1. The Way It Is, a poem by William Stafford.

2. How an adopted son honored his birth mom. (video) “A boy was never supposed to know his birth mother, but his adoptive parents had other plans. When he recently had his own son, he found a way to honor her. Steve Hartman shares more in ‘On the Road.'” 

3. The Enduring Wisdom of ‘Goodnight Moon’ on The New York Times. “It’s the first book many babies receive as a gift, and one of the few that parents will keep when their child is grown. Why does this 75-year-old story have such staying power?”

4. Were you a ‘parentified child’? What happens when children have to behave like adults. “The phenomenon has little to do with parental love, and much more to do with the personal and structural circumstances that stop parents from attending to the immense anxiety and burden that a child may be experiencing on their behalf. The parent is often unable to see that their child is taking responsibility for maintaining the peace in the family, for protecting one parent from the other, for being their friend and therapist, for mediating between the parents and the outside world, for parenting the siblings, and sometimes for the medical, social and economic stability of the household.”

5. This brown bear helped itself to some late night treats at a 7-Eleven. (video)

6. Madison Lee is a master of her craft. At 31, she has established herself as one of the world’s foremost cake artists and sugar flower experts. (video)

7. Puerto Rico has lost more than power. The vast majority of people have no clean water. In related news, How to help people in Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Fiona and 5 Organizations Helping Victims of Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico. To be fair, Puerto Rico isn’t the only place that needs help. HOW could anyone still believe that we aren’t in the midst of a terrifying environmental crisis?!

8. Person Asks “Doctors, What Was The Worst Thing You’ve Seen In A Patient That Another Doctor Overlooked?”, And 30 Folks Deliver. **Trigger warning**: this post will ENRAGE you.

9. Élise on Instagram, a digital creator from Southern Colorado, “Food • Photography • Lifestyle”, who makes me smile. Clearly, the best content creators are named Elise or Elyse, because Hi, I’m Elyse Myers. Welcome to my podcast: Funny Cuz It’s True.

10. Monty Don welcomes adorable new puppy in a series of cute posts. I follow him for the gardening, but I stay for the dogs.

11. A Brooklyn couple bought a run-down, 180-year-old farmhouse in the Hudson Valley. More than 13 years later, they say the renovation process ‘really never has ended.’

12. Corn Kid Is Doing Just Fine on The New York Times. “He went viral this summer for his love of corn. Now it’s back to business as usual: elementary school.”

13. Breaking Is Part of Healing by Adrienne Maree Brown.

14. One Hundred Reasons Why I Write.

15. I Am Ryan and My Dog Saved My Life. (video)

16. Kid’s outpouring of emotion meeting his baby brother for the first time has us wrecked. (video)

17. Grace Rose Farm. So gorgeous!

18. The Free Black Women’s Library, “a social art project, interactive installation and book collection that celebrates the brilliance, diversity and imagination of Black women and Black non-binary authors. The library features four thousand books written by Black women, as well as workshops, readings, story circles, performances, cultural conversations and a monthly reading club.” I love this project so much. Check out their reading room (video) and learn more about the project from the founder, (video).

19. Follow @anchoponcho for amazing animations. (video)

20. Alan Rickman’s secret showbiz diaries: the late actor on Harry Potter, politics and what he really thought of his co-stars.

21. Old ambulance finds new purpose as mobile mental health clinic for LGBTQ+ youth. In related news, filed under “other good stuff happening in Colorado”: Aurora looks to expand program that offers an alternative response to mental health crises and They call him Goathead Greg and he has uprooted 427.5 pounds of puncture vine from Denver bike trails.

22. I Don’t Need My Life to Be Remarkable on The New York Times. “I’ve come to see the wisdom in not just seeking but finding joy in the mundane, in the unremarkable, even in the frankly boring, particularly in this era of global — and personal — illness. I realize I am far from unique in my efforts to appreciate the moment. It is the essence of mindfulness, the stuff of my (often failed) efforts to meditate. But it has allowed me to stand still when I might otherwise never stop moving.”

