Category Archives: Something Good

Something Good

Pasque flowers

1. Rewilding A Forest | Artist and Poet Maria “Vildhjärta” Westerberg“Maria was a romantic, animal-loving, dreamy child who, growing up, had a hard time conforming to the demands associated with the trajectory towards ‘a normal life’. As a young adult she became depressed, and was encouraged by her therapist to go for walks in the forest. The myriad of funny-looking twigs and sticks she found along the way immediately put her on a path to recovery. Now, 25 years later, she’s a celebrated ‘twig poet’ whose art is shown in galleries throughout Sweden. When a climate related crisis strikes the forest where she lives and works, she’s forced into a new type of creativity in order to save the place that once upon a time saved her.” This film is part of a series called “Something Beautiful for the World”, which is a collaboration between Reflections of Life, Campfire Stories and Happen Films.”

2. Are You a ‘Floor Person’? Why Lying on the Ground Feels So Good on The New York Times. (gift link) “For some, just a few minutes can quiet the mind.”

3. how to connect with your intuition from A Soul Called Joel. (video) “In this episode, I’ll guide you through a mindfulness practice and meditation to help you detach from your thoughts and access your inner wisdom. Key Points: Our intuition is always speaking to us, but we often miss its messages because we are not present or available. We can cultivate our intuition by being mindful and aware of our thoughts and feelings. A helpful practice is to ask yourself the question, ‘What do I need to know today?'”

4. My Anxiety: Is what’s wrong with me what’s wrong with everyone else? on The New Yorker.

5. 5 Daily Habits That Are Causing 90% Of Your Pain from Courtney Carver on Be More With Less.

6. What Happened Here? “It was just ice cream” on Short Reads.

7. What I Don’t Want To Write, on Behind the Book by Ijeoma Oluo.

8. The Shortest Path to Creativity from Jami Attenberg.

9. Welcome To Your Colonoscopy…..AGAIN.

10. Good stuff from Seth Godin: In search of incompetence and Willfully uninformed and Later or now?

11. Ansel Adams’s Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar“In 1943, Ansel Adams (1902-1984), America’s most well-known photographer, documented the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California and the Japanese-Americans interned there during World War II. For the first time, digital scans of both Adams’s original negatives and his photographic prints appear side by side allowing viewers to see Adams’s darkroom technique, in particular, how he cropped his prints. Adams’s Manzanar work is a departure from his signature style landscape photography. Although a majority of the more than 200 photographs are portraits, the images also include views of daily life, agricultural scenes, and sports and leisure activities (see Collection Highlights). When offering the collection to the Library in 1965, Adams said in a letter, ‘The purpose of my work was to show how these people, suffering under a great injustice, and loss of property, businesses and professions, had overcome the sense of defeat and dispair [sic] by building for themselves a vital community in an arid (but magnificent) environment….All in all, I think this Manzanar Collection is an important historical document, and I trust it can be put to good use.'”

12. Craft Tip from Maggie Smith: Finding the Sequence.

13. Keep making art.

14. Chip’s Wrirting lessons: Interview | Four Questions with Tom Romano.

15. My self-retrieval operation has become a self-becoming operation from Patti Digh, “And becoming never ends.”

16. Give up on happiness. Go hard at wonder“Pathologically busy people clamoring for happiness. Founder of HATCH Monica Parker explains how we can do so much better than that.”

17. The surprising benefits of ‘awe walks’ for your health and well-being.

18. Year-Round Produce: Wyoming Gardener Outsmarts Winter With Underground Greenhouse.

19. ‘American Fiction’ And The Wet Eyes Of The Sentimentalist.

20. The 2024 Election is About the Rich Stealing From the Public.

21. Lit Hub Asks: 5 Authors, 7 Questions, No Wrong Answers.

22. Wild Failure, Wild Writing, and Wild Business with Laurie Wagner on the For The People podcast on Spotify. “I have the pleasure of interviewing Laurie Wagner who’s an incredible author and writer who influences so many people in the United States to tap into their intuition and subconscious through wild writing. In this Episode we explore the journey of creative business development and success.”

23. “Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda” Brings Brilliant Trans Comics to the Famously Transphobic Netflix.

24. Joe Camp, Filmmaker Behind ‘Benji’ Franchise, Dies at 84 on The New York Times.

25. The Free Soloist Who Fell to Earth“Austin Howell soloed harder and more often than almost anyone else in the country, documenting his exploits on Instagram and a podcast. But behind the scenes his mental health was faltering.”

