Category Archives: Something Good

Something Good

From our walk

1. Building a Mindful New Year, a FREE online program with “6 Transcendent Themes / 6 Buddhist Teachers / 6 Meditations to Guide You into 2020.”

2. Eat to Love e-course. “A six-week online program based on the bestselling book Eat to Love: A Mindful Guide to Transforming Your Relationship with Food, Body, and Life. Led by nutrition therapist, meditation instructor, and certified Intuitive Eating counselor, Jenna Hollenstein, the Eat to Love e-course is a supportive and enriching environment to change your relationship with food and your body in a lasting way.”

3. Go, Dog, Go from Jena Schwartz. Because this, “The world will not crumble if you pause. The world will not crumble if I pause. The world will not crumble if the thing you are working on takes much, much longer than you ever could have imagined. But the world might crumble if you ignore what your soul is telling you, if you deny what your body needs, and if you override the deep knowing that never, ever leaves.”

4. Jillian Michaels Is Still Trying to Glamorize Bullying from Dances with Fat. “Fat people being allowed to exist, be happy, do stuff, live our lives, achieve things, be in the spotlight etc. aren’t ‘glamorizing fatness’ we’re just being happy, doing stuff, living our lives, achieving things, and being in the spotlight…There is no way to go ‘too far’ in the direction of people being treated with respect and equality regardless of size.” Also from Ragen, Fat People and Your Tax Dollars.

5. Manifest 2020 with Andrea Scher. “The New Year has always been such a rich time of reflection – a time to acknowledge how you grew this year, how you were brave, what was hard…and declare your year complete. This creates a beautiful space to vision what is to come. What if you could name your dreams and desires for 2020 and create a plan to make them reality?”

6. Read the Articles of Impeachment Against President Trump on The New York Times.

7. Merriam-Webster dictionary just announced the personal pronoun ‘they’ as 2019’s word of the year.

8. You’re Not Going Crazy: 15 Signs You’re a Victim of Gaslighting.

9. The Practice of Using December for Retreat, Reflection & Letting Go.

10. Good things from Susannah Conway: The Unraveled Heart, “a soulful monthly subscription to support you in building a deeper and more nourishing relationship with your self,” Find Your Word, “a FREE 5-day email course to help you figure out your word for the coming year,” and Unravel Your Year, a FREE workbook that helps you reflect and look ahead.

11. How the director of ‘Waves’ constructed one of the year’s most poignant soundtracks.

12. More reading lists! The Ultimate Best Books of 2019 List, and A 2020 reading challenge: 52 books by women of color in 52 weeks, and We read these 29 books in 2019. You should too, and The Best Reviewed Books of 2019: Memoir and Biography, and The Best Poetry Books of 2019.

13. Hey Yoga Teacher, Stop Touching People For No Reason.

14. Greta Asks Media to Focus on Other Young Climate Activists.

15. Fossil fuel companies responsible for more than half of ocean acidification, study says. “It certainly can’t hurt for individuals to try to limit their consumption of fossil fuels and other products that are the result of oil — things like single-use plastics, for instance. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that even with all of the consumption of these products that we are responsible for, the majority of the burden still lies with the companies that have chosen to continue extract, refine and peddle fossil fuels despite being armed with knowledge well in advance that doing so would damage the planet. No harm will come from reducing your own reliance on fossil fuels and related products — but more good will come from holding the real culprits responsible for their actions.”

16. Have you swept your rhino today? (video)

17. Weinstein and His Accusers Reach Tentative $25 Million Deal on The New York Times.

18. This is what an antiracist America would look like. How do we get there? “Opposing racism is not the same as building an antiracist society. Our new series, Antiracism and America, looks at the structures that sustain a racist society – and how we dismantle them.”

19. This app matches marginalized communities to therapists who share their background. “Teletherapy app Ayana matches users to licensed professionals based on their culture, race, and experiences. Can it help close the mental healthcare gap?”

20. We need to learn how to relax, without guilt. “Being busy all the time is part of the way we live. But, whether gardening, reading or spacing out on the sofa, taking time to rest is just as important.”

21. These Students Want to Create a Required K-12 Racial Literacy Curriculum. “The teen authors of Tell Me Who You Are want to change how American students are taught about race.”

22. Gifts For Writers 2019 from Chuck Wendig on Terrible Minds.

23. 21 Day Meditation Challenge Winter 2020. “A 21-Day Immersion in Wisdom, Compassion, and Community.”

24. Home: a 30 Day Yoga Journey with Yoga with Adriene.

25. How a denial of tenure at Harvard became a national controversy. “The decision is a blow to ethnic studies departments everywhere.”

26. Judiciary Committee Report Argues Trump ‘Betrayed the Nation’ on The New York Times. “The 658-page report asserts that President Trump should be impeached for abusing his office and obstructing the congressional inquiry into his actions.”

27. 99 Good News Stories You Probably Didn’t Hear About in 2019.

28. Hallmark Apologizes, Reverses Decision on Same-Sex Wedding Ad.

29. Most Women You Know Are Angry — and That’s All Right. This article is a few years old, but I feel like some people need reminding.

30. Experience: a burglar made me think I was losing my mind. “Things were going missing, but everybody told me it was probably nothing.” Something similar happened to me, although as far as I know nothing was taken. I’d come home and sometimes the inside of our house smelled like cigarettes, and someone kept tying all my shoes in my closet when I always put them away untied. One time I went home early from work because I was so sure someone had been in our house and I needed to go check. It made me feel crazy. After we moved out, we found out the maintenance man regularly went into people’s apartments when they weren’t there, without permission. He was a smoker.