23. 5 Things That Help Me Fall Asleep as an Anxious Introvert.

24. Whatever Happened to the Starter Home? on The New York Times. “The economics of the housing market, and the local rules that shape it, have squeezed out entry-level homes.”

25. Can Brown Noise Turn Off Your Brain? on The New York Times.

26. Oregon church puts out the most inclusive and political messages. “Jesus was most critical of those who used religion as an excuse to marginalize others. We are merely seeking to follow Jesus in the best way we can.”

27. Hilary Mantel on How Writers Learn to Trust Themselves.

28. Why Do Women Gain Belly Fat in Midlife? on The New York Times. “And is there any way to target it through diet or exercise?” — **Spoiler Alert**: the answer is no.

29. How independent bookstores help in the fight against book banning and why it matters.

30. Artist uses AI to create ultra realistic portraits of celebrities who left us too soon.

31. How to Befriend Yourself: 10 Ideas To Deepen Self-Awareness.

32. Recipe I want to try: Cinnamon Sugar Scones.

33. Jessa Dupuis, a mixed media collage artist. (video)

34. Guilt-free Introverting: a roadmap for anyone who craves alone time from Courtney Carver on Be More With Less.

35. Fall Is the Season for Building Mindfulness and Resilience on The New York Times.

36. Poems from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer: The Prayers, For a Moment, and An Open Thank You Letter to Kristen Who Works at the Cemetery.

37. The Pause from Krista Tippett, where she writes about “a deepened experience of a ritual I’ve come to think of as contemplative reading.”

38. Lessons From Chemotherapy from Andrea Gibson.

39. 12. The Confused Chestnut Tree from Summer Brennan. “But there was something sort of magical about it too, ominous but magical, like the tree was caught in two different times at once, flickering between spring and autumn, the present and the past. I suppose it’s a relatable feeling as well, that this tree has about it, when we’re not sure which way we’re going, out or in, going dormant or waking up. Is it time to give it all up and let everything fall so we can rest? Or to muster energy and hope, even against the odds of the season all around us, and send out new green buds? In times of turbulence, it seems even the trees aren’t always sure which way to turn.”

40. How To Start Writing Again.

41. A Trick for Staying Present.

1. Need Peace? 10 Ways to Cultivate Quiet in the Chaos by Courtney Carver on Be More With Less. Who doesn’t want/need this, am I right?

2. So you haven’t caught COVID yet. Does that mean you’re a superdodger? “Hollenbach and her team have found a genetic mutation that doesn’t prevent the virus from infecting cells – that’s what Landau was searching for in his HIV research – but still does something remarkable: It prevents a person from having COVID symptoms.” I know a few people, including me, who have yet to test positive.

3. Impressionistic Embroideries by Cassandra Dias Reflect Movement and Lush Landscapes in Thread.

4. Philadelphia man completes over 400-mile walk along the Underground Railroad in honor of Harriet Tubman.

5. Earth is now our only shareholder. “Despite its immensity, the Earth’s resources are not infinite, and it’s clear we’ve exceeded its limits. But it’s also resilient. We can save our planet if we commit to it.” In related news, Billionaire No More: Patagonia Founder Gives Away the Company on The New York Times and Don’t Rush to Canonize Patagonia.

6. Thomas C. Foster on the Seven Deadly Sins of Writing. “The Deadly Seven prevent writing from occurring in the first place. Or, like overconfidence and dishonesty, they create something that is rotten at its heart, and no amount of surface grace can improve that sort of decadence.”

7. StyleLikeU | I’m Not a Thing to Be Looked At: Abigail Bengson on the Winding Road Her Body Has Taken. (video) “Abigail Bengson’s body holds endless stories. It tells the story of her miscarriages—and of the arrival of both her beautiful babies. There’s the story of her time as a 300-pound person, years filled with comfort, satisfaction, and joy. It also holds the story of her eating disorder—which arrived after she shed the protective pounds. It keeps close the story of a familial legacy of abuse, and her ability to transform that horror into beauty, time and again. Abigail’s body is never truly hers—but it is an endless moment to enjoy.”

