1. Flowers in the bathroom. From Trader Joe’s, not the Farmer’s Market or my garden, but still one of my favorite things.
2. Morning walks. It’s fun to go alone with the dogs, but also good to go with all three of my boys. The sky this week was amazing, as always, and Eric pointed out that the true sunrise, the full measure of it, only really lasts for about five minutes.
3. Cache La Poudre River. If I can’t live near the ocean, at least I am within walking distance of the river.
4. The pictures Eric takes while he’s hiking, walking, riding, or napping with the dogs. He texts me pictures, and it’s the next best thing to being there.
5. My tiny family. It’s been so nice to spend more time with them this week.
6. Special occasion food. It was just the two (four) of us for Thanksgiving dinner this year, but that just means that with leftovers, we don’t have to cook for a few days, and there’s a fridge full of yum. I made a breakfast casserole this morning to add to the mix, and it is so good (it calls for store bought biscuits in a tube, but I make it with homemade cheddar cayenne biscuits instead). The apple pie Eric makes is sweetened with maple syrup and apple cider, and it’s so good.
Bonus joy: aqua aerobics, sitting in the sauna, not having to do anything if I don’t want to, good books, good TV (I’m watching the BBC series Happy Valley and loving it), stretching, hot apple cider, San Pelligrino orange sparkling water, breakfast burritos, a warm shower and a clean towel, a clean car (thanks, Eric), our new fence, answering questions with Eric (after 25 years, how are there things I still don’t know about him?!), texting with my brother and friends, a good nap, clean pjs and clean sheets, a new bed on its way (the new one we got isn’t working out, so fingers crossed this one is better).
Picture from our walk yesterday morning, and quote from a fortune cookie from our lunch the same day — which it turns out is actually wisdom from Guillaume Apollinaire, a French novelist who died in November of 1918
7. Teachers Learn About Their Bias Towards Students. (video) “The ratio of white teachers to students of color is a national problem. This New York school district is training educators on how to talk about race, and address their own biases.”
8. Experience: my workout nearly killed me. Thank goodness my eating disorder and messed up notions about my body didn’t exist in the thick of the CrossFit era. I might be dead.
17. White People Are Smashing Their Coffee Machines to Show Support for Child Molestation. I wish people would just admit they are racist, misogynist bigots and stop pretending to be so righteous and offended. In related news, this is how you do it: Why Kaep Takes a Knee. (video) “Colin Kaepernick has been named ‘Citizen of the Year’ by GQ. Here’s a refresher on what Colin’s protest is all about.” The same kind of people smashing coffee machines were burning his jersey.
19. Lemonade for Love. (video) “This little girls kindness and generosity is so well needed in this world.”
20. This kid is so awesome. (video) “When Hurricane Harvey slammed into Dickinson, TX, 13-year-old Virgil Smith trudged into the water with an air mattress to transport his stranded neighbors to safety.”
23. Who knows who you’ll help? Susan Hyatt makes a really good point about the importance of doing what you do. “We’re all here to serve one another. Whether it’s through a blog post, an article, a business, a fundraiser, or some other project, we’re all here to serve humanity. So, go create and share. Please don’t hold yourself back. Because who knows who you’ll help?”
This holiday, before you comment on how much you’ve eaten, the weight of your regret, your fears for the body you might grow into, your fears for the bodies around you, your anxiety about anyone eating too much, stay silent for a moment. Sit with how it feels not to say it. Sit with what you wanted to say. Ask why you wanted to say it. Ask who it would benefit.
Giving Tuesday is a national movement fundraising day that happens on Nov. 28th which focuses on altruistic giving, particularly in the online space. Like most structures impacted by systems of violence, Giving Tuesday has become monopolized by the Non-profit Industrial Complex. To make it plain: huge heirarchal non-profit organizations take up space and collect money that the very communities they proport to organize for never see. We are disrupting that model and centering Black Women and femmes. Join us in the work!
