Category Archives: Something Good

Something Good

From my garden

1. Hummingbirds gather to take a bath in the morning. (video)

2. McClure Twins funniest moments. Seriously these two are so cute. (video)

3. “If you don’t yet know who Tiffany Haddish is, your life is about to change for the hilarious.” Girls Trip’s Tiffany Haddish is a comedic genius. This interview proves it. And in related news, Girls Trip Star Tiffany Haddish Is the Funniest Person Alive Right Now.

4. How Noosa founder creates unusual flavors.

5. Philadelphia Woman Turns Home Into Museum Honoring Black Women.

6. 43 Problems Every Curvy Girl Has Faced At Least Once In Their Life.

7. A new exhibit is Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s moving, elaborate farewell.

8. 100 Artists Were Invited to Paint an Entire School Before Its Renovation.

9. As Workouts Intensify, a Harmful Side Effect Grows More Common from The New York Times.

10. Issa Rae Masterfully Sums Up ‘Insecure’ In 4 Words: ‘It’s Very, Very Black.’ And so very, very good.

11. Recipes I want to try: Cheesy Garlic Bread, and Honey Mustard Chicken Salad.

12. Q&A with Camille T. Dungy. “Camille T. Dungy is the author of the new essay collection Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History. Her other books include Trophic Cascade and Smith Blue. She is a professor of creative writing at Colorado State University, and she lives in Fort Collins, Colorado.”

13. Cancer Doesn’t Choose Who Survives Based On How Hard Someone Fights.

14. 23 Times “The Office,” “Friends,” And “Parks And Rec” Actors Broke Character. Bloopers and Gag Reels are some of my most favorite things.

15. 10 Big, Divorce-Proofing Talks To Have Before Getting Married.

16. Fat Myths: Shutting Down BS with yoga sensation Jessamyn Stanley. This is from last year, but worth a listen. (video) In related news, this video.

17. The Shocking Ways Large Women Are Mistreated by Health-Care Providers. This has happened to every woman I know, regardless of size.

18. Q&A with Roxane Gay. In related news, Roxane Gay on the Traumas of the Body on The New York Times.

19. Scaredy cats. (video)

20. The Incredible Jessica James | Official Trailer | Netflix (video) Can’t wait for this. Looks so good. Here’s an interview with her about the film from The Root. (video)

21. A Wrinkle In Time Official US Teaser Trailer. (video) Something you might not know about me: my favorite story, plot, narrative is one where a young coming of age girl must save her family and/or the world. “A Wrinkle in Time” was one of my favorite books as a kid. Also Ava DuVernay is my favorite director.

22. Time to kill? These are the absolute best movies on Netflix. I don’t know if they are actually the best, but the list is worth a look.

23. Part 2: Plump with love from Andrea Scher.

24. This Twitter Account Is Renaming Everyday Objects And They’re More Accurate Than The Real Ones.

25. Eating Clean is Useless.

26. 4 Ways INFJs Can Create More Meaning in Their Lives.

27. Dumb Beauty, wisdom from Laurie Wagner. “It’s all so much dumb beauty.”

28. Stop Forcing Introverts to Speak in Class. There Are Better Ways.

29. Don’t Teach Kids How to Survive Police Encounters, Train Cops to Deescalate.

30. You don’t have to love your body.

31. Dear Rachel: Competing Hungers, wisdom from Rachel Cole.

32. Poetry, Politics, and Privilege, wisdom from Jena Schwartz.

33. Burg’s Place is fully funded! “Tomorrow I might not be so brave. But today? Today we celebrate.”

34. Wisdom from Jena Schwartz’s latest newsletter, (you really should sign up for it),

My point is this: You don’t have to be amazing. You don’t have to be anything but what you are. Your life is as full as a middle-aged woman after eating half a pint of Ben & Jerry’s (just a random example, I swear). Your ability to write for 10 minutes is as real and available to you as your toothbrush. You don’t have to have a point all planned out in advance. Take a snapshot of what’s right in front of you and tell us about it. Respond to a text or a early-morning message from a friend — with line breaks. PLAY. When you’re cooked and can’t handle one. more. thing… excuse yourself for an hour. Do what you need to do to come back to the fact that there is nothing wrong with you or your life. You are not too late.

35. What can help when you have lost a pet and are overwhelmed with grief?, wisdom from Susan Piver on her Ask Susan podcast.

36. White Fragility Leads to White Violence: Why Conversations About Race With White People Fall Apart.

Something Good

Chinese Garden, Portland, Oregon

1. Guilt-free Introverting: a roadmap for anyone who craves alone time from Be More With Less.

2. The Mindfulness of Pure Experience from Zen Habits.

3. Feed the Right Wolf, one of my favorite teachings from Pema Chödrön. In related news, a quote from Pema, “We have a choice. We can spend our whole life suffereing because we can’t relax with how things really are, or we can relax and embrace the open-endedness of the human situation, which is fresh, unfixated, and unbiased.”

4. Real Men Might Get Made Fun Of from Lindy West on The New Yorker.

I know there’s pressure not to be a dorky, try-hard male feminist stereotype; there’s always a looming implication that you could lose your spot in the club; if you seem opportunistic or performative in your support, if you suck up too much oxygen and demand praise, women will yell at you for that too. But I need you to absorb that risk. I need you to get yelled at and made fun of, a lot, and if you get kicked out of the club, I need you to be relieved, and I need you to help build a new one.

