1. America has seen at least 601 mass shootings so far in 2022. In related news, “I Can’t Stop Hearing the Shots,” Mass Shooting at Colorado Gay Club Leaves 5 Dead, 18 Wounded, and Colorado Springs Club Q shooting: Where to find resources and how to help, and How to help Colorado’s queer community right now. Which all makes me need to share this video again, Andrea Gibson performs “Orlando” featuring Mary Lambert.
Rebecca Solnit said of the recent shooting in Colorado Springs that it was “both the act of an individual and the culmination of a broad campaign of hate, lies, and othering.”
And also worth considering, from Rabbi Abraham Heschel: “there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.”
2. Quitting Can Be Fun. “I’m still on social media. But years ago, before I was sober or had an idea that alcohol was bad for me, I realized Facebook was bad for me. So I stopped. And today I stopped being on Twitter, too.”
3. Yung Pueblo: Becoming Lighter Through a Strong Determination to Heal on the Sounds True podcast.
4. If You’re Worried About Which Vegetables Are ‘Healthier,’ You’re Overthinking It. “88% of us don’t get enough fruits and veggies in the first place.” I found this to be a super helpful perspective shift.
5. How to Save Your Knees Without Giving Up Your Workout on The New York Times. In related news, How to get stronger only using your own body weight.
6. Recipes I want to try: Green Goddess Salad, and Cranberry Walnut Kale Salad with Fresh Cranberry Vinaigrette, and slow-roasted sweet potatoes, and Raspberry Cranberry Sauce, and Fontina + Blackberry Basil Smash Grilled Cheese Sandwich.
7. Linda Ronstadt: A taste of home on CBS Sunday Morning.
8. Atelier Naco on Instagram, a Japanese eraser stamp artist.
9. Reading lists: 15 Beloved Black Banned Books You Must Read Now, and All of the 2022 National Book Award finalists, read and reviewed, and The 100 Must-Read Books Of 2022.
10. 30 Outstanding Podcasts for Writers.
11. Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden. “Poet and scholar Camille T. Dungy recounts the seven-year odyssey to diversify her garden in the predominantly white community of Fort Collins, Colorado.”
12. Joyce Carol Oates Thinks You Should Write Your Heart Out, an interview with the author.
13. Heartstopper author Alice Oseman: ‘If you don’t have sex and romance, you feel like you haven’t achieved’. “The writer and illustrator on turning her ‘weird hobby’ into a bestselling YA series and Netflix hit, the importance of asexual representation and lessons from her fans on love bites.”
14. What Does Rest Look Like in a Climate Crisis? “Minimum Viable Planet is a weeklyish newsletter about climateish stuff, and how to keep it together in a world gone mad. This week, we look into the restless mind, kept awake by the climate crisis.”
15. Healing, Then Writing: Confronting Writer’s Block in the Early Years of Sobriety.
16. You’re Allowed To Be Ready To Heal And Rest from Morgan Harper Nichols. “In whatever way you have had to learn to be resilient in your life, I hope that you can find room to also nurture the parts of you that need care. You are not frail for needing rest, and you are not selfish for taking time to fill yourself up. There is nothing wrong with craving a steady pace that doesn’t call for constant resilience.”
17. Speckled, Crackled, and Kintsugi Sheets of Ceramic Cloak Lisa Agnetun’s Tiny Spirited Ghosts.
18. 11-Year-Old Buys an Old Van, Transforms It Into Ultimate Space. I wish more kids had this sort of access, resources, and parenting.
19. Lost in Translation: Is the Bible Wrong That Homosexuality Is a Sin? I say Amen.
20. Abstract, Textured Patterns Woven With Natural Fibers Compose Massive Wall Hangings by Tammy Kanat.
21. What To Know if You’ve Applied for Student Loan Forgiveness. “Biden’s plan to provide federal student loan forgiveness has been blocked by two federal courts, leaving borrowers wondering what happens next.”
22. The Visions of Octavia Butler on The New York Times. “As a science fiction writer, Butler forged a new path and envisioned bold possibilities. On the eve of a major revival of her work, this is the story of how she came to see a future that is now our present.” Seriously, go now and read everything she’s ever written — so good.
23. Audrey Assad’s new cover of Joni Mitchell’s River. (video)
24. Healing Hurts, a new EP from BLÜ EYES. You can also listen to most of the tracks and her other music on her YouTube channel.
25. Listen to Maya Stein’s latest 10-Line Tuesday poem, in praise of i don’t know. I love the final lines: “But look how, against the late season light, a filmy beauty descends, nearly silencing the clamor of what pulls at our sleeves to solve. What if we could let ourselves rest for a little while in this halo of I don’t know, feel its soft touch against our urgent skin. What if the thing in our hands, and every fractured remainder, is its own answer. What if leaning into the wobbly shapes of our lives is another kind of sweetness and gold.”
26. Wisdom from L.R. Knost: “Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.”
27. Want To Evolve Quickly? Try Vulnerability. from Andrea Gibson.
28. #46. Tomato plant (after Ross Gay). “On some recommended essays, and on emptiness and reaching to fill it” from Jonny Sun.
29. Weight Watchers – Up To Their Old Tricks from Ragen Chastain.
30. How to Be Bored, and What You Can Learn From It on The New York Times. “Figuring out the root cause of our lack of inspiration can help us make better choices in how we spend our time, experts say.”
31. How to kick your habit of assuming the worst.
32. Are You Actually ‘So Busy,’ or Is It ‘Toxic Productivity’?
33. The Comprehensive Guide to Customizing Daily Wellness Rituals.
34. 5 Ideas For Creating A Spiritual Practice—Whether You’re Religious Or Not.
35. A Slamdunk Conversation Starter at Big Dinners.
36. Two Artists Turn One Tree Into a Different Installation Every Season.
37. Baby elephant tickling a local news reporter. (video)
38. Observing Thanksgiving? Consider making this part of your day: 9 Best Charities for Native Americans (Complete 2022 List).
39. 4 levels of Fat Liberation. In related news, Weight Science: Evaluating the Evidence for a Paradigm Shift, and F*ck Health, and Social Justice, Fatphobia, and Eating Disorders.
40. In Praise of the Glorious Deliverance of Swimming: Michael Parker on Worshipping Water, in Life and Fiction.
41. Scientists can’t contain joy after finding bird they thought went extinct: ‘Like finding a unicorn’.
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 