26. A Maui chef’s lifeline: his restaurant as the island recovers from Lahaina wildfires.

27. One of the Best Things We Can Do for Ourselves as We Age“This will help feed your soul and boost your overall health.”

28. My 15-Year-Old Daughter Died. I Recently Found A Box Of Hers — And What Was Inside Left Me Shaken.

29. Why People in Sweden Do Nature Right“During a monthlong stay in Sweden, I realized that my Americanized relationship with the outdoors was off track. Here’s what I learned.”

30. Animals have overtaken our lives, and we’re having a wonderful time.

31. Faces in Stone: Japan’s Chinsekikan Museum Showcases Over 1700 Natural Rock Formations Resembling Human Faces.

32. 64 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Grief.

33. How one dog and her new owner brought kindness into the lives of many.

34. Christina Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler speak out about battle with MS(video)

35. Ava DuVernay: ‘I’ve got real big-sister energy’“The film maker, 51, on her early love of film, why she’s not on social media and the importance of silence.”

36. Recipe I want to try/eat: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.

37. Sculpt The World short film(Instagram reel). “It features many works from over the years in various environments, including never before seen work.”

38. Lessons from Dog School.

39. Oprah Is Harming Black Women by Pushing Weight Loss Drugs and Diet Culture.

40. a remembering: who were we before social media? from Karen Walrond.

41. Wind, Blue Skya new poem from Susan Aizenberg.

42. The Unfolding is What is Beautiful from Gretchen Schmelzer. “Unfolding is a tender-hearted process. But the final blossom, while an impressive end goal, is not what holds the radiance. The true wonder –which is hard to stop watching when you watch the film of the sunflower—is in the process of becoming. It isn’t the flower, but the unfolding, that is beautiful.”

Something Good

1. The Unyielding Flame of Aaron Bushnell from Frederick Joseph. “The measure of our bravery lies not in our ability to endure suffering in silence, but in our willingness to confront it, to speak against it, and to labor for a society in which such suffering is no longer necessary.”

2. Perhaps the World Ends Herea poem from Joy Harjo.

3. Birds I’ve Known on Short Reads.

4. Sleep Well By Letting Go Of These 7 Things from Courtney Carver on Be More With Less. Also from Courtney, 12 Things to Remember When You Are Overwhelmed and 7 Things To Let Go Of For A Simpler Life.

5. Destroying America to Own the Libs from John Pavlovitz. “How the MAGA movement became defined by spite.” Also from John, Facing America’s Empathy Poverty and How to Stay Alive When You Don’t Feel Like You Want To and If American Evangelicals Could Be Taught Compassion and Why It May Be Time To Leave Your Church.

6. 5 Questions with Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CDN from Ragen Chastain.

7. The Trick of Life on The New York Times (gift link).

8. 12 ways to phase fossil fuels out of your life

9. Things I do understand from Patti Digh.

10. Spanning Seven Centuries, ‘Judging a Book by its Cover’ Celebrates an Enduring Art.

11. Nana-Ama Danquah Tells Us About Taking a Leap of Faith.

12. 10 Secrets of the INFJ, the World’s Rarest Personality Type.

13. Suleika Jaouad- The Conversation Interview, “on Creativity as a Survival tool, Cancer, Resilience and Couples Therapy.”

14. 2 Pages with MBS podcast: What are your three rules? “This week’s interview is with Austin Kleon.”

15. How to be kind to yourself from Satya Robyn on Going Gently.

16. Insights at the Edge podcast | Nate Klemp: Open, Expansive, and Free. “It’s not just you. Millions upon millions of people today are feeling more stressed, anxious, and overwhelmed than ever before. As a result, explains philosopher and writer Dr. Nate Klemp, a lot of us are contracting ourselves—closing our minds in an effort to shield ourselves from the constant noise of the 21st century. With his new book, Open, Nate explores possible solutions to help us shift into a life of expansiveness, creativity, and wonder.”

17. Of work and healing from Rita Ott Ramstad on Rootsie. “Let’s keep reading, writing, remembering, and leaving tracks.” She followed up this post with this one: A creative hangover cure in which she says, “I think if I’m going to write honestly about what a small creative life is or might be, it’s good to acknowledge that sometimes it’s not very creative at all.”

