1. Wisdom from Pema Chödrön: “The innocent mistake that keeps us caught in our own particular style of ignorance, unkindness, and shut-downness is that we are never encouraged to see clearly what is, with gentleness. Instead, there’s a kind of basic misunderstanding that we should try to be better than we already are, that we should try to improve ourselves, that we should try to get away from painful things, and that if we could just learn how to get away from the painful things, then we would be happy. That is the innocent, naïve misunderstanding that we all share, which keeps us unhappy.”

2. 5 Ways To End the Endless Game of Catching Up from Courtney Carver on Be More With Less.

3. Impossible Generosity: A Poem for my Daughter by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.

4. Realize Your True Nature on Lion’s Roar. “Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche presents practices for recognizing the true nature of mind — empty and open, luminous and aware.”

5. Good stuff from Seth Godin: Making Change Happen, The 500 Ways, and Foibles.

6. 10 Organizations You Can Support On Trans Day Of Visibility & Every Day.

7. 6 Ways to Help After the School Shooting in Nashville (Including, Not Giving Up). In related news, Republicans Want You to Forget Their Complicity in the Nashville Shooting, and I Hate Guns (an Instagram reel from Andrea Gibson), and Tennessee Republican responds to ‘hatred’ over remarks that nothing will ‘fix’ school shooting, and A therapist has advice for how to cope with repeated mass shootings: Lean into family, and This Is America: Where Everything’s Made Up and Lives Don’t Matter, and How Can We Be a Country That Does This to Our Children? on The New York Times. Guns are now the leading cause of death for children in the United States and the Nashville Covenant School shooting marked the country’s 130th mass shooting of 2023.

 8. A journal is a magic space to hang out from Austin Kleon.

9. COVID poetry: how a new genre is helping readers to comprehend the pandemic. 

10. The Dumpster Project.

11. Noa Goffer satisfies her materialistic urges by drawing her wish list instead.

12. What a Year Brings.

13. 30 Books Critics Think You Should Read Right Now.

14. All my art supplies cost me double from Danny Gregory. 

15. What makes me happy now, a series on The Guardian, “Writers consider what happiness means to them after the reckoning of the past few years.”

16. There Are 3 Different Types of Sensitivity. Which One (or Ones) Are You? All three over here.

17. My Marriage Was Never the Same After That. “In 2016, I wrote a poem that went viral. My home life got complicated,” an excerpt from Maggie Smith’s upcoming memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful.

18. On the confusion of diet culture, an Instagram reel from Alex Light. This is why those of us with human bodies need to trust ourselves first rather than listening to the Tower of Babel that is the wellness industry.

19. Judy Blume Forever, a new documentary on Amazon Prime, just in time for the release of Are You There God? It’s me, Margaret. In related news, Judy Blume: book banning now much worse in US than in 1980s.

20. Recipe I want to try: Bean and vegetable burritos. I’ve also accumulated a TON of Instagram reels with recipes, too many to try and share here, so much so that my feed of recommended videos is now mainly recipes and animals and cute kids and artists making their art, and I’m okay with that since those are the things I love the most.

21. Loveland’s High Plains Environmental Center Shows Native Landscapes Can Flourish Within An Urban Environment. In related news, The lessons of Earth Day live on.

22. 8 Valid Reasons Why Highly Sensitive Introverts Might Step Back From a Friend.

23. Heron, Returning, a poem by Christian Ward. I love herons, and poetry, so much.

24. Classical marble sculptures covered with traditional Far Eastern tattoos by Fabio Viale.

25. 11 Black Farmers And Black-Owned Farmlands To Inspire Your Green Thumb.

26. griefKit, “This griefKit has articles, essays, books, communities, mindful movement, music, podcasts, recipes, tools, and considerations to help you make it through whatever kind of grief you’re navigating. We see you and invite you to give yourself more grace. We hope something or (a few somethings) in here helps you feel a little less raggedy, find words for your experience, remember to find joy and be gentle with yourself in its absence.”

