Something Good

1. The do over from Seth Godin.

2. Living Tiny by Emily Harger on Narratively.

4. Stephen Colbert, Tim Cook, George W. Bush crack jokes for Class of 2015.

5. Body image hero Brittany Gibbons gives us her formula for self-love.

Dear Courageous Girl,

The hardest decisions in life are the decisions that start with two good answers. Choosing between two or more good things is one of the hardest things we will ever have to do.

This is what sacrifice is. This is where the richest rewards are, because we are not REALLY choosing between what is good and what is good. We are choosing between what is good and what is BEST for our lives.

Stay where the BEST things area, even if you have to walk away from some really good things once in a while. And never forget that the simple, small things in life are very often the best — better than the shiny, fancy, and ‘popular’ things; and that it’s completely okay to walk away from everything that the world tells you will bring you happiness, and towards small, simple, and good things that others usually just walk right past. That’s where the magic is, friends.

Choose the best for YOU.

You are beloved.

xoxo

7. Wisdom from Tara Brach,

Grieving loss consciously is at the center of the spiritual path. In small and great ways, each of our losses links us to what we love. It is natural that we will seek to manage the pain of separation in whatever way we can. Yet as we awaken, we can allow our sorrow to remain faithful to itself. We can willingly surrender into the grieving. By honoring what has passed away, we are free to love the life that is here.

8. Grief is Hard Work from Kira Elliott.

9. This Man Filmed His Dog Every Day. The Reason? You’ll Be Heartbroken. We don’t know how long any of them, any of us will live. We should love each other like this all the time.

10. Practice: Embodying Your Curvy + Beloved Body. The next session starts June 8th.

11. Nonconformity and the Creative Life from Shots of Awe.

12. Women Turn Tables on Online Harassers.

13. These 25 Examples of Male Privilege from a Trans Guy’s Perspective Really Prove the Point.

14. More good stuff from Justine, on her blog Allowing Myself (which you should be reading!): Just Give In and Nap, and Travel Journal, and Day In The Life, and Bathroom Cabinet Magic.

15. Amy Schumer Takes On The Bill Cosby Sex Scandal On ‘Inside Amy Schumer.’ Oh, snap!

16. Garlic Roasted Broccoli recipe. Roasted vegetables are my favorite.

17. Surviving an Alcoholic.

18. 30 Days Of My Baby Bunnies Growing Up on Bored Panda.

19. This not so perfect life from Aubrey’s Baby Weigel blog.

20. Compassion is true communication. One of the most beautiful videos, with such an important message.

21. A Prominent Yogi on Fat Yoga, Instagram, and Changing Stereotypes.

22. The Small, Happy Life.

23. It’s Always a Good Time for Child’s Pose on Wanderlust.

24. Hanging by a Thread by Elizabeth Aquino.

25. Let’s Celebrate the Art of Clutter.

26. 10 Composition Tips with Award Winning Photographer Steve McCurry.

27. 5 of the Hardest Things Yoga Taught Me.

28. my favorite buttermilk biscuits recipe.

29. My Mom Has a Question on Medium.

30. What Fat People Know Best on Dances with Fat.

31. Colleges To Students: Don’t Trash Those Dorm Castoffs! Donate!

32. The Place Where You Are on Zen Habits.

33. Good stuff from Be More With Less: 7 Places to Create Space for Ease and Clarity and Holding on for Dear Life.

34. So, I’m a Teacher Now — 10 Reflections From the First 10 Weeks on Medium.

35. This Journey called Life on Medium.

36. thrive portrait: asha on Chookooloonks. Karen’s Thrive Portrait Project is so great.

37. Truthbomb #810 from Danielle LaPorte, “Surrender isn’t about being passive. It’s about being open.”

38. Wisdom from Ernest Hemingway, “The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”

39. Brian Dettmer’s book autopsies, shared by Austin Kleon.

40. Danny Gregory, an interview by Lisa Congdon, shared by Chookooloonks.

41. “You must give up the life you planned in order…” from Jennifer Louden.

