1. Wisdom from Seth Godin: “Markets often persuade us that we don’t have enough. Communities remind us that we do.”

2. Friendly, foul-mouthed crow befriends entire Oregon elementary school.

3. The Loveliest Children’s Books of 2021. In related news, The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021, and The Best Reviewed Graphic Literature of 2021, and Queer Books We Loved in 2021, and The Best Reviewed Fiction of 2021, and Times Critics’ Top Books of 2021 on The New York Times,and 75 of the Best Queer Books of 2021, and 11 Books to Give and Share.

4. Rest Is a Radical Act — And We Need It Now More Than Ever.

5. Perimenopause can trigger high anxiety. Nobody told these women that it’s normal.

6. Wisdom from Esmé Weijun Wang: “Horrible things happen. Art cannot be a band-aid for all of them. But it can be a balm. If you can find something—a song, a painting, a poem—and use it to keep yourself afloat, you will be joining a long lineage of suffering people who take art and stuff their broken hearts with it.”

7. A Single Map is Enough. “To search closer to my front door than ever before for the things that matter to me: adventure, nature, weather, wildness, exercise, surprises, silence, new people, wanderlust, and curiosity.” LOVE this.

8. Abandoned Southeast. “In 2016, my obsession with the forgotten and abandoned inspired me to create this blog. My goal is to showcase the obscure, sometimes historic, forgotten places I have visited across the Southeast. I hope to preserve the past through documentation and photographs since many of these amazing places are often lost to neglect, demolition, or renovation.”

9. Self-care: Why play hard? on The Hedgehog Review which “offers critical reflections on contemporary culture: how we shape it, and how it shapes us.”

10. The Practice of Emptiness, a dharma podcast. “Roshi Joan Halifax unpacks the three doors of liberation, Vimalakirti’s gift to us: emptiness, signless, and aimlessness. She reminds us that ‘liberation isn’t just about freeing your body or mind from suffering, liberation is actually about being free from all preferences, [it’s about] being radically open to what is.’ She calls us to practice beyond duality, and engage with the teaching of ‘Not one, Not two.’ It is from this place of non preferential mind and emptiness that we can answer Vimalakirti’s ‘imperative for the bodhisattva to engage the everyday world for true awakening to be manifested.'”

11. The Trouble with White Women, “A Counterhistory of Feminism with Kyla Schuller”, author of the book with the same title.

12. A Craftivism Zine. In related news, Inside a hollow library book, a secret [zine] library.

13. Finding Refuge, “a book designed to guide you through exploring what is breaking your heart, where grief resides, and how it affects you.” Yes, please.

14. 120 Things To Remove From Your Life on Be More With Less.

15. These Are the 78 Best Documentaries of All Time on Vogue.

16. People Share What Surprised Them the Most About the Pandemic. I felt this one: “How much it divided us. I always sort of thought that if we, as a species, ever faced some sort of external existential threat, like aliens coming to wipe us out or some horrible natural catastrophe, we’d band together to help each other. Turns out; nope, we’ll try to make money off each other, use the situation for political gain, and refuse to take basic precautions to protect each other basically just out of spite.”

17. Recipes I want to try: Twisty Cinnamon Buns, and Spinach and Cheese Strata, and Chewy Lemon Snowdrop Cookies, and Mexican Wedding Cookies.

18. 4 Recent YouTube Short Films That You Don’t Want to Miss.

19. Why All Writers Should Play Dungeons & Dragons.

20. Andrea Gibson: On love and loss. **Spoiler alert** their recent scans came back clear of any cancer. 🙂

21. Stop being so mean to yourself. Here are 5 tips to help you break the cycle.

22. Sashiko: Simple Japanese Stitching. In related news, How the Japanese art of Kintsugi can help you deal with stressful situations, (“Whether you are going through a job loss or divorce, this practice of fixing broken things may help heal what’s broken in you.”)

23. A Grim, Long-Hidden Truth Emerges in Art: Native American Enslavement on The New York Times. “Two exhibitions highlight stories of Indigenous bondage in southern Colorado, in an effort to grapple with the lasting trauma.”

24. “Christmas Is Canceled” Is Horrifying, Hilarious and Surprisingly Gay. In related news, The Best Queer Holiday Movies to Make the Yuletide Gay (although, I disagree with the addition of Happiest Season on this list, as it is not one of the best or even good, IMHO).

25. Jeffrey Marsh | How To Be You on The Good Life Project Podcast.

26. Stages of a Cold a cartoon from Gemma Correll.

27. 80,000 Honey Bees Found in Wall of Shower (Also, 100 Pounds of Honey) on The New York Times.