27. Fascinating organic-shaped copper wire sculptures by Sally Blake.

28. Meet Stumpy, the cherry blossom tree stealing hearts by striving through the thick and thin.

29. Stop overwatering your houseplants, and other things plant experts want you to know.

30. ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ Plunders $15.3 Million Opening Day. Eric and I went to see this last week and it was really good: the acting and the story were great and it was really funny — no need to know anything about D&D to enjoy the movie. Then yesterday, I watched This Is Where I Leave You on Netflix, and it was really good too, for all the same reasons.

31. 9 easy ways to make your life a little better. 

32. Pink Peonies Burst with Life in Hyperrealistic Oil Paintings by Maria Marta Morelli. *swoon*

P.S: Since I’m having major surgery on Wednesday, in all likelihood I’ll need next Monday off from posting this list, maybe the Monday after — who knows. Hopefully the 575 other lists I’ve made over the years have earned me some time off. 🙂

1. A Tiny House Like A Zen Forest. (video) I want to go to there.

2. Japan Cherry Blossoms 2023. (video)

3. The Kō Strategies: Shunbun | Spring Equinox. I love what Lucian has to say in this installment about balance between compassion and courage.

4. Mental Health Benefits of Spending Time Alone as an Introvert.

5. Craft Tip: Be a ______ in your ______ from Maggie Smith.

6. Resistance to Atlanta’s Cop City Ramps Up. In related news, Why Fatal Police Interactions Are Avoidable.

7. The answer to every question from Seth Godin.

8. The Dewdrop Podcast Episode #1: Turning Words With Hozan Alan Senauke. “Vanessa Able talks with Hozan Alan Senauke, Abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center in California and author of the new book Turning Words. In Zen tradition, ‘turning words’ are words that can help one turn towards awakening or change a person’s direction. Alan shares various examples of turning words he has encountered in his life, including a powerful encounter with his teacher Sojun Weitsman Roshi, whose lasting teaching has been to ‘let things fall apart’.”

9. Wisdom from Kerri Kelly: In the latest newsletter from CTZNWell, Kelly says that we must cultivate “a capacity that inspires us to go beyond pessimism and despair towards courage and creativity. We can appreciate small steps in the right direction while also holding healthy dissatisfaction for what more needs to be done to reduce harm. And we must practice every single day becoming who we need to be in order to meet the moment and shape the future.” There are also some great links in this edition, such as Woke Is Just Another Word for Liberal and The High Cost of Being Poor.

10. Wingspans, a gorgeous post from Gretchen Schmelzer about our shadows and cultivating a state of awe.

11. The World Is Not Better Off Without You from Andrea Gibson. 

12. GoFundMe: Patrick & AMML Diagnosis.

13. Essay Camp with Summer Brennan starts today.

14. Good stuff from Lion’s Roar: A Spring Prayer (“Shozan Jack Haubner presents a prayer for the chaotic awakening of nature that is spring”) and First Light (“Diane Ackerman, best-selling author of A Natural History of the Senses, offers a series of meditations on dawn and decay, koans and creation”).

15. Wisdom from Danny Gregory: “Becoming an artist doesn’t mean quitting your job or renting a studio or buying supplies or taking a workshop or getting a degree. It doesn’t mean slogging or suffering either. It means showing up. Day after day. Step after step.” Read more from Danny’s Essays here.

16. Planning a garden? Here’s a step-by-step guide to start off on the right foot. In related news, Tips for Sowing Seeds Indoors This Spring.

17. Recipes I want to try: 7-Day No-Sugar High-Fiber Meal Plan and Lemon Cupcakes. Because it’s all about balance.

18. Slow Learning from Austin Kleon.

19. Poetic Sculptures by Valérie Hadida Cast Composed Women with Coiffed Hair in Bronze.

20. Whatever the Problem, It’s Probably Solved by Walking on The New York Times.

21. The seven types of rest: I spent a week trying them all. Could they help end my exhaustion? I’m almost positive I shared this when it was first published, but for me it was worth a second look.