42. Really great stuff from Alexandra Franzen: Trying is always worth it, and Keep writing the damn alphabet, and I’m not lying. It’s just that the truth has changed., and Tell me everything, and Whatever it takes.

43. Suffering Opens The Real Path by Norman Fischer.

Roaring Creek, image by Eric

1. The poetics of spinach on Rita’s Notebook, in which Rita says, “I’m realizing that whether I am growing poems or spinach, there is a vital part of the process that requires me to leave things alone. There is a part that is beyond my control, that is determined by things I cannot put my hands on.”

2. Lori’s story – Gratitude Grows. “For more than a year, artist Lori Portka painted her gratitude through individual pieces of art for 100 people who have made a difference in her life.”

https://vimeo.com/121724954

3. Voices from Nepal: Earthquake survivors tell their stories, illustrated stories on Medium.

4. Wisdom from Brave Girls Club. I really needed to hear this.

Dear Lovely Girl,

Sometimes it’s tempting to bend and twist and stand on our toes to change enough for certain others to like us, for us to be able to ‘fit in’. Self betrayal doesn’t ever lead to happiness, however, and doing things that we know in our gut are not right for us, bending our values, those things just lead us down a really tricky path — a path that often leads us to places that are so far from where we wanted to end up that we just can’t figure out how we ever got there.

When we decide to put value in those who love us exactly as we are, life gets really sweet. Sometimes we have to wait to find those who like the real us, but it is always worth the wait.

Beautiful friend, you are wonderful in your purest, deepest, truest form. You don’t have to change to be loved. There are those who will love all that is real about you, and those are the real relationships that a meaningful life is made of.

You are worth waiting for.
You are so very very very loved.
xoxo

5. Shared on Rowdy Kittens’ Happy Links list: Building a Living Around Your Creative Soul: Cynthia Morris (a Good Life Project podcast) and Do More With Less, a film about hiking the Pacific Coast Trail that I’m sure Eric will want to watch with me.

6. You don’t have to work to become. You already are. Kylie Bellard on Medium.

7. “Practical” body image tip #1… from Isabel Foxen Duke.

8. Good stuff from Austin Kleon’s weekly newsletter this week: Terry Gross To Marc Maron: ‘Life Is Harder Than Radio’ and A Woman on the Margins: An interview with Vivian Gornick about the problem with writing programs, the memoir’s potential for dishonesty, and finding her way as a writer and Works in Progress: A very small sampling of the female artists now in their 70s, 80s and 90s we should have known about decades ago.

9. Good stuff from this week’s Positively Present Picks list: 9 Addictions 90% of Us Struggle With, and How Art Can Heal Anxiety, and 7 Thinking Patterns You Use to Distort Reality.

10. Good stuff from Susannah Conway’s Something for the Weekend list: What Do You Do When the Internet Hates You? and How To Meditate (Funny) – Ultra Spiritual Life episode 14 – with JP Sears.

11. Truthbomb #802 from Danielle LaPorte, “Try staying open when you want to shut down, it changes everything.”

12. Shared on Peaceful links from Peaceful Triumphs: Maria Popova — Cartographer of Meaning in a Digital Age, an On Being podcast with the creator of Brain Pickings.

13. Abandoned House In Detroit Brought Back To Life With 4,000 Flowers on Bored Panda.

14. money talks • stefanie renée and liz kalloch, by Sherry Belul.

15. Dog Chases Owner’s Ambulance After Suffering A Stroke. This video almost wrecked me, and yet I feel like I needed to share it. Don’t let the title throw you — it’s actually a PSA about being an organ donor.

16. Wisdom from Anne Lamott, “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”

17. As Memorial Day Nears, a Single Image That Continues to Haunt.

18. Wisdom from Geneen Roth,
thewayout