Image by Eric
1. Wisdom from Jasmine Banks: “the thing about power when you’ve not done your internal/shadow work is that you’ll use that power to spread around your pain.” Do the work.
2. Enchanting Photos of Madeira’s Ancient Fanal Forest Filled With 500-Year-Old Trees.
3. 38 Easy Vegan Recipes You Can Make With A Can Of Beans. And for dessert, The Best Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe.
4. 22 Books Our Favorite Authors Are Turning To During Coronavirus.
5. “I don’t know what day of the week it is” song. “Danny Casale, coolman_coffeedan on Instagram, made this perfect animated song to summarize his experience of life under rona lockdown.”
6. We Need to Talk About What Coronavirus Recoveries Look Like on The New York Times.
7. Where does Weight Watchers fit into a “wellness” world? “A new book chronicles the life of Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch.”
8. Scottish Mum and Dad create an at-home restaurant experience for their two little boys. (video)
9. No, You Don’t Need To Disinfect Your Groceries. But Here’s How To Shop Safely. In related news, Need to make a mask? Ryan Haarer has tips (video), and What Dr. Fauci wants you to know about face masks and staying home as virus spreads — He consistently makes me feel informed without making me totally freak out.
10. People Are Misusing the Six Foot Rule to Continue Their Normal Routines.
11. Firework (Katy Perry ukulele cover by Danielle Ate the Sandwich).
12. Leslie Jordan Is the Breakout Star of Quarantine.
13. Prepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting.
“From one citizen to another, I beg of you: take a deep breath, ignore the deafening noise, and think deeply about what you want to put back into your life. This is our chance to define a new version of normal, a rare and truly sacred (yes, sacred) opportunity to get rid of the bullshit and to only bring back what works for us, what makes our lives richer, what makes our kids happier, what makes us truly proud.”
14. John Prine’s 15 Essential Songs on The New York Times. In related news, John Prine Tribute: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert.
15. Megan Giddings Explores the Hypervigilance of Black Women in “Lakewood.”
16. A Letter to My Students as We Face the Pandemic on The New York Times.
17. Louis CK has nothing to lose in his new comedy special, but you do. “There are glimmers of the wit, craft, and performance that made him who he was, but there’s also all too much of the other stuff that reminds us who he really is.”
18. Rescue Dog Maddy, Known For Balancing On Things, Travels Across The US With Her Owner.
19. Pandas mate in lockdown at Hong Kong zoo after ten years trying.
20. 84 Badass Trees That Refuse To Die No Matter What.
21. Coronavirusdiary #5: Of dirt, weeds, digging, and optimism on Rita’s Notebook.
“Last week I claimed to be an optimist, and I know that might seem at odds with resigning myself to a long haul of hard times. But I don’t think that optimism means having blind faith in good outcomes, or seeing only the bright side of every situation, or denying scary truths. A friend suggested to me this week that an optimist is a person who doesn’t believe in premature closure; in other words, an optimist is someone who, in the face of a challenge, remains open to new and different possibilities emerging from it. While they may see a place as dark and hard and wrong and broken, they don’t believe that’s the end of the story about that place.”
22. Call Paul, a new podcast from Paul Jarvis. “Let’s face it: Things are far from ‘business as usual.’ Paul Jarvis has thoughtful conversations with small business owners and entrepreneurs negotiating new economic realities from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
23. The unheard voices and You’re surrounded from Seth Godin. “This is a slog, and there will be another side. It is unevenly distributed, it’s a tragedy and it’s a challenge. But we’re in it together and with care and generosity, we can find perspective, possibility and hope.”
“Right now is the time to lower the bar. Right now is not the time to think that we are going to do things perfectly, that we’ll keep our addictive tendencies completely at bay, or that we’ll be doing yoga and green juice daily. This is not the time for that. I’m all about self-improvement, but not during a global pandemic, the likes of which our generation has never ever seen before. This is a time to be extraordinarily kind, compassionate and flexible with yourself. And listen, if you do need to escape through Netflix, if you do need to escape through eating popcorn for dinner this week (which I certainly have) that is okay right now.”
25. 27 Wildest Days from the glorious Laurie Wagner.
“For the next 30 days I’m giving away my newest 27 Wildest Days video series – something I am creating now, during the pandemic – and offering to anyone who would benefit from a writing practice. It’s 27 brand new videos that offer you a chance to create a daily writing practice on your own. Each day you’ll get a very short – under 10 minutes – video from me telling you something about Wild Writing, reading you a poem and giving you a couple of jump off lines. From there you will write on your own for 15 minutes. You don’t send me anything, it’s not a class, just a chance for you to lay it down and get real on the page.”
26. How to start and keep a journal during a pandemic (or any time of major upheaval).
27. A flock of 30 zines from Austin Kleon. “I made 30 zines in the first four weeks of our quarantine. Here they all are, with links to read them.”
28. Born to rewild: why now is the perfect time to make your lawn an eco-paradise.
29. Responses to COVID-19 Fatphobia from Dances with Fat.
30. LovingKindness Meditation from Adreanna Limbach.
“LovingKindness practice is a method of turning up the dial on the heart-qualities that we all possess, just by virtue of being human. It has the potential to make us more instinctively kind. Impulsively generous. Patient. Forgiving. Open. I would also add — for this specific moment in time — that it can make us feel more socially connected, even as we physically distance.”
31. Wisdom from Pema Chödrön: “Anxiety, heartbreak, and tenderness mark the in-between state. It’s the kind of place we usually want to avoid. The challenge is to stay in the middle rather than buy into struggle and complaint. The challenge is to let it soften us rather than make us more rigid and afraid. Becoming intimate with the queasy feeling of being in the middle of nowhere only makes our hearts more tender. When we are brave enough to stay in the middle, compassion arises spontaneously. By not knowing, not hoping to know, and not acting like we know what’s happening, we begin to access our inner strength.”
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 