18. Birdy and Rhodes – Let It All Go (Official Music Video).

19. The women that inspire you, by Positive News readers.

20. Recipe I want to try: Mom’s chicken and broccoli baked ziti from Maxine Sharf on Instagram.

21. Conservatives Plan to Ban Abortion and Cut LGBT Rights Starting Next January“Project 2025’s 180-Day Playbook is a remarkably detailed guide to turning the United States into a fascist’s paradise.”

22. Arundhati Roy on Gaza: N̶e̶v̶e̶r̶  Again“The millions of protestors on the streets of Europe and the US are the hope for the future of the world.”

23. How To Write Through the Tough Stuff from Jami Attenberg. In related news, Jami Attenberg’s Advice for Writers on the All of It podcast. “Novelist Jami Attenberg joins us to dispense her valuable advice to writers and aspiring writers everywhere on how to stay motivated, perfect your craft, and actually get published. We talk about her new book, 1000 Words: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round and take calls from listeners.”

24. Talking with Andreaa poem from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.

25. The Psychology Of Stuff: Why We Want More from Tammy Strobel on Be More With Less.

26. on empathy and kindness in our work and spaces from Karen Walrond on Chookooloonks. In related news, This is 56-and-a-Half: “Radiant Rebellion” Author Karen Walrond Responds to The Oldster Magazine Questionnaire.

27. Headwinds from Seth Godin.

28. Why We Can’t Stop Rushing on The New York Times. (gift link) “We know that happiness is to be found in taking our time and being present. How can we slow down?”

29. ‘Fitness Microdosing’ Is the Sneakiest Way To Hit Your Daily Activity Goals.

30. Daylight saving time: 10 tips to make it easier.

31. 6 Mindset Shifts That Have Changed My Life for the Better.

32. ‘All it takes is a quick walk’: how a few minutes’ exercise can unleash creativity – even if you hate it.

33. From breakdancing to powwow dancing“James Jones is a fancy dancer, chicken dancer and hoop dancer who has amassed millions of followers and views on social media.”

34. A history of cottage gardens and how to plant one.

35. Eerie human-like driftwood sculptures by Nagato Iwasaki.

36. This Texas Photographer Turns Dead Animals Into Poignant Portraits.

37. Woman Captures London’s Most Beautiful Front Doors And They Look Straight Out Of A Wes Anderson Movie.

38. Mount Everest is too crowded and dirty, says last living member of Hillary team“Kanchha Sherpa, 91, says more respect should be shown to sacred peak that has been climbed thousands of times since 1953 ascent.”

39. 50 years ago, ‘Blazing Saddles’ broke wind — and box office expectations.

40. Craft Advice with Andrea Gibson“On the movement of writing, the sound of a poem, editing, the inner critic, and Andrea’s memoir. Plus, a fantastic writing prompt!”

41. Book review: Sloane Crosley mourns her best friend in ‘Grief Is for People’.

42. Why do so many women spend more time with pets than people? Where do I start?

43. 50 Cute Maine Coon Kittens That Are Actually Giants Waiting To Grow UpFor some reason, buying a purebred cat seems so much weirder than purchasing a specific dog breed. And yet, when I see some of these pictures, I feel certain I NEED one of these baby lions! 

44. ‘We milked the hell out of it’: what happens after local food places go viral? “Social media sensations such as the Spudman, Binley Mega Chippy, Get Baked and Wakey Wines cope with the crowds – and the fallout.”

45. Do You Need a Greens Powder? Here’s What the Experts Say.

46. “Please I Will Give Anything for You to Come Back.” “Why did a mother with no backcountry experience take her sister and 13-year-old son to live off the grid on a 10,000-foot mountain during a Colorado winter?”

47. Why People Don’t Want To ‘Work’ Anymore“It’s not that people are lazy, there’s something much deeper going on that requires better questions.”

48. Inspiring update on man who was recognized by sentencing judge as a childhood friend“He broke down in tears when he recognized her and promised to not let her down.”

49. Free People “We are wearing micro shorts this season.” This post on Instagram has some of the funniest comments in response.

50. Christian Nationalism is un-Americanan Instagram reel. “Trump and his allies are now openly boasting they want to replace American democracy with a far-right, Christian Nationalist theocracy, turning their specific religious beliefs into law, at the expense of everyone else’s freedom.”

51. CDK Dancers Deliver a Mesmerizing ’70s Inspired Performance to Gotye’s Iconic 2010s Hit.

52. How Introverts Can Boost Their Energy by Doing an Energy Audit.

53. Things I Thought Made Sense Just Don’t Anymore on The New York Times. (gift link)