Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray)

All the gold is gone here, but I want to linger with it just a bit longer

1. Savor is coming! Daily Practices for a more nourishing holiday from Rachel Cole, one of my favorite traditions.

2. Good stuff from Austin Kleon: September notebooks (excerpts) and 30-day challenge.

3. 7 Ways for Introverts and HSPs to Beat the Winter Blues.

4. God doesn’t hate people. You hate gay people. (video) “Reza Aslan breaks down a particular tendency humans have when talking about the divine, and how it affects all of us.”

5. 52 Mondays: The Backstory, shared by A Design So Vast.

6. No-waste grocery store. (video)

7. Recipes I want to try: 6 High-Fiber Recipes and roasted yams and chickpeas with yogurt and graham crackers. Let’s just get real and admit I want to try every recipe from Smitten Kitchen.

8. Wisdom from Jena Schwartz’s recent newsletter, (sign up for it here), “We cannot change the world if we’re not also making room to look inward. And I believe with all my heart that looking inward and writing freely are radical acts, acts that become the foundation for resisting and undoing inner and outer oppression. Writing is a mighty force.”

9. Wisdom from Susannah Conway’s recent Love Letter, (sign up for it here), “I’m currently 50% less productive but 98% more content.”

10. This man was paralyzed by an act of police brutality – now, his son is inspiring him to walk again. (video)

11. Her family hired me as a maid for 12 years but then she stole my life and made it a Disney movie. This is the worst.

12. Three Athletes Who Risked Everything to Protest. (video) “Long before Colin Kaepernick took a knee, these pro athletes took a stand.”

13. Mary J Blige: ‘I lost my gut and my gift. But I got it back.’ “The R&B singer turned actor tells Rebecca Nicholson about her heartache, reborn hope, and why she sometimes needs to get away from herself.” I’ve mentioned before how much I love Solange’s “A Seat at The Table” and SZA’s “Ctrl.” Mary J. Blige’s “What’s the 411?” was that album for me in 1992. She’s amazing.

14. Forever Flourishing, something good coming from Toi Smith in 2018. “Forever Flourishing is all about honoring, celebrating, and championing women. We believe women are the shit. We also believe that all women – no matter their age, race, or ideology – should be vocal about their greatness and work towards self-actualization, even while fighting to smash the various systems that bind us. Always…in all ways.”

15. The Moth. “Arts organization The Moth was founded in 1997, and has surfaced thousands of people’s stories through hundreds of live shows. Each show has its own theme, and each story is unique.” We went to a live event last night, and the story Dylan Park told BROKE me.

1. Morning walks. It’s that time of year where it’s dark for most of it, but so pretty when we get to see the sun rise.

2. That it wasn’t worse. Two hard things happened this week: Sam got bullied by a loose pit bull while Eric was out walking the dogs on Sunday afternoon, and I had to have an emergency root canal on Monday (after having a toothache all weekend). It made me grateful for so many things: that Eric and Ringo didn’t get hurt, that someone heard Eric yelling and came out and helped so they could get to safety, that Sam was limping and had a cut where the dog’s tooth punctured his leg but it wasn’t any worse, that we have an awesome emergency vet, that we have the money to take our dog to the emergency vet, that even though my dentist was out of town and couldn’t do the root canal until November 8th there was another office where I could go and get it taken care of that day and they were all awesome, that I have good dental insurance, that I could take the day off work, and that I could afford the portion my insurance didn’t cover.

Waiting to see the vet

Recovering (if you look close, you can see where they shaved his armpit so they could close the wound, no stitches necessary just some medical grade superglue)

3. Ringo. He’s been extra sweet. I can’t say he understands that Sam and I had a rough start this week and therefore is trying to be super good, and yet he’s sure been extra nice — especially all the extra cuddling with me and being patient with Sam.

On our walk the next morning, he was a bit wary, keeping an eye out for any trouble

4. Kitchen counter love notes.

5. My tiny family. I will be happy that we can all be together this weekend. Hopefully it will be a quiet, uneventful, relaxing time.

Bonus joy: vegetarian corn dogs and tater tots and lots of ketchup, pain medication, clean sheets, Wild Writing, yoga, aqua aerobics, a new swimming suit, down jackets and wool socks, waterproof Keens, something to stop the itching, being able to work from home, good TV, good books, good podcasts, good movies, good women doing good work who keep me from giving up because they keep showing up, texting with my brother, emails from my mom.