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

Lory State Park, image by Eric

1. Humans of New York. This project is consistently one of my favorite things. The current series about refugees that Brandon is sharing is amazing, heartbreaking and beