1. The opportunity to rest, to heal. This applies to so many things, but in particular and most recently having COVID, probably for the second time. I feel like I didn’t get as sick as the last time but it is taking so much longer to recover my energy — and that’s totally okay. I have time. I don’t need to rush.
2. The ability to change my mind, see things more clearly. For example, this pile is in our front yard, consisting mostly of last season’s sunflowers. Here in Colorado, we don’t have to plant them, they just come, and the meadowlarks and bees love them and I love watching them feed on the flowers. All fall and winter, I’ve seen this pile and thought, “that looks so messy, we really should at least move it to the back by the compost pile.” And yet, the other day I looked out the window and there were at least ten finches and chickadees hopping around the pile, still finding things to eat in the middle of winter. Another example is this morning when I was meditating, had the door to my practice room open and could hear Eric unloading the dishwasher. At first, I could see how it might be a distraction, the banging of plates and slamming of cabinet doors, but then I thought about how the noise Eric was making was a music of sorts, a sound I would desperately miss in the silence of him not being here. He probably wouldn’t say the same about my snoring at night, which is currently worse because I’m still a bit stuffy from the COVID.
3. Bed. Naps, clean sheets, blackout curtains, down blankets and pillows, a weighted blanket, my moon nightlight, my Kindle, our sunrise alarm clock and white noise machine. It’s not just one of my favorite places in our house, it’s one of my favorite places in the world.
4. Practicing in community. Zoom art dates, wild-ish writing, yoga, and meditation.
5. My tiny family, tiny home, tiny life. Sitting on the couch with Eric doing nothing, thanking him for being my person, watching movies together, making each other laugh, cooking together, sleeping in the same bed, having 30 years of memories together, hugs in the kitchen, our couch comfortable enough to sleep on at night if someone needs to, all our plants, the promise of our outside garden, good neighbors, kitchen counter love notes (which he sometimes hides by the tea or on my meditation shrine), how close the river is, birds in the feeder, all the things we need to make spaghetti sauce, our spices, my bookshelves full of books, the wood floors, the rugs, the oval mirrors in our bathroom, the way Ringo is so much more cuddly in the winter, the way Eric makes him a pile of blankets and pillows to nap on, even how Ringo digs up the couch at night or barks at the TV, the way he comes to find me when he and Eric come back from a walk, an echo of how Sam used to do the same thing.
“Can I haz some muffins?”
Bonus joy: a warm shower, clean pjs, a big glass of cold water, matcha lemonade, listening to podcasts, clean laundry, pay day, dark chocolate covered almonds, walnuts, Simple Truth Strawberry Paletas Fruit Bars, health insurance that covers prescriptions, NSAIDS, anti-anxiety meds, THC gummies, Burt’s Bees lip balm, the internet, having a backup option when one of my computers doesn’t want to behave, a washer and dryer, windows, sunshine, how bright and quiet it is when there’s snow on the ground, snow plows, the sunrise, reading in bed at night while Ringo and Eric sleep.
Let this be the space where you embrace the beautiful reality that all around, there are slower rhythms that are calling your name. Even if it’s nothing more than a few trees outside your window, or the sky above, you are surrounded by beautiful, natural rhythms in the world that remind you that there is no need to rush.
1. Still Lifefrom Summer Brennan. “I went to an exhibit at the Louvre yesterday, about still life art throughout the ages. All those flowers and fruits and vegetables and dead birds. A still life painting from Pompeii, from 50 A.D., of a loaf of bread and two figs. The figs, exactly as they might be now, set in the light on the windowsill. The bread, like you or I might eat, sectioned, like a Roman tear-and-share. We have been ourselves for so much longer than we realize. Bread, and figs on the ledge of a window, and the Neapolitan sun beating down, and the sounds of the ocean not far away. In the distance, for all of us, the sound of the volcano.”
3. Practice Makes Purpose from Mindy Tsonas Choi. “I can feel myself trying to reach back for a certain kind of joy that was scattered and lost along the way. Complexity and truth are absolutely important and necessary, but I desperately could use more levity and light in my life — not the kind that bypasses and erases the difficult things happening in the world, but perhaps as a way to help hold it all in my heart.”