31. Author Interview: ‘Imagine Pleasant Nonsense’ With ‘Strange Planet’ Creator Nathan Pyle.

32. ‘I Refuse to Listen to White Women Cry.’ “Activist Rachel Cargle has built a brand — and a business — by calling out racial injustices within feminism.”

33. Joe Hammond’s final article: ‘I’ve been saying goodbye to my family for two years.’ “Last year the author wrote about parenting with motor neurone disease. Here, he reflects on the end of life, before his death two weeks ago.”

34. Melania Trump Thinks Greta Thunberg Had POTUS Attack Coming.

35. Cards to Help Fat Patients at the Doctor’s Office – English and French Versions from Dances with Fat.

36. Fresh Air on NPR: What Happens To The Stuff You Donate?

37. For the Holidays, the Gift of Self-Care on The New York Times. “A Buddhist teacher offers five simple steps to quiet your mind and soothe your stress any time of year.”

38. Adorable doggo sneaks into the house next door to join their kids’ bath every night.

Something Good

Image by Eric

1. 21 Day Meditation Challenge Winter 2020. “A 21-Day Immersion in Wisdom, Compassion, and Community” hosted by Susan Piver.

2. The attention crisis is real from Seth Godin.

3. How To Stop Ruining The Holidays For Fat Friends and Family from Dances with Fat.

4. Introversion Is Not A Character Flaw, So Stop Treating It As One.

5. Hula Is More Than a Dance—It’s the ‘Heartbeat’ of the Hawaiian People, a short National Geographic film.

6. Is it okay to deface books for art? from Austin Kleon.

7. Here’s What Each Introverted Myers-Briggs Type Really Wants In Life. This is scarily accurate for me: “Because what an INFJ really wants in life is for their ideas to matter. They want to make a difference [in the lives of individual people], but they want it to change how things work — the cause, not just the symptom.”

8. The Oracle of Black Friday, a recent newsletter from Meghan Genge in which she includes this awesome set of contemplations:

Answer these questions before you buy anything:

  1. What – beyond the obvious – does this thing promise me?
  2. What does that mean I actually want more of in my own life?
  3. What do I feel when I think about owning this/ having this/ embodying this?
  4. So what does that mean I want to feel more of in my life?
  5. What can I do right now to help create more of what I want to feel/ have more of in my life?

9. Buddhism by the Numbers from Lion’s Roar. “Buddhism is full of lists and numbers. Find explanations of some of the most important of these, how they connect, and why they’re important.” I love this SO much.

10. Knives Out Trailer #1 (2019) | Movieclips Trailers. Eric and I saw this yesterday, and it was really good. In related news, Review: ‘Knives Out,’ A Classic Comic Mystery Of Uncommon Sharpness.

11. The Art of Activism: Hard Conversations Book Club 2020. It only costs $5 and if you go to the sign up page, you get the reading list for free. “I am going into my 17th year of running book clubs about diversity and inclusion issues, including the Hard Conversations Book Club which meets monthly by teleconference. I would love to have you join us for the New Year. It’s only $5 a year to join and you will be challenged by the books chosen for the year in ways you might not have imagined yet. Reading in community deepens everyone’s understanding.”

12. In ‘Children Of Virtue And Vengeance,’ Magic Has Returned. Now What?

13. A Single Dose Of Ketamine Might Help Heavy Drinkers, Study Finds.

14. ‘63 Up’ Review: Time Keeps on Slippin’, Slippin’, Slippin’ on The New York Times. “Michael Apted revisits the people who have grown up, and grown older, in this long-running, landmark documentary series.”

15. Witness in Hard Rock Hotel Collapse Is Deported on The New York Times. “A construction worker who became a witness in a federal safety investigation into lapses at the New Orleans construction site was deported to his native Honduras.”

16. 6 Ways My Parents Unintentionally Taught Me Disordered Eating.

17. ‘Holiday Rush’ Trailer: New Netflix Holiday Film Features A Black Cast.

18. [SPOILER] Let’s Talk About The Ending Of ‘Queen & Slim’: An Artful Wound With No Medicine [REVIEW].

19. It’s a Terrible Day in the Neighborhood, and That’s O.K. on The New York Times. “Fred Rogers’s belief that we should validate emotions, not suppress them, is wisdom for all ages.”

20. The Modern Life of Origami, an Art as Old as Paper on The New York Times. “Precision is key, whether folding a humble crane or an interlocking modular structure. So is enthusiasm.”

21. 30 Best Podcasts Of 2019 You Need To Listen To Before The Year Is Through.

22. The Horrible History of Thanksgiving on The New York Times.

23. This dog has been keeping a secret, and it’s the cutest thing you’ll discover today! (video)

24. 2-Year-Old Girl Falls In Love With Sick Shelter Pittie. (video)

25. As a Native American Comedian, I wasn’t mad at the SNL Thanksgiving Sketch, I was just disappointed.

26. 5 Things T.I. Got Wrong in His ‘Red Table Talk’ Conversation With Jada Pinkett Smith.

27. Scientists Are Baffled By An 18,000-Year-Old ‘Wolf-Dog’ Puppy Found Frozen In Siberia.

28. People Are Sharing The Best Things They Learned In Therapy So That Everyone Could Get Some Free Therapy In 30 Helpful Tweets.

29. Beware of the feel-good news story. “Begging for sick days and walking 20 miles to work are not tales of inspiration. They are societal failures.”

30. The 1619 Project to Become Multi-Book Series. “The extensive project that marked the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Virginia will be expanded into several books, including a graphic novel.”

31. This college football player took the field with his dogs on Senior Night after losing both of his parents. (video)

32. The best books of 2019 – picked by the year’s best writers.

33. ‘Pilates-changed-my-life’ stories are annoying… but it did.