Something Good

1. ‘Samurai Gourmet’ explores the art of the meal, a quirky little show Eric found on Netflix that I am now so in love with. #retirementgoals

2. Celebrate Poetry Month: 28 Breathtaking Poetry Books to Read Now. #NationalPoetryMonth

3. A guided reflection on bringing RAIN to difficulty, “Tara Brach discusses RAIN, a technique she frequently teaches to her students and also uses in her own life.”

4. Good stuff from Rachel Cole: What feeds me? and Feast: Your Self-Guided Journey toBecoming a Well-fed Woman — I did the group intensive version of this program, and it is life changing, worth every penny; this self-guided version gives the option of doing the program independently and self-paced for fewer pennies.

5. maybe just look from Karen Walrond on Chookooloonks.

I can’t help but notice that as time passes (and political leaders change, and cities get bombed, and police are needlessly violent, and civilians get hurt…), I find myself more and more cynical about everything going on around me. That cynicism, actually, is part of the reason that I continue to blog: taking photographs is how I keep myself from spiraling into terminal crankiness; I share them in the hope that it might help others to keep from doing the same.

6. Wisdom Susannah Conway’s latest Love Letter,

The other day somebody asked me why I do what I do — what’s the point of all this? And my short in-the-moment answer was that I teach people tools to help them to trust, know and express themselves better. Because here’s the thing: to be able to have any kind of impact in this world, on a micro or macro scale, we must first heal our own hurts, learn how to take impeccable care of our selves and live life as consciously as possible. We need a working vocabulary for our wants and needs, our feelings and fears, our shadows and our light. We need to be able to treat our selves with kindness and compassion so we know how to extend that to another. And as corny as it sounds, if we can be our own best friend — owning our flaws and faults as well as our strengths and brilliance — we stand a better chance of not polluting the world (or anyone in it) with our messes.

7. Journal prompts on Pinterest. And if that’s not enough, here’s a great post from Alexandra Franzen with tons of good ideas, Not sure what to write about?

8. It’s White America’s Job To Fight White Supremacism. This is a good article, but it seems to want to limit “white supremacism” to its extreme and violent manifestation, rather than recognize that it also exists in ways that seem very polite, institutionalized, and “normal.”

9. Fat in the era of Trump. “The resistance can’t just be limited to the protests we attend or the elected officials’ offices we call (all of which we must keep doing). We need to make a serious effort to love ourselves in spite of the deafening messages that we aren’t worthy of such a luxury.”

10. Meet The ‘Cucamelon,’ The Cutest Fruit You’ll Ever See. Seriously.

11. Minus18 on YouTube, “Australia’s largest youth-led organisation for same-sex attracted and gender diverse young people. This channel is run entirely by youth, aged 14-21, all the filming, editing and content is produced solely by us!” They have some really great content, including their Trans 101 series.

12. There Is No Perfect Life from Jena Schwartz. I know it might seem strange, but this is the sort of thing that cheers me right up. Don’t give me positive thinking, give me this every time — tell me the truth but then remind me it’s okay. It’s like that quote from Pema Chödrön, “None of us is ever OK, but we all get through everything just fine.”

13. The 20 Funniest Tweets From Women This Week.

14. 9 Bad Manager Mistakes That Make Good People Quit. I have a good boss, but I am face down in #1 on this list right now.

15. 21 Undeniable Signs That You’re an Introvert. You know, if there were still any question.

16. Why eating vegetarian may not be the most ethical diet.

17. Stop The Slaughterhouse on CSU’s Campus. First a football stadium, now this…

18. Weed Chef // 60 Second Docs.

19. Indonesia’s horse library. Like a bookmobile, only this one poops.

20. Melissa McCarthy’s Sean Spicer returns to SNL, dressed as the Easter Bunny, to explain Passover.

1. Practice Notes :: Open Heart. Strong Spine — A Recipe for True Compassion, pure wisdom from Adreanna Limbach.

2. Good stuff from Jena Schwartz: Mindfulness, Mad Milk, and Running Low on Dream, and No Mud, No Lotus.

3. People Living With More Than 2 Dogs, Post Your Pics Of What It’s Like.

4. Pepsi did a bad thing. Dear Pepsi, That Ad was a Gold in the Fail Olympics, and How to make Millennials hate you, The Pepsi Way, and Stephen Colbert Praises Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi Ad For 1 Single Reason, and Pepsi Co-opts Resistance Movement, Centers White Woman and Police to Sell Soda, and Actor in Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi Ad Reveals Most Extras Were Not from U.S and Didn’t Understand the Racial Issues. And, it wasn’t just Pepsi, 7 Shockingly Tone-Deaf Ads That Should Have Never Happened.

