Something Good

Pasque flowers

Pasque flowers, the less common white

1. The DNA Journey. “It’s easy to think there are more things dividing us than uniting us. But we actually have much more in common with other nationalities than you’d think.” I’ve been wanting to get my DNA tested, and this only video made me want it even more.

2. Big Dog Tip Toes So He Doesn’t Wake Sleeping Cat. One of the cutest things ever. And I find it almost impossible to believe, but Redd is still available for adoption!

3. This hilarious cartoon from The Oatmeal. #same

4. Recipes I want to try: Old Fashioned Donuts, Stephen’s No-Bake Mug Brownies, strawberries and cream biscuits, and Strawberry-Rhubarb Scones, and Magic Cookie Bars. I swear I don’t have a particularly strong sweet tooth this week, at least no more than usual.

5. Here Is The Powerful Letter The Stanford Victim Read Aloud To Her Attacker. “A former Stanford swimmer who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman was sentenced to six months in jail because a longer sentence would have ‘a severe impact on him,’ according to a judge. At his sentencing Thursday, his victim read him a letter describing the ‘severe impact’ the assault had on her.” In stark contrast, see what the rapist’s father had to say. In related news, This is how a lifetime of potentially dangerous situations affects every woman.

6. This is the most unflattering picture of me I have ever seen…So why am I sharing it with you? from Jenna Galbut. “People may assume things or judge us based on our appearances, But no one knows our struggles, no one knows what we’ve been through or how we’ve grown from the challenges.” This, just everything about this. In related news, So I’ve Gained Weight. SO WHAT? Word.

7. A big Christian rock star just came out in this stunningly emotional letter. We’ve got to start giving people the space to be who they really are, especially when who they are in NO WAY harms us.

8. Work of the Heart, such a beautiful story. “This ‪Boston‬ high school student immortalized all 411 of his graduating senior classmates with a drawing of each one of them — surprising the school by hanging their portraits along the hallway before classes.”

9. This Viral Facebook Rant Shows the Disconcerting Way Sizing Has Shrunk In Two Years. Grrrr…

10. An eyewitness account of the horrific attack that destroyed Black Wall Street. “In the early 20th century, Tulsa, Oklahoma, was home to one of the wealthiest black neighborhoods in America — a neighborhood so well-off that it earned the moniker ‘Black Wall Street.’ But in just a couple of days in 1921, a white mob bombed and burned down the community, brutally killing hundreds of black residents in the process.”

11. Become a Certified Meditation Instructor. Exciting news! The Open Heart Project is launching their first-ever program to certify meditation instructors. If you work with others and would like to be able to teach them to meditate in your role as a coach, therapist, counselor, doctor, nurse, or yoga teacher, this 9-week program is for you. All the details and registration information will be announced on June 7th. Click here to get the details first. I am all the way in on this one.

12. Growing up black in the whitest city in America. “My Portland looked different than the one on TV. It taught me about drugs, gang warfare and simple survival math.”

13. Why Malachi Kirby Wants Families To Come Together To Watch “Roots.”

14. Marco Arturo is only 12 years old, but he just gave the best pro-vaccine argument the internet’s ever seen. I don’t know if it’s “the best the internet’s ever seen,” but it’s pretty solid.

15. ‘At the core, none of us were meant to be common’: A new teacher’s graduation speech urges all to lift off. Donovan Livingston, who just graduated with his master’s degree in education, brought people to tears as the student speaker at Harvard School of Education’s 2016 convocation. I’m not gonna lie, I’m a sucker for a good commencement address. In related news, here’s a list of some of the best from Lindsey on A Design So Vast.

16. The Rare Beauty Of Black Foxes (15+ Pics). So beautiful, so cute.

17. Ancient Trees: Woman Spends 14 Years Photographing World’s Oldest Trees. Amazing.

18. Top 10 Ways to Protect Mountain Gorillas. Whenever something awful happens, discussing/arguing about it doesn’t make me feel any better, but being given something I can do about it always does.

19. How To Stop Being A Love Addict and Seeking External Validation, a pep talk from Kute Blackson.

20. Everything You Need to Read and Watch About Muhammad Ali. And in related news, When I was a young boy all my mom’s friends said I looked like Muhammad Ali.

21. The Art of Being a Real Runner (and Writer) from Jena Schwartz.

22. Job openings at Sounds True. I’ve always thought this would be a great place to work.

23. Good stuff from Tammy’s Rowdy Kittens Happy Links list: This Is What Your Body Does When You’re Walking (Infographic), and A well traveled woman, and Goodbye Blonde on a Budget, Hello Future.

24. This artist has a seriously vivid imagination! “Once, American illustrator David Jablow came across a vintage notepad produced way back sometime in the 1960s. On each one of its dry yellow pages there was an image of a woman which had not been completely drawn, along with the simple instruction, ‘Do it yourself.'” Really cool.

25. So You Don’t Like Looking at Fat People, good advice from Dances with Fat.

26. Feed the Right Wolf, one of my favorite teachings from Pema Chödrön, in which she “describes the process of looking compassionately and honestly at our own minds. In the end, she says, freeing ourselves from anger and hostility comes down to choosing which wolf we want to feed.”

27. A Day in the Life of Six Intuitive Eaters from Rachel Cole.

28. Triplets And Their Garbage Men BFFs Define Everything We Want In A Friendship. “We have a rough job and this can make our day.”

29. How history erased this woman of color from the suffrage movement.

Ultimately, when marginalized voices are snuffed out, we all lose. “It’s not only harming them,” said Doyle, “it’s harming our ability to have a fuller picture of the world.” Luckily, there’s a pretty straightforward way to allow diverse perspectives to see daylight, Doyle concludes.

“Don’t make life hell for each other.”

30. He’s Having A Bad Day At Work. But When He Looks Out Of His Truck, He Spots THIS… P.S. Just to be clear, “blubbering” isn’t “sissy,” it’s a sign that you have a heart.

Day of Rest

Ready for the compost pile

Ready for the compost pile

Things I thought about as I meditated this morning: working at the Corner Market in Lyons 30 years ago, what it was like to be 18, where my niece might land, my parents, what I needed to do next in my garden, cutting my toenails, what I want my yoga teaching to look like next year, the pain in my hip, how much I love the line of neon pink on the cuff of my new bathrobe, who else might be meditating at the same time as me, what was for lunch, if she would live long enough to go to jail, death.

You see, the point of meditation isn’t to “get good at it” so you don’t think so much, able to “empty your mind,” but rather meditation is seeing the way your mind works, observing it without judgment, learning to stay with yourself and hold your seat no matter what feeling or thought might arise, to see that your mind thinks and emotes — silly things and important things and beautiful things and horrible things — but to know you don’t have to run away with it. You see what it does and its grip on you loosens so you don’t get dragged around by it all the time, you don’t feel the need to act or agree or resist every time a thought or emotion arises. You also learn that your thoughts and emotions, the “story” you are telling yourself is not the real you.

It’s the observing and knowing your thoughts and feelings, not eliminating them that matters. This applies to growth and change off the cushion, beyond your practice as well. Instead of getting attached to the outcome, one can relax in the observation, the knowing, the awareness, and within that patient state, wisdom can spontaneously arise, a new way becomes clear.

This is what I have trouble with, the part where I have to be patient, where I have to sit and wait. I want to skip ahead to the revolution, live the change, and assume something is wrong with me when I don’t, when I can’t. Then I remember that I can’t skip steps. To get to where I’m going, I have to walk all the miles, live the inbetween. If I can trust that this liminal state is necessary, part of the process, I can relax into it, surrender. I’m composting.