22. We asked to see your pet artwork — you unleashed your creativity. The black dog curled up in the leather chair could totally be my Sam.

23. The Making of the Cranberries’ Haunted Farewell. “Dolores O’Riordan’s band and family talk about her troubled last days, the songs she left behind and the creation of the band’s final album, ‘In the End.’”

24. Manliness, a hilarious Instagram Reel from Nicolas Lacroix.

25. The rise of the TikTok scold. “Why advice-peddling influencers are so into shaming you right now.”

26. 24 of The Best Coming-of-Age Novels. One of my favorite genres.

27. 20 Things You Need to Stop Wasting Your Time On. 

28. 6 things to know about U.S. teacher shortages and how to solve them.

29. Our Film Critic on Why He’s Done With the Movies on The New York Times. “After 23 years as a film critic, Mr. Scott discusses why he is done with the movies, and what his decision reveals about the new realities of American cinema.”

30. A photographer’s intimate view of Denver’s ever-changing landscape.

31. What if we exist exactly as we are supposed to exist, and we don’t need to spend our precious time on this planet trying to change. (Instagram Reel) In related news, another similar reel, Heal It Up.

32. Queerness Is Messy, I Am Messy and That’s a Very Good Thing.

33. Honoring the Full Range of Grief: staying open to meet the moment with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer on the Breathing Wind podcast. “In this week’s episode, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer cries and laughs her way through an expansive and nourishing conversation about grief, creativity and love. We talk with her about poetry as a practice for meeting each moment, her unfolding journey through devastating loss and where those experiences of creativity and grief intersect. She also shares how she’s been carried by an immensity of love since the death of her son Finn, in the same year that her father died, and how grief has deepened her trust in that love while inviting her, over and over again, to say yes to the world.”

34. The State of Women… Isn’t Working. “Our 2023 State of Women Report, a study of 4,500 women conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of theSkimm, discovered that, while women are exhausted and disappointed, they have not given up. They have simply given up on the illusion of external support. The findings show that women are making seismic changes to how they live, finally prioritizing their own needs because no one else will. Instead of resignation, they are exhibiting agency, and a willingness to make tough choices to secure their own futures. Here’s a glimpse of just how disenchanted women are with the unfulfilled promises of equity and societal support, according to our study.”

35. The Average Woman Is No Longer A Size 14.

36. How to foster your purpose wherever you are in life. “A non-stressful approach to figuring out what guides you.”

37. The Signature Story Quilts of Artist Faith Ringgold. “An appreciation for the 92-year-old African American mixed media artist, activist and role model who continues to live creatively.” In related (quilting) news, Pieced Together—African Quilts of India. “Learn about the tradition of Siddi quilts and how well-worn and discarded clothing becomes the visual history of a family and helps provide a source of income for women of the Siddi communities in India.”

38. Monday Meditation, from Jena Schwartz. I don’t know which I love more: the picture, the words, or Jena herself. Yeah, who am I kidding — it’s Jena.

39. A wise reminder from B. Alan Wallace: “The problem is that when we focus on mundane concerns as a means to happiness, life becomes a crapshoot. There are no guarantees. If you aspire to material wealth, you may not get it, but if you do, there is no guarantee you will be happy. If you aspire to pleasure, once a stimulus is over, so is satisfaction. There is no lasting happiness in scurrying after praise. People who are respected and famous tend to have the same personal problems as everyone else. The fatal shortcoming of the eight mundane concerns is that they are counterfeit Dharma, misguided ways of seeking happiness, and by habitually mistaking mundane concerns for genuine Dharma, our efforts to achieve genuine happiness are continually undermined.”  The eight mundane concerns are also referred to as the eight worldly concerns (or truths, winds, preoccupations, attachments, or dharmas) or the eight hardships or the eight vicissitudes. They are: gain and loss, pleasure and pain, praise and blame, and fame and disgrace.

40. This Is the Most Surprising Trait Introverts Have. It’s a good one.