5. How it started; how it’s going on At The Wild Edges. I read these posts from people who have restricted or even quit their use of various social media and the impact it’s had on them with great interest.
13. Wisdom from Kerri Kelly: “I realized I have been running away from the fatigue, from the fear that nothing will change, and from the truth that the systems we are trying to save are, in fact, not salvageable. This may sound depressing, but in fact, arriving at this conclusion – that there is no fixing this mess – has given me renewed hope. By accepting the conditions of our present reality, we become clear in purpose. That our assignment is to care for each other during the collapse of old systems, to reduce harm wherever possible, and to unleash our joy and art and imagination towards new pathways and practices of being.”
14. We Need Comrades. “For too long, the individualist rhetoric of ‘self-care’ has crowded out our sense of working collectively for shared goals. Comradeship is about our responsibility to each other — a responsibility that makes us better and stronger than we could ever be alone.”
21. Letters Against Isolation. “We fight senior loneliness one letter at a time. Through handwritten messages of love, hope, and joy, our volunteer community brings seniors connection and improves their mental and physical health.” You can volunteer to write letters: “Sign up to become a Letters Against Isolation volunteer and send seniors around the world handwritten letters filled with joy! Once you submit the form, you’ll receive an email from us with further instructions!”
23. The truth behind 10 of the biggest health beliefs. “Should we really be aiming to walk 10,000 steps a day, or drink two litres of water? Time to sift fact from fiction.” In related news, 10 Nutrition Myths Experts Wish Would Die on The New York Times. “We surveyed some of the country’s leading authorities to reveal the truth about fat, dairy, soy and more.”
25. I Lost My Dad. These Are The 7 Words I Wish I’d Never Been Told At His Funeral. “The loss was a part of my heartbeat, my everyday, and not to talk about it felt like withholding some essential context from whomever I was speaking to: family, friends, co-workers, strangers. My dad just died. Please act like it.”
33. What Is Intuitive Eating? Meet The Duo Behind The Method on The New York Times. “Once considered radical, Elyse Resch and Evelyn Tribole’s method of intuitive eating has become the cornerstone of the modern anti-diet movement.”
36. Beautiful art from Wole Langunju on Instagram. “Painter and installation artist interested in challenging and critiquing notions of imperialistic cultural idioms.”
42. Dan Swygart called a ‘creep’ for dating Shauna Rae the 23-year-old stuck in 8-year-old body. I get why at first glance this might feel weird or creepy, and yet just because she had her physical growth altered in childhood and people mistake her for a child on sight doesn’t mean she doesn’t have the right to have a consensual relationship with an adult human — because SHE’S an adult human. She certainly has to more carefully vet her partners because of it to protect herself. Really, if you think this relationship is wrong, you must think all relationships between differently abled, shaped, and sized bodies isn’t either, and frankly that’s weird and creepy.
44. Me and My Grandmother Play Truth or Drink. (video) This is so sweet. In related news, Cut (the creators of the video and game) makes a whole series of really fun videos: “Small questions have powerful effects when they go viral. Cut spreads stories for fun, for serious, and for real – bringing the internet together one awkward moment at a time.”
48. Beyond BMI: A New Book Embodies Fat Liberation. “In her new book Weightless: Making Space for My Resilient Body and Soul, Dionne takes readers on a personal and political journey that begins with her own health issues and her resultant encounters with fatphobia in the medical establishment.”
49. Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space, (video) “an in-depth biography of the influential author whose groundbreaking anthropological work would challenge assumptions about race, gender and cultural superiority that had long defined the field in the 19th century.”
50. Get A Bowl Of World Famous Clam Chowder At This Newport, Oregon Restaurant. “Serving locals, visitors, and celebrities alike for the past 77 years, Mo’s and the world famous clam chowder served there have become a Newport, Oregon institution. It’s not a real trip to Newport unless you stop in at Mo’s for fresh mouthwatering seafood!” I’ve loved this place since I was a kid.
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 