1. Morning walks. Only one left before I head to Oregon. I suspect I may end up missing prime fall, its peak color, by leaving just now. But maybe, like my peonies did over the summer, the last bit of color might still be here when I get back.

2. Practice. We tried our first short class at Red Sage, just a half an hour during the lunch break, and even though time management isn’t my best skill and I always plan way more than I’ll ever be able to get through, more people (and one dog) were able to come, and it was a fun midday break.

3. Knowing that while I can help, I don’t have to fix it. Not that I don’t struggle with my desire to fix it, just that I don’t beat myself up about it when I can’t, that I’m more realistic about what I’m able to give, to do, to be for other people, and about when I need to take a break. I’ve spent the last two weeks vetting assisted living/memory care facilities, have narrowed it down to a few we can tour, scheduled those visits, and shared the necessary information with those involved. It was a lot that sometimes didn’t feel like enough, but I know that I’m going there to help. I don’t have to fix it.

4. Tony time. As much as I love my friends, I love their dogs too. This past week, I got to hang out with Carrie and her dog Tony (the Tiger). Carrie and I went out for brunch and then back to her house to see Tony, spent some time in the yard picking tomatoes and chewing sticks. It was good for the soul.

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. I wish I didn’t have to be away from them, and can’t wait until I’m able to come back, to come home to them. With all the hard things, it’s such a gift to be able to have a soft place to land.

Bonus joy: the picture Chloe’ sent me of me and tiny baby H. (he was so little!), breakfast burritos, peaches, green tea, Mary’s Mountain Cookies chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, cuddling on the couch with Eric, naps, listening to podcasts, watching TV, eBooks from the library, texting with Chloe’ and Chris, baby zoo animals, rain, clean sheets, a warm shower, an extra massage, cooler temperatures during the day, the smell of rabbitbrush, feeding other people, friends who share their harvest, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.  

1. Poetry from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer: For When I’m Rushing, and What the Gardener Knows, and Once grief was a bonfire. I will never understand how someone can be both so prolific and consistently offer so much beauty — I mean for as much as she writes and publishes, HOW does she never bomb?!

2. On Self-Trust, a pep talk from Maggie Smith.

3. If a Steel Magnolia Falls in a Forest: R.I.P. Madeline Mabry Lippman, 1931-2024.

4. How to make new friends as a grown-up from Sas Petherick.

5. Dream Maintenance Crew, a poem from Out With Lanterns, “a daily poetry practice.”

6. There Is Still Beauty: Being Here and Resilient in a World on the Brink from Frederick Joseph.

7. Chelsea Bieker Tells Us About the Work of Loving Yourself from Cheryl Strayed’s Dear Sugar. P.S. I recommend Chelsea’s books.

8. Practical approaches for more effective teamwork from Seth Godin. I’d say this list applies to families and other communities as well as “the work place.”

9. Recipes I want to try: Lazy lasagna, and Chicken Pot Pie Pasta, and Lemon Chicken Orzo (Instagram reel), and Loaded Burger Sweet Potato Rounds (Instagram reel), and Mediterranean Creamy Vegetable Soup (Instagram reel), Sticky Ginger Sesame Tofu (Instagram reel), Zucchini Cornbread Loaf (Instagram reel), and and One Pot Brown Butter Orzo with Butternut Squash, and Big Soft Ginger Cookies.

10. ‘Love and service make us rich’: Anne Lamott on aging. “NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly talks with Washington Post aging columnist Anne Lamott about what it means to get older in the United States.”

11. The 44 Best High-Protein, Low-Carb Foods, According To Nutritionists.

12. Exclusive: Two more women accuse Neil Gaiman of sexual assault and abuse. This is why we can’t have nice things, and why I don’t like to say out loud that I like anyone these days — because it seems like everyone is hiding something awful.

13. ‘No Ordinary Love’: Roxane Gay on allowing yourself to accept love. “The author talks about ongoing love stories, overcoming differences, and other lessons from working with a real Hinge couple for the ‘No Ordinary Love’ anthology.”

14. Who were the 6 hostages killed in Gaza? Make it stop…

15. Easy Crowdfunding Principles, or “how to convince people to give you money.”

16. My Top 10 Favorite Fat Coaches, Trainers, etc.

17. After a Splashy Book Deal, I Got Dropped By My Publisher, But I Kept On Writing. “Why stubbornness is the most fundamental skill an author can have.” 

18. Unreasonable Love, “Elizabeth Gilbert & Nancy Reddy on love that changes you” on The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad.

19. On Still Grieving The Dog, from Out With Lanterns, “a daily poetry practice.”

20. These Famous Brands Used To Have Different Names.

21. Five ways to avoid burnout.

22. A photographer captures life in America’s last remaining old-growth forests.

23. The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time on Rolling Stone.

24. 17th Annual iPhone Photography Awards 2024 Winners.

25. 10 Simple Tips To Help You Get Off Your Phone And Into Your Life from Tammy Strobel on Be More With Less.

26. How To Calm Down And Reduce Your Anxious Thoughts Fast, According To Psychologists.

27. 100 tiny tricks to help with everything from digital overwhelm to lumpy sugar and unpaid bills. “Ever feel like you’re lurching from crisis to crisis, or chore to chore? Here’s how to knock at least some of them on the head – and lay the foundations for a less stressful, more organised existence.”

28. I Had to Leave My State of Tennessee to Get An Abortion Post-Roe v. Wade Even Though My Health Was At Risk.

29. 5 Signs You’re Dealing With Unresolved Grief.

30. How Embracing My Introversion Changed My Life for the Better.

31. The Prince We Never Knew on The New York Times Magazine. (gift link) “A revealing new documentary could redefine our understanding of the pop icon. But you will probably never get to see it.”

32. And finally, this poem from Jessica Jocelyn.