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

1. 3 yrs ago you were evicted from 20 Catherine St 13B. I have your dog. (newyork.craigslist.org) on Elephant Journal. “P.S. you can’t have her back.”

2. Buddhist Cave Temples Are Jaw-Droppingly Gorgeous on Huffington Post. I want to go to there.

3. At the cusp between wonder and fact from Christina Rosalie, one of the most beautiful writers alive, in more ways than one.

4. Young people swap clothes with grandparents and parents for charming, fascinating photos.

5. Wisdom from Jessica Patterson,

You don’t need to know everything. You just need to be in love with what you trust in your bones, and be free enough in that not to break each time the world whispers a new truth in your ear.

6. Wisdom from Elana Miller at Zen Psychiatry,

Life is precious, even when it’s imperfect, painful, and sad. Especially when it’s imperfect, painful, and sad.

7. Wisdom from Thich Nhat Hahn, “Only the present moment contains life.”

8. 22 Adorable Before And After Pictures Of Animals Growing Up on Bored Panda.

9. While I’m gone from Rachel Cole.

10. Wisdom from Unknown, “Don’t ever mistake my silence for ignorance, my calmness for acceptance, and my kindness for weakness.”

11. My New Favorite Thing, a recipe for chickpea fries that looks delicious.

12. Slippery Slope from XKCD.

13. Wonderland from SouleMama.

14. Wounda’s Journey: Jane Goodall releases chimpanzee into forest.

15. Easiest Brussels Sprouts Recipe You’ll Ever Make on MindBodyGreen. One of my favorite ways to eat Brussel Sprouts.

16. Having Kids: Expectations Vs. Reality on BuzzFeed.

17. Renegade Mothering. I’m not a mom of humans, but I love the perspective of this blog, appreciate the humor and the wisdom.

18. 10 Ways To Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered, Lessons from my book Show Your Work! Austin Kleon on Medium. My copy should arrive any day now.

19. Stop Resisting: Surrender to Your Body to Transform It and Your Life on Tiny Buddha.

20. On What Disturbs, Then Nourishes by Dani Shapiro, (thanks to Rowdy Kittens’ Happy Links list for the link).

21. 5 Spiritual Lessons I Learned From Obsessing Over Food, Isabel Foxen Duke on MindBodyGreen.

22. 15 Powerful Beliefs that Will Free You from Negativity from Marc and Angel Hack Life.

23. Letting Go: What it means. How to do it. on Elephant Journal.

24. And, just because baby elephants are stupid cute, (from Reddit). Stupid cute = Someone or something that is so attractive it disrupts your ability to intelligently process information while looking at it, something so unbelievably cute it makes you stupid.

image by eric

1. Good stuff from Patti Digh: your daily rock : give comfort, your daily rock : transform, your daily rock : you make a difference, your daily rock : you know the answer, and your daily rock : feel good now.

2. Write A House Is Giving Writers Free Homes In Detroit on Huffington Post.

3. A little preview for you, an update about the You are Beautiful book by Matthew Hoffman that I helped fund through a Kickstarter project. Can’t wait to get my copy.

4. Let Everything Happen by Rainer Maria Rilke:

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like flame
and make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.

5. This Man’s Wife Died 2 Years Ago. What He Just Discovered Last Week Is Indescribable. Get A Tissue. on Viral Nova.

6. The Five Things Our Dogs Want for Christmas from The Other End of the Leash.

7. Love from Be More with Less.

8. Truthbombs from Danielle LaPorte:

If you measure your success against someone else’s results, you will never be free – ever.

and

Do not give your past the power to define your future.

9. how to keep the spirit of christmas all year long from Positively Present.

10. From Susannah Conway’s Something for the Weekend post: Something small, every day, Sensitivity is Beautiful, 8 Kale Salads, and sit on a small wooden bench with yourself.

11. Wisdom from Robert Holden,

One new perception,
one fresh thought,
one act of surrender,
one change of heart,
one leap of faith,
can change your life forever.

12. the magic is in the mess from Brene’ Brown.

13. Good stuff from Marc and Angel Hack Life: 10 Ways to Stop Treating Yourself and 10 Gifts You Deserve to Give Yourself.

14. What Christmas Is Like For A Working Poor Family Earning $10,000 A Year (And How To Help) on Huffington Post.

15. No one reads a comic strip because it’s drawn well from Seth Godin. Something like The Oatmeal is proof of this, which leads to an interesting post he made on Facebook, which shows what an amazing artist he really is.

16. Wisdom from Anne Lamott on Facebook.

17. Here Are All The Movies Expiring On Netflix As Of January 1st, in case you want to do some binge watching over the next few days.

18. Wisdom from Marianne Williamson, “The most powerful step is when we move from “Ain’t it awful” to “Let’s make it not awful.”

19. Wisdom from Rumi,

Sometimes you hear a voice through the door calling you,
As a fish out of water hears the waves …
Come back. Come back.
This turning toward what you deeply love saves you.

20. 12/26/13 on 3x3x365. Beautiful.

21. Maitri on Elephant Journal by Waylon Lewis, in which he says,

But it is also the essence of maitri. It seems to me in my experience and also in talking to other people that we come to a body of teachings like the Buddhist teachings or any spiritual path, to meditation in some way like little children looking for comfort, looking for understanding, looking for attention, looking somehow to be confirmed. Some kind of comfort will come out of this.

And the truth is actually that the [meditation] practice isn’t about that. The practice is more about somehow this little child, this I, who wants and wants and wants to be confirmed in some way.

Practice is about that part of our being finally being able to open completely to the whole range of our experience, including all that wanting, including all that hurt, including the pain and the joy. Opening to the whole thing so that this little child-like part of us can finally, finally, finally, finally grow up.

22. Zadie Smith’s 10 Rules of Writing on Brain Pickings, in which she says, “Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never being satisfied.” Word.

23. How to Write: A Year in Advice from Franzen, King, Hosseini, and More: Highlights from 12 months of interviews with writers about their craft and the authors they love, a really great series on The Atlantic.

24. Give your brain a break… and achieve inner peace with our easy guide to meditating.

25. A Forest Year.