5. Without hope and without despair, wisdom from Austin Kleon, one of my favorite creative humans.

6. Dress For the Body I Have? Done! from Dances With Fat.

7. Everybody lies: how Google search reveals our darkest secrets.

8. On Being a Teacher by Susan Piver.

9. The Body Love Project {Ep. 030} Isabel Foxen Duke on Emotional Eating and Size Justice. (podcast)

10. Before You Go On a Diet, wisdom from Rachel Cole.

11. Wild Writing. Laurie has opened up her fall session of online classes! It really is one of the best things — this practice, this teacher.

12. Help Cheryl fight lung cancer. Cheryl’s daughter Chelsey is one of my good friends, is getting married in October (I’m officiating the ceremony), and her mom could really use some help. In Chelsey’s own words,

To those of you who do not know my Mother, let me give you a small glimpse. This woman is the most amazing woman I know. She is strong and kind and beautiful inside & out. To know me is to know I was raised by wonderful people. There isn’t anything my mom wouldn’t do for another person. She would never ask for help. So I am asking for her. My mother has unexpectedly been diagnosed with Stage 3 Lung Cancer. While there is nothing we can’t get through as a family this is going to be a very tough journey. She may not be able to work, but has been denied disability at her job. Treatments and tests are very expensive. She would like to try natural alternatives as well. Can everyone just gather up some change or dig into your wallet and spare as much as possible to help us out? Anything helps and it’s very much appreciated. Thank you.

13. Ordinary Days, by Tamara Bailie. (video) *sob* Everyone’s dog eventually dies. And yet, we keep loving them, keeping letting another one in. In related news, you can still donate to help create Burg’s Place.

14. So, You’re Having A Bad Writing Day, wisdom from Chuck Wendig on Terrible Minds.

15. 10 Kind, Thoughtful Things You Can Do For Your INFJ. In related news, 27 Things People Don’t Realize You’re Doing Because You’re a Highly Sensitive Person.

16. Old Habits Die Hard from Pia Jane Bijkerk. “Not feeling good enough feeds fear. Fear feeds our lifestyle choices. Our lifestyle choices feed banks and corporations. Banks and corporations feed war. War feeds fear. And so tells the story of our lives…”

17. Ancient Philosophers Reveal 4 Rituals That Will Make You Happier.

18. In search of enrollment from Seth Godin.

19. Humanae, a super cool photography project by Angélica Dass. “For this photo series, she captures examples of every skin color in the world in order to prove that there’s more diversity in the world than just the old black, white, red and yellow.”

20. Kids react to AC/DC. (video) This is so cute.

21. Reebok subtweets Donald Trump, internet goes wild. Oh, snap!

22. Sherman Alexie’s heartbreaking reason for pausing his book tour. I’m reading this book right now. So good.

23. The ‘Unlikely Hikers’ Instagram Shatters Stereotypes Of Outdoor Fitness.

24. The 20 Funniest Tweets From Women This Week. Last week’s list was good too. In related news, 27 Tweets That Will Make Women Piss Themselves Laughing.

25. How to Become a Buddhist – Ultra Spiritual Life episode 64. (video)

26. Cartoon from Yeah, It’s Chill. “The amount of times I’ve been told I’m being paranoid, exaggerating, or making up an experience is baffling.”

27. 11 Yoga Moves You Can Do at Your Desk.

28. Hair Love | Animated Short Film, a great Kickstarter project.

29. The Squirrel Whisperer. (video) Check out his Instagram account too for lots of great wildlife photos.

30. Recipes I’d like to try: Healthy Make Ahead Breakfast Cookies – 6 Ways, and Veggie Snacks, and Spinach Artichoke Stuffed Shells.

31. Rare Gray Wolf Pups Born in California. So cute.

32. The Blameless Burden: Scapegoating in Dysfunctional Families. “They need to punish the scapegoat for provoking by her very existence the discomfort family members are feeling that is actually a result of their own unresolved issues.”

33. The Painful and Liberating Practice of Facing My Own Racism.

34. If Roxane Gay’s vulnerabilities motivate, what could her strengths do? In related news, Roxane Gay: ‘If I was conventionally hot and had a slammin’ body, I would be president,’ and Roxane Gay’s Complicated “Hunger” from The New Yorker.

35. Fat Kid Dance Party Will Teach You to Love Your Body. (video)

36. Fat and Starving: My Battle with Anorexia.

37. 10+ Hilarious Pics That Show What Happens When You Leave Your Kids Alone.

38. Why We Need More ‘Hunger’ And Less ‘To The Bone.’

39. And Yet, Dogs Find Me. “‘Life,’ as George Carlin once mused, ‘is a series of dogs.’ In this excerpt from the new book The Dharma of Dogs, Zen teacher Roshi Joan Halifax recalls her good fortune with four-legged friends.”

40. Why You Can’t Ever Call an Enslaved Woman a “Mistress.” In related news, Historians Uncover Slave Quarters of Sally Hemings at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.

41. ‘She didn’t know what was real’: Did 10-day meditation retreat trigger woman’s suicide? Why meditation isn’t for everyone.

42. The Wellness Epidemic.

43. Dear White America — Can we please stop gaslighting our black friends and family??

44. 10 Great Reasons NOT to Copy Cesar Millan.

45. Two Saturday Morning Talks with Rachel Cole, “Self-Compassion & Sensitivity” and “Intuitive Eating,” complete with prompts and links to other resources.