28. My Icky Sticky Evolving Relationship With Consumerism from Ijeoma Oluo.

29. On Being with Krista Tippett / Jane Hirshfield: The Fullness of Things.
“The esteemed writer Jane Hirshfield has been a Zen monk and a visiting artist among neuroscientists. She has said this: ‘It’s my nature to question, to look at the opposite side. I believe that the best writing also does this … It tells us that where there is sorrow, there will be joy; where there is joy, there will be sorrow … The acknowledgement of the fully complex scope of being is why good art thrills … Acknowledging the fullness of things,’ she insists, ‘is our human task.’ And that’s the ground Krista meanders with Jane Hirshfield in this conversation: the fullness of things — through the interplay of Zen and science, poetry and ecology — in her life and writing.”

30. ‘Worry Burnout’ Is Real on The New York Times. “Even in a pandemic, our capacity for catastrophe has a limit. Here’s how to spot the signs.”

31. The Secret Lives of Adjunct Professors.

32. How to Write (Almost) Anything: A Very Serious Guide by Tom Bissell. In related news, 20 (More) Pieces of Advice for Writers and Introducing: Your Worst Writing Nightmare.

33. The world as we know it is ending. Why are we still at work? “From the pandemic to climate change, Americans are still expected to work no matter what happens.”

34. bell hooks, Pathbreaking Black Feminist, Dies at 69 on The New York Times. In related news, In Praise of bell hooks (published in 2019) on The New York Times, and bell hooks, Groundbreaking Feminist Theorist, Has Died at 69, and bell hooks, Notable Feminist And Author, Dies At 69, and Trailblazing feminist author, critic and activist bell hooks has died at 69, and ‘The world is a lesser place today without her.’ Acclaimed author bell hooks dies at 69.

35. Aimee Mann: A Musical Voice.

36. Vertical Dwellings Nestle into the Floating Miniature Landscapes of Rosa de Jong.

37. 15 LGBTQ podcasts you need to listen to right now.

38. What We Talk About When We Talk About Food. A follow up to last week’s Bros., Lecce: We Eat at The Worst Michelin Starred Restaurant, Ever.

39. One man packed his grill and drove to a tornado-leveled Kentucky town to ‘feed the people’.

40. Get To Know The Future Med Student Whose Illustrations Of A Black Fetus Went Viral.

41. Anti-Capitalist Gift Giving.

42. A Photographer Documented The Housing Crisis By Asking People How They Became Homeless.

43. OB/GYN’s Viral Twitter Thread Sparks Massive Response on Ways to Improve the Gynecology Office Experience.

44. Exquisite Hairpieces by Sakae Recreate Flowers and Butterflies with Resin and Wire.

45. 12 Eco-Friendly Alternatives to Wrapping Paper.

 

1. A Poet-Artist Looks to the Stars. “Monica Ong is a 21st-century visual poet who extends the reader’s sense of what is possible.”

2. Secret conspiracies and public systems from Seth Godin. “If we’d like the world to work better, more fairly and with more of a long-term view, we have to identify the systems that push participants to do the opposite. And then we need to consistently and persistently work to change the incentives that cause the entities in those systems to act the way they do.”

3. 12 Ways to Beat the Winter Blues.

4. A Season for Looking Inward. “So what will ‘I’ feel during this season? Since I now realize the choice is mine, here are some examples of words I’m considering. Here are five words to focus on for a more meaningful, less stressful holiday season.”

5. ‘Embrace the Foolish’, an interview on Ask Polly. “Austin Kleon on blurring the lines between work and play.”

6. Here’s how you can help tornado victims in Kentucky. Also, How to help victims of the tornadoes on The New York Times.

7. Recipes I want to try: Peppermint Brownie Cookies and Cinnamon Sugar Scones and 30 Impossibly Easy Dump Dinners.

8. The Health Toll of Poor Sleep on The New York Times. “Finding that slumber sweet spot can be helpful for fending off a range of mental and bodily ills.”

9. Apparently, the pandemic didn’t teach us anything about how to handle a pandemic. “New research shows that the U.S. hasn’t figured out how to contain a beast like COVID-19 — even after living through.”

10. Closing the Loop: adrienne maree brown on Harm and Accountability. “The author and activist talks to YES! about how to take care of ourselves and our communities, and what that means for movement sustainability.”