5. You Can Write At Any Age from Chuck Wendig.

6. Wisdom from Francis Weller,

For us to tolerate the rigors of the images, emotions, memories, and dreams that arise in times of grief, we need to fortify our inner ground. This is done through developing a practice that we sustain over time. Any form will do – writing, drawing, meditation, prayer, dance, or something else – as long as we continue to show up and maintain our effort. A practice offers ballast, something to help us hold steady in difficult times. This deepens our capacity to hold the vulnerable emotions surrounding loss without being overwhelmed by them.

7. Wisdom from Stephanie Saldana, (by way of A Design So Vast), “It will always be confusing to think that that which is terrible and that which is beautiful have the same materials to work with: the brick and mortar and earth and stars of our immediate world. There is that which can kill us, and that which will save us, and we live among them, struggling to discern our way through. And it is terrifying, my love. It has never stopped being terrifying.”

8. Wisdom from Brave Girls Club, “Sometimes all that you can do is wait for it to feel better, wait for a bad day to be over, wait for things to work themselves out. Sometimes you have done all that you can possibly do, and then you just have to wait.”

9. it’s a jungle in here on SF Girl by Bay. I love all this green.

10. If white America is in ‘crisis,’ what have black Americans been living through?

11. Don’t tell cancer patients what they could be doing to cure themselves. Everything about this. In related news, The Gift of Presence, The Perils of Advice.

12. Blissful Thinking. “Viral video superstar Rob Bliss conducts bold social experiments all over New York City to shine a light on society’s most messed up issues: Sex, prejudice, sexism, modern love, mental health and inequality. Comedic commentary, man on the street interviews.”

13. Why Growing Food is The Single Most Impactful Thing You Can Do in a Corrupt Political System. In related news, Fleet Farming? How One Group Wants to Turn Your Front Yard into a Full-Fledge Farm, and This area in Detroit is now America’s first 100% organic, self-sustainable neighborhood.

14. Library of Congress Digitizes 19th-Century Photos of Black Women Activists. “The Library of Congress recently digitized rare 19th-century photographs of African American women active in suffrage, civil rights, temperance, education, reform, and journalism.”

15. Things You Don’t Say to Anyone When You Live Alone and Things I Was Convinced Would Change My Whole Life–But Didn’t from Amy McCracken.

16. 47 Books You Should Add To Your Shelf, According To Poet Rupi Kaur.

17. Gloria Steinem And Chelsea Handler Said The One Thing Most White Feminists Are Reluctant To Hear.

Steinem replied, “What we forget is that disproportionately, women of color invented feminism.” She accented that sentiment with stats from her Ms. Magazine 1972 national poll, where over 60% of women of color supported feminism and women’s equality issues, while only thirty-something percent of white women supported it. “That’s why people were wrongly surprised by the vote in this election,” she added. “It’s condescending to say to make the movement inclusive; women of color are the movement and have always been the movement.”

18. Introvert’s Conundrum, a really great cartoon. If you have some time, check out the whole site — really good.

19. Interior Dept. agency changes website [banner image] from family visiting park to a giant pile of coal.

20. Reusable Eco-Friendly Bags. Yes, please. And while we are at it, how about some of this: This Eco Food Wrap Is Perfect For People Who Love The Environment.

21. Being an Ally in Government. “Imagine calling out your white male co-workers for not listening to women of color. Now imagine you work at the state Capitol.”

22. A Two-Spirit Explainer. “They’ve gone by a lot of names. They’ve endured colonialism and hatred. Now queer Native Americans—two spirits—are telling their own story.”

23. Awesomely Luvvie literally wrote her way to success.

24. Drag Queen Story Hour exposes kids to gender fluidity. This drag queen reads children stories to teach them about gender fluidity and tolerance.

25. We studied 827 police shootings. Here’s what we found.

26. Decide for yourself what’s beautiful.

27. ‘I Think It’s Hard To Be A Person’: Aimee Mann On Compassionate Songwriting.

28. Black Women Portrayed in Mainstream Media is Negative -Nicholle Kobi.

29. White supremacist asks Muslim lawyer why there is no ‘Christian ISIS,’ gets schooled.

30. College Student Creates A Mobile Directory Of 600 Books That Prioritize Diversity. Can’t wait until this is available for Android phones.

31. How to Listen When You Disagree: A Lesson from the Republican National Convention.

32. Elizabeth Alexander on How Great Artists Orient Themselves to Light of the World.

33. Who cut down the last tree? from Seth Godin. The article he links to, Easter’s End, is worth a read too — “In just a few centuries, the people of Easter Island wiped out their forest, drove their plants and animals to extinction, and saw their complex society spiral into chaos and cannibalism. Are we about to follow their lead?”

34. Recipe I want to try: Creamy Scalloped Potatoes With Kale.

35. This guy gets paid to wait in line for strangers. Admittedly, I’m bothered by the privilege that enables some people to have the sort of disposable income necessary to pay for this service, but I love that this guy saw the need and made something out of it for himself and his friends — this sort of privilege sucks, but he’s brilliant.