8. Quinta Brunson Gets the Last Laugh, Interrupts Jimmy Kimmel’s Opening Monologue on His Show.

9. 8 Books About Coming into Queer Selfhood. In related news, 7 Banned LGBTQ+ Authors on the Books That Changed Their Lives and Book-Banning Attempts in US Have Reached Unprecedented Level, Libraries Report.

10. Stop Procrastinating With This 4-Step Formula from Courtney Carver on Be More With Less.

11. On the Shortness of Life on Zen Habits. “We could use a daily contemplation on how limited our time is in this life. Most of us avoid thinking about it, or get worked up or sad when we think about it. But it’s a powerful contemplation. Today I’d like to share a series of brief contemplations on the shortness of life, that I find valuable.”

12. A psychologist who has treated women with depression for 15 years shares her 6 most important pieces of advice.

13. Good stuff from Summer Brennan, (the best thing I ever got out of being on Twitter): 5. Invisible Ducks (A Short Craft Essay), and 6. End Art Shame, and 7. Acceptance.

14. How to Work With Anxiety: 3 Techniques For Lasting Change on Lion’s Roar. “Anxiety is a natural response to being human, says Lion’s Roar’s Chris Pacheco. When we try to control our anxious feelings instead of accepting them, we might end up exacerbating fear and worry. Here, he outlines three main strategies for moving through anxiety.”

15. Unselfing Social. I love this idea, although I suppose this weekly list means I’m already doing it: “As an experiment, for one continuous month, make the focus of one in every three things you share on social media — wherever you normally share, however regularly or irregularly you do, however many people you reach — something other than yourself or your own work: a friend’s art project, a stranger’s poem, a record by a musician you love, the tree shimmering with majesty and mystery in the low morning light, someone in your community you admire, a bygone pioneer of something you value, a book that spun you on your axis, the lost cat sign crayoned by a neighbor’s child, the new community garden a few blocks over, news of the dazzling galaxy discovered by the dazzling new space telescope a few million lightyears over.”

16. Frontline: Being Mortal. (video) “FRONTLINE follows renowned New Yorker writer and Boston surgeon Atul Gawande as he explores the relationships doctors have with patients who are nearing the end of life. In conjunction with Gawande’s new book, Being Mortal, the film investigates the practice of caring for the dying, and shows how doctors — himself included — are often remarkably untrained, ill-suited and uncomfortable talking about chronic illness and death with their patients.”

17. Woman’s Last Words Go Viral. This is The Advice We All Need Right Now!

18. What Bobby McIlvaine Left Behind on The Atlantic. “Grief, conspiracy theories, and one family’s search for meaning in the two decades since 9/11.”

19. Dear Photograph, “a website that invites readers to submit photos of photos — images from the past, set in the present.” In related news, Dear Photograph: New-Age Nostalgia.

20. Decide how to decide from Patti Digh. In related news, How to figure out what you want out of life. “What society expects of you and what you actually want in life can be different things.”

21. Our Bodies Remember the Bodies from Jena Schwartz. 

22. Choosing ease. “Sometimes the more easeful thing is exactly enough.”

23. 3 common thinking traps and how to avoid them, according to a Yale psychologist.

24. Joe Biden says the COVID-19 pandemic is over. This is what the data tells us.

25. Most of Puerto Rico is still without power as Fiona reaches the Dominican Republic. In related news, on The New York Times, Live Updates: Rescue Operations Underway as Hurricane Fiona Batters Puerto Rico and In Recovery After Storm, Alaska Faces Hard Days Ahead. Maybe Trump could go throw rolls of paper towels at people?

26. This Australian Artist Crafts Visually Stunning, Healthy Masterpieces Out of Food.

27. Willow the blue heeler and my Ringo have a lot in common. (Instagram reel) The song they chose for this reel is so perfect.