11. Anne Rice, Who Spun Gothic Tales of Vampires, Dies at 80 on The New York Times. “She wrote more than 30 Gothic novels, including the best seller ‘Interview With the Vampire,’ which became a hit movie starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.”

12. This gay Norwegian Santa ad is the only Christmas content I need.

13. Say More podcast episode 67: Mortality with Andrea Gibson on Spotify. “Olivia & Melissa go from complete chaos to total enlightenment in a conversation with renowned poet Andrea Gibson about mortality, the industry of death, the afterlife, and their new book You Better Be Lightening.” In related news, Nerdette Book Club: ‘You Better Be Lightning’. “We talk about what it has been like to lose the magic of live events during the pandemic and how they see their role as a poet and activist.”

14. Photographer Captures People And Their Bedrooms To Show Their Different Ways Of Living.

15. How the ‘HALT’ Acronym Stops Overstimulation for Highly Sensitive People.

16. Hand-Stitched Flowers and Landscapes Revitalize Found Photographs by Artist Han Cao. In related news, Vibrant Botanic Embroideries Embellish the Dried Leaf Sculptures of Hillary Waters Fayle and Artist Cuts Elaborate Designs With Astounding Details From Single Sheets of Paper.

17. The Best Books to Read in 2021, according to Vogue. In related news, Literary fiction dominates Maureen Corrigan’s 2021 Best Books list.

18. How to rest well. “Taking a break isn’t lazy – learning to recharge is a skill that will allow you to enjoy a more creative, sustainable life.”

19. Single All The Way Is the Gay Christmas Rom-Com Happiest Season Should Have Been. “Netflix skimps on the hometown homophobia and delivers the schmaltz.” It is SO GOOD.

20. Decolonizing Our Dreams. “We have to shed these oppressive structures that contain us so that we can dream of new realities where we can freely be who we already are — enough.”

21. I wrote a book about Black queer joy and pain. It’s already been banned in 10 states. The fact that there’s a large part of the population unwilling to consider any sort of gun control even when it comes to KIDS who also believe people can’t handle the ideas and characters in BOOKS makes my head/heart hurt…

22. Why Reparations Are About More Than Money. “Addressing histories of mass violence have to include both material reparations and public and visible symbolic gestures.”

23. Upcoming Novel “Julia” Will Retell Orwell’s “1984,” But This Time, Through A Woman’s Eyes.

24. On Being with Krista Tippett and Katherine May: How ‘Wintering’ Replenishes.
“Krista first spoke with Katherine [author of Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, The Electricity of Every Living Thing] in midwinter 2020, and their conversation continues to offer a helpful container for our pandemic time: as one vast, extended, communal experience of wintering. As 2021 draws to a close — still with so much to metabolize and to carry, with an aching need for replenishment — Katherine May opens up exactly what so many have needed to hear, but haven’t known how to name.”

25. The 1619 Project and the Demands of Public History. “The ambitious Times endeavor, now in book form, reveals the difficulties that greet a journalistic project when it aspires to shift a founding narrative of the past.”

26. The Second Coming of Octavia E. Butler. “Sixteen years after the visionary novelist’s death, Hollywood is bringing a slew of her intense sci-fi novels to the screen.”

27. Time 2021 Person of the Year. No, no, no. No. Just…no.

28. Her Instagram Handle Was ‘Metaverse.’ Last Month, It Vanished on The New York Times. “Five days after Facebook changed its name to Meta, an Australian artist found herself blocked, with seemingly no recourse, from an account documenting nearly a decade of her life and work.”

29. A good life is painful. “Psychologist Paul Bloom on the importance of suffering, the shortcomings of hedonism, and why he would never plug into the Matrix.”

30. ‘SNL’ took on TikTok with brutal accuracy. “The show satirized people TikTok-trying-way-too hard on the social media platform and it was was brutally accurate.”

31. ‘Sesame Street’ Was Always Political on The New York Times. “The beloved children’s show has been a recurrent culture-war target, but a documentary on HBO shows how social purpose was built into it.”

 32. 5 Steps Toward Self Compassion (video).

33. How to deal with (even more) Covid uncertainty. “If you’re struggling to ‘wait and see’ how bad omicron might be, here are productive ways to cope.”

34. Why is the world so beautiful? An Indigenous botanist on the spirit of life in everything. “‘Western science is a powerful way of knowing, but it isn’t the only one,’ says Robin Wall Kimmerer.”

35. Bros., Lecce: We Eat at The Worst Michelin Starred Restaurant, Ever. Hilarious is the only way to describe this.