1. Poetry: The Tetons Were Made By A Woman and Watch Watching and What The Glaciers Told Me and Rest Day and Summer ’87 by Julie Barton, Everyone Is Welcome Here and Deep Listening from James Crews, Ever Changing by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, and On Longing on bimblings by Josie George.
2. In the Bardo with My Mother, “On grief both personal and public” by Elissa Altman. *sigh*
3. Wisdom from Patti Digh: The gentlest of metrics and Healing is violent.
4. Halloween: A Chance to Dance with your Shadow by Gretchen Schmelzer. “The shadow was this sign that there was something else, something beautiful if I could find it…I need to see my shadow, befriend it, and by doing so, find my own beauty.”
5. 10 Things: Friends, Friends, Friendly Friends. “Each of the activities below can help you take a budding friendship to the next level, ensure your closest friends feel seen and prioritized, and generally encourage joy and community during a time when we need it more than ever.”
6. Papier-Mâché Masks Crafted by Liz Sexton Bring Animals to Human Scale.
7. There is something very wrong with the president.
8. This Is How We Rise: Feeding Each Other, One Shelf at a Time. “20 heart-led ways to help your community — even if you’re stretched thin on time or money.”
9. Good stuff from The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz: Dear Hateful White Christians, and How to Stay Alive When You Don’t Feel Like You Want To, and No, America is Not Cooked, and Looking for Hope? Try here, and The Demolition of the East Wing, and America, and Now That The Government Has Turned Tyrannical, What Happened to All the Second Amendment Conservatives?
10. Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards 2025 Finalists. In related news, Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
11. This Eerie 19-Year-Old Time-Travel Sci-Fi Series Is the Perfect Weekend Binge.
12. What the world teaches us from Seth Godin.
13. Here is a very specific thing you can do right now that will meet the moment quite nicely from Garrett Bucks on The White Pages.
So this is where we are at. Millions of humanity-loving bodies have been set in motion, but that’s not enough to quiet a million middle-of-the-night doubts. There is a very real chance that you have encountered somebody (perhaps from a distance, perhaps up close) whose voice and actions have filled you to bursting with joy and hope. And there is an equally likely chance that person is, quite frequently, exhausted and annoyed and wondering how long they can keep it up.
…
My greatest fear is not what the despots will do to us. It’s that we’ll give up. And that would be a tragedy, but it’s not irrational. The strongmen may have a predictable set of tools (brute force, austerity, propaganda), but they’re willing to use them with impunity. Their only plan is to break our spirits. And so, the work of the moment is simple. If you see anybody engaged in efforts that you value right now— hope-giving work, base building work, community care work— we need to shower them in gratitude and support.
14. brave enough to talk about sex from Brit (and Olivia) on Play is the Opposite of Survival Mode.
15. 1140’s Guide to Dystopian Literature.
16. Good stuff from Courtney Carver on Be More With Less: 8 Weird Ideas That Actually Help Calm Anxiety (When Nothing Else Works) and 10 Decluttering Rules That Make Letting Go So Much Easier.
17. On my own from Hugh Hollowell. *sigh* I miss my dad.
18. 50 Simple Ways to Make a Difference in Your Community.
19. This comic, the only thing I saved to my phone this week, (since I’m no longer on social media, which is interestingly the topic of the comic).
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 