1. Staying Alive: Mary Oliver on How Books Saved Her Life and Why the Passion for Work Is the Greatest Antidote to Pain. “I read the way a person might swim, to save his or her life. I wrote that way too.”
2. Guilt-Free Diet. “The cake won’t be gluten-free or grain-free, but it will be guilt-free, because I am choosing for it to be so. This indulgence will come free of taxes and punishments. It will be made by my hands and eaten by our mouths. This alone, is magic.”
3. 16 Books You Should Read This November.
4. Sabrina Benaim reading “Explaining My Depression to My Mother” on Button Poetry. Word.
5. Good stuff from Chuck Wendig: Dearest Deplorables (on Trump) and NaNoWriMo Pep Talk: The Pure Fucking Joy Of Getting It All Wrong (on writing).
6. So much good stuff from Lion’s Roar: 5 Reasons to Meditate, and Why We Meditate, and True Stories About Sitting Meditation, and Trust in Your Goodness, and A visit to MNDFL, NYC’s new, high-profile meditation space. The November 2016 issue is really helping me get through this election season too, as it “features Buddhist wisdom that offers hope and healing for the troubled times our world is experiencing.”
7. Savor with Rachel Cole, one of my favorite things about the holiday season.
8. The Holiday Decluttering Guide to make room for more Comfort and Joy from Courtney Carver, another great resource for making it gently and sanely through the holiday season.
9. You Don’t Outgrow the Effects of an Alcoholic Parent. I don’t like the title of this so much because it implies that these are struggles you are stuck with. And yet, with effort, awareness, practice, study, support, and therapy, any childhood legacy is workable. In fact, it seems like that’s part of the deal being human — working through whatever lingers from your childhood experience, letting go of what no longer serves you, and becoming a healthy, wise, compassionate adult.
10. 10 Things I’ve Learned About Gaslighting As An Abuse Tactic.
11. #NoDAPL: Updates, resources, and reflections. In related news, Meet The Young People Standing Up Against The Dakota Access Pipeline, and Keeping It in the Ground, and United Nations Comes to Standing Rock, and Stand With Us, and The Dakota Access Pipeline: A Legal Environmental Justice Perspective, and Native American Woman Speaks Out About DAPL Arrest, and Love & Hugs for Standing Rock #NoDAPL, and “We’re Not Protesters, We Are Land Protectors,” and a new Where the Heck is Matt? video, which he captions this way,
In a few days, when this is all over, can we have a big conversation about empathy, what it means, why it’s important, and how to tell when someone is incapable of feeling it? Can we also talk about how those folks don’t make very good leaders and how we can make sure this never ever happens again? Okay, thanks.
12. What Is Black America To Do When The Obamas Leave Us?
13. Eventually, You Write Your Own Story. When our heroes become real people.
14. Every Company Should Offer Mental Health Days. Word. Although, I’ve always said that paid sick days can be used for “I’m sick of this shit” days.
15. 15 Simple Ways to Spread Happiness and Kindness Around You.
16. At Last, a Black History Museum. I know I’m a nerd because right now my dream vacation would be two months off to travel around the US and see all the amazing museums we have.
17. She Lives In The Oldest Mall In America After 48 Abandoned Shops Are Transformed Into Homes. I love these projects so much more than the ones where they demolish a whole neighborhood of old houses to build a mall, or more dorms or another parking lot on a university campus.
18. 4/30 Poems in November: No from Jena Schwartz. This one is worth memorizing.
19. Death to the Stock Photo, a really cool project for writers and photographers.
20. If Donald Trump wins on Tuesday, I don’t know what I’m more scared of, a list.
21. Why I work remotely (hint: it has nothing to do with productivity).
22. The Fantastic Ursula K. Le Guin, “The literary mainstream once relegated her work to the margins. Then she transformed the mainstream.”
23. No need to reply. Such a great idea.
24. Wisdom from Jiddu Krishnamurti, “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
25. ‘Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party’: TV’s Oddest Couple Talk Fried Chicken, Fat Doobies and Funyuns. Here’s a trailer for the show.
26. Food Psych #76: Healthy Eating vs. Competent Eating with Dana Sturtevant, a podcast about intuitive eating, body image, eating disorder recovery, and Health at Every Size®.
27. The Way to Finding Powerful Human Connection from Zen Habits.
28. The Messy Truth, a new show from Van Jones. He visited people who are voting for Trump and had a conversation with them, even though he’s “Left, to the other side of Pluto.”
29. Therapists Say This Election Is Traumatizing Women. No kidding. In related news, ‘I Love You, But…’: What Your Trump Vote Tells My Family, and Letter to My Future President.
30. Words for the Year, a site where they post “one poem, quote or art selection each day.”
31. From Medium to Book Deal in 12 Months. It’s the dream, isn’t it? I’m just over here writing away and someone sends a message, “hey, saw what you were doing — wanna write a book?” It can happen.
32. Review: ‘13TH,’ the Journey From Shackles to Prison Bars. I watched this finally yesterday. So good, “a powerful cinematic call to conscience.” With the elections in just a few days, the last 20 minutes were so hard to watch, but that’s what the best documentaries do: they make you uncomfortable.
33. How To Hygge (Or: 29 Ways To Actually Enjoy Winter).
34. Neighbours come together to stand against homophobia. “When a couple has their rainbow flag stolen and their house egged, this neighbourhood came together and showed homophobia isn’t welcome in their street!”
35. Recipes I want to try: Cinnamon Roll Apple Pie, and Caramel Apple Upside-Down Cake, and One-Pan Autumn Chicken & Veggie Bake, and Baked Fruit & Veggie Chips 4 Ways.
36. Does ‘Decoded’ Hate White People? “Acknowledging racism doesn’t mean that you hate white people: hosted by Franchesca “Chescaleigh” Ramsey.”
37. We’re all in this together. *sob*
38. The Big Quiet Meditation Flash Mob At World Trade Center. “Hundreds of people formed a flashmob to sit quietly and meditate.” This is so great.
40. Unlikely friendship. “The touching friendship between this 4-year-old girl and an 82-year-old man teaches us that age is just a number.”
41. The best thing to say to someone going through a hard time.
42. Loving Kindness Meditation for the United States of America with Susan Piver and Lodro Rinzler, November 9, 2016 12:00 PM EST. In related news, Love in the Time of Crankiness, Part One and Part Two.
43. If Congress was your co-worker.
44. Weight Watchers Is Back With New Nonsense.
More and more people are realizing that neither our body size nor our health are completely within our control, that we can love the bodies we have, and choose how/if we focus on our wellbeing. More and more people are realizing that diets don’t work and that we can create and pursue health and wellness goals that don’t include trying to manipulate our body size — or consider that to be a goal worth celebrating, or even talking about.
45. Papercuts: A Party Game for the Rude and Well-Read on Kickstarter.
46. This Guy Gets Paid to Cuddle Strangers.
47. ‘I just wanted to show a sign.’ Self-proclaimed Republican anti-Trump protester, Austyn Crites, relives the violent attack he suffered at Trump’s Nevada rally. In related news, End this misogynistic horror show. Put Hillary Clinton in the White House by Barbara Kingsolver, and Stopping Donald Trump could be essential to the well-being of many Americans, including my family and me — and this is not a game, and if that doesn’t convince you, this song from Jenifer Lewis — Get Your Ass Out and Vote. And, you might not know this about me, but I love a good flash mob, Official “Pantsuit Power” Flash Mob for Hillary.
48. This abandoned little hippo was so sad — until he made a new best friend. These two are SO cute.
49. Iron and Wine – Wild Horses. This. I can’t even…
