises over 400K to save family-owned amusement park. “As the economy slowly begins to pick up, many businesses are still facing a rocky year ahead. Special correspondent Cat Wise has a story about one family-owned business, an amusement park named Enchanted Forest, that has taken one hit after another but is hanging on with support from the community.”

12. Cute video of kids saying hilarious things.

13. Amber Glenn ice skating to Mary Lambert’s “Body Love.” (video)