1. Wild Writing Family with my dear friend and beloved teacher Laurie Wagner. “Over the course of our time together you will deepen your writing practice, becoming a better writer – someone who is more free on the page, and who is grounded in the sound of their own voice. You’ll be tethered to a practice that invites you to unmask yourself, tell the truth about your experiences – how you feel and what you’re longing for. Your Wild Writing pieces may get turned into poems, essays or blog posts – pieces you can share with your community. You’ll receive over 10 poems a month, you’ll get real time with me, as well as stay connected to our rich Wild Writing Facebook group.”

2. If you are having trouble reading… from Austin Kleon.

3. Sara Bareilles – A Safe Place to Land (Live at the Village) ft. John Legend. (video) So many songs take on a whole new meaning in light of COVID-19, and this is one of them.

4. How to Grow Your Own Produce From Kitchen Scraps. In related news, The 10 rules for freezing food.

5. ‘It Seemed Apocalyptic’ 40 Years Ago When Mount St. Helens Erupted. We lived in Oregon, and I can remember our cars getting covered in ash from the eruption.

6. Deer enjoy Japan’s cherry blossoms. (video)

7. Tatum the talking dog on Instagram is my favorite thing on the internet right now.

8. Ten practices for the liminal space. “How do we stay in this waiting place, when there is still so much we don’t know about what’s on the other side? How do we maintain our sense of well-being and not spiral into despair and fear when we don’t yet know when we can see our loved ones, gather with our communities, or send our kids back to school? Here are some of my thoughts about ways to sustain ourselves in the midst of liminal space.”

9. Ordering delivery? Here’s 6 tips on how to avoid coronavirus. (video)

10. Misinformation has consequences. In a pandemic, those consequences can be deadly. In related news, Colorado suspends license of Castle Rock restaurant that defied coronavirus public health order.

1. A situation vs a slog from Seth Godin.

2. Good stuff from Dances with Fat: International No Diet Day And The Life I Could Have Had and When Celebrities Lose Weight, because this:

…while people – including celebrities – can do whatever they want with their bodies, their choices have meaning and consequences. And choosing to participate in intentional weight loss, or to celebrate weight loss of any kind, supports weight stigma and perpetuates eating disorders by promoting the idea that a thin(ner) body is a better/more attractive/healthier body, which is at the root of fatphobia.

3. Judith Butler: Mourning Is a Political Act Amid the Pandemic and Its Disparities.

4. ‘Heads we win, tails you lose’: how America’s rich have turned pandemic into profit. The things that are “wrong” now, “happening” now, were actually already wrong and happening, it’s just that this crisis is highlighting it. It’s so simple: we have to do better or none of us will survive what’s coming, not even those sitting on a pile of money.

5. After the deaths, holiness from Rabbi Rachel Barenblat.

6. 10 Life Lessons Learned From a Decade of Blogging from Be More With Less.

7. ‘Double-Rainbow Guy’, Paul L. Vasquez, Dead at 57, most likely from COVID-19. “Yosemite, California, man became an early 2010s internet sensation with his ecstatic nature video.”

8. Castle Rock restaurant reopens to Mother’s Day crowds in defiance of statewide public health order. This is TERRIFYING. You hear how “we are all in this together” or “this virus is the great equalizer,” when clearly that’s not the case. There are both economic disparities and racial divides that mean some people are suffering more, have lost more, and are at more risk. This restaurant opening against orders, the people flooding in, smushed in there together with no one wearing masks, makes me realize we are experiencing this in very different ways, and there’s a large number of people who don’t take it seriously at all, some who even think it’s a hoax or that we are overreacting, that it is “just like the flu” and that the risk to them is small. This is what willful ignorance looks like, and sadly these people aren’t just harming themselves. The choices we all make have consequences, and some outcomes cause harm to others, even as those others are doing everything they can to manage their risk. Either you are helping or harming, and it’s clear the choice these people made. I suppose they most likely watched and believed this: Seen ‘Plandemic’? We Take A Close Look At The Viral Conspiracy Video’s Claims. They should have read this instead: The Risks – Know Them – Avoid Them.

9. An 11-Year-Old Girl Writes To Thank Her Mailman. Postal Workers Write Back.

10. Not everything will be okay (but some things will) from Austin Kleon.

11. Write = right? from Paul Jarvis.

12. How ‘Anticipatory Grief’ May Show Up During the COVID-19 Outbreak. “There’s a lot to be grieving right now with the recent COVID-19 outbreak. There’s a collective loss of normalcy, and for many of us, we’ve lost a sense of connection, routine, and certainty about the future. Some of us have already lost jobs and even loved ones. And most, if not all of us, have a lingering sense that more loss is still to come. That sense of fearful anticipation is called ‘anticipatory grief,’ and it can be a doozy.”

13. Here are the top 10 coronavirus safety tips for groceries. (video) Most of these tips are related to actually going in the store to pick and pay for your own groceries.

14. hi.this.is.tatum, a hilarious video compilation, a dog talking in the funniest voice.

15. Workers Are No Longer Heroes, Kroger Concludes. This is so disappointing.

16. Mom Shares 30 Times Her 6-Year-Old Boy Cleverly Stalled Her With Questions Before Bedtime.

17. 10 Books Recommended by Pulitzer Prize Winners.

18. Meet Magnolia, Gerber’s New Spokesbaby.

19. Comedy Clubs Are Closed, So To Reach Audiences, Comics Have To Improvise.

20. Two penguins at the Oregon Zoo, Nacho and Goat, went for a hike earlier this week. (video)

21. Fuck the Bread. The Bread Is Over.

22. Mom forgot to give her adorable son a kiss before she left for work. (video)

23. They are the most popular mariachi on TikTok. (video)

24. Nikole Hannah-Jones, Creator of the New York Times’ 1619 Project, Awarded 2020 Pulitzer Prize. In related news, ‘This American Life,’ Now a Pulitzer Winner, Is Once More a Pioneer on The New York Times. “This week, the venerable radio show and podcast received the first Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting.”

25. Susan Piver: Buddhist Wisdom to Meet the Challenge of the Pandemic on Economics & Beyond with Rob Johnson podcast. “Susan Piver—a writer on meditation and Buddhist teachings and founder of the Open Heart Project—talks to Rob about how Buddhist ideas of being grounded in the present can help us get through the uncertain times of this pandemic.”

26. Grocery Worker [of 32 years] Has Never Seen Shelves Being Emptied Like This.

27. The morgue worker who buys a daffodil for each body bag. May she continue to be safe and well.

28. 13 Ways To Stop Your Glasses From Fogging Up While Wearing A Face Mask.

29. Yoga alone, together. “The rise of at-home fitness made Yoga With Adriene a YouTube sensation. Then the pandemic hit.”

30. Humorist Lightens Depression’s Darkness By Talking (And Laughing) About It.

31. More interviews with poets by Laurie Wagner: Marie Howe and Lauren Fleshman.