1. AWAKE: It’s YOUR Turn (A Documentary About Ordinary People and Extraordinary Transformation). Erik Ireland shared the other day that he was one of the subjects in this documentary, and he is my (and many others) gay grandpa with the dreamiest voice and most adorable dogs and enviable life “on the mountain,” so even though I haven’t had a chance to watch this yet, I feel safe sharing it because of him.
3. Wild Card: Jenny Slate. (podcast) “In this first episode, Rachel talks to Jenny Slate, [actress, author, and comedian], known for her roles in Obvious Child, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On and Parks and Recreation. Jenny opens up about whether fate brought her to her husband, what she’s sacrificed for motherhood and what’s so special about margarine and white bread sandwiches.” She also wrote a book called Little Weirds that I really liked.
4. ‘I can say things other people are afraid to’: Margaret Atwood on censorship, literary feuds and Trump. “At 84, The Handmaid’s Tale author is as outspoken as ever. She talks about aging, culture wars – and why ‘the orange guy’ can’t be allowed back into the White House.”
5. Recipes I want to try: Cinnamon Honey Butter Swim Biscuits and My Old School Baked Ziti.
6. Andrea Gibson’s Letter from Love. (Facebook reel) “Andrea is the poet laureate of Colorado and a spoken word artist who has been creating astonishing work and words about death and life for many years now, in the public eye, even as they face their own mortality. Here they are in their full glory and bloom to tangle with those big questions.”
7. 45 Fascinating Maps That Show The Side Of The World We Rarely See.
8. How Nelson Holland of @FatBlackAndGettinIt Found His Place Outside. “You’ve probably seen a video of Nelson Holland on your Instagram or TikTok feed. Here’s how he went from a New Yorker with little outdoors experience to a Colorado hiking fanatic.”
9. ‘I Will Never Forget Any of It’: Brittney Griner Is Ready to Talk on The New York Times. (gift link) “In an interview, the basketball star reveals her humiliation — and friendships — in Russian prison, and her path to recovery.”
10. A tiny Scottish fishing lodge lovingly restored. Dreamy…
11. ‘Monsters’ in toddler’s bedroom turn out to be massive beehive.
12. Becoming ‘New Saints’ with Lama Rod Owens. “On a chilly spring evening, an audience of over 100 Harvard Divinity School students, faculty, and community members gathered in the James Room on the HDS campus to be in conversation with Lama Rod Owens, MDiv ’17. The special event, ‘Becoming A New Saint: Exploring the Path of Emerging as Warriors from Our Broken Hearts,’ allowed participants to study and practice with Lama Rod as he gave teachings from his recent book, The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors.”
13. Weedy or Wonderful? “A Maryland law helps define and protect the right to a naturalized landscape.” P.S. HOAs are mostly awful.
14. On Narcissism: 52 Ways to Identify a Covert Narcissist and 5 clues to spot a covert narcissist in conversation (video).
15. On the value of dandelions, from the cutest Irish gardener. (Facebook reel)
16. Everyone has a different story. (Facebook reel)
17. First grade class uses foster puppies to enhance their reading skills. (Instagram reel) I love this so much!
18. Good stuff from Jami Attenberg: Sunday Thread: Hobbies that Help You Be Creative and Decide to Write.
19. Grow What You Can from Gretchen Schmelzer. “Sometimes all you can do is grow what you can. Growing what you can means acknowledging and even grieving what you can’t. Growing what you can usually means growing something smaller than you wanted—or slower than you wanted. Or growing something entirely different. Growing what you can is a compromise—between what you want and where you want to go. Between the present and the future.”
20. For the introverts: How Introverts Can Stay Calm in a Stressful World and How to Deal With Overstimulation When You’re a Sensitive Person.
21. Twist and Shout, I Told My Dying Husband.
22. May Flowers from Robert Jones, JR. “We should give people their flowers while they are here.”
23. 5 Personal Essays About Mental Health on Open Secrets. “Honoring Mental Health Awareness Month by sharing powerful writing about suicidal ideation, ADHD, binge eating, wildlife rehabilitation, and getting off social media.”
24. myNoise. “Discover a world of immersive and customizable soundscapes that can enhance focus, relaxation, and sleep. Choose from noise generators, nature sounds and ambient music to create your perfect audio environment. Explore our vast library of interactive sound generators and find your audio haven!”
25. Choir! Choir! Choir! + Feist sing for Sinéad O’Connor – Nothing Compares 2U. (video) Of course, nothing compares to the original. I was in my early 20s when this was released and I spent many hours in my car, scream cry singing with the volume up as loud as it would go.
26. How to Get Stuff Done (Gently) from Satya Robyn. “The wisdom of slow productivity.”
27. Mr. Apology on the podcast Criminal. “In 1980, posters appeared in subway stations and on telephone poles in New York City with a phone number to call. When you called it, you would hear a message: ‘This is Apology. Apology is not associated with the police or any other organization but rather is a way for you to tell people what you have done wrong and how you feel about it.'”
28. Good stuff from Be More With Less: 120 Things To Declutter From Your Life and How to Let Things Go and 7 Things to Let Go of Today.
29. Drawers & Cupboards from Jena Schwartz. “Two parallel stories of cleaning house.”
30. The Third Option: When neither giving up nor having hope feels possible. “The majority of Americans are concerned about the climate crisis. And yet those who share climate information still engage in a great deal of hand-wringing about how to convince their audience to care without frightening them into paralysis.”
31. Mount Etna’s spectacular smoke rings and more — April’s best science images.
32. How humans can and can’t catch bird flu. I appreciated this article for explaining the situation rather than attempting to scare me to get clicks.
33. There’s actually no such thing as vegetables. Here’s why you should eat them anyway.
34. 16 Heartwarming Words and Phrases That Don’t Have an English Equivalent.
35. The 40 Most Scenic Drives in America.
36. That’s Not How Stains Work. “What to do with the art of monsters?”
37. Working with Perfectionism: An Overview of Shame and Perfectionism from an Anti-Racist Therapist.
38. The vorfreude secret: 30 zero-effort ways to fill your life with joy.
39. What to Do When You Feel Like You Don’t Have Enough Time. “The answer may have more to do with aligning your activities with your values than having more free time.”
40. 40 (Mostly) Free Things to Do When You Want to Get Offline.
41. We asked, you answered: Let’s make a toast to the ways you keep calm and carry on.
42. 6 Reasons We Ignore Our Needs and How to Stop.
43. 8 Reasons Successful People Wear the Same Clothes Every Day. “The capsule wardrobe movement continues to gain momentum.”
44. 3 Things to Do If You’re Feeling Pressured to ‘Get in Shape’ for Summer.
45. We Didn’t Know It Was the Last Time from the Modern Love series on The New York Times. (gift link) “My daughter and I looked at a book together, posed for a picture, and then she left. Forever.”
Other stuff I saw and saved and wanted to share:
This is a weekly list of things worth reading, watching, listening to, contemplating and sharing. As of this post, I’ve compiled 628 of these. That said, I’m traveling to Oregon for a month and am taking a complete break from blogging and social media while I’m away. Blogging I adore and don’t see myself ever stopping. Social media is another story, and I have such a complicated relationship with it.
I’m going to take a full 37 day break, until June 14th, which includes the first week we are back in Colorado, back home again. My time online is so habitual that taking a break only while I’m gone, in another environment, might not be enough, so I want to come back to my tiny life and be here for a bit without it to see how that feels, if some of that distance (which it feels like I need) might stick.
Have you ever taken a full break, kind and gentle reader? Or is your relationship with social media sane and sustainable? Or do you not even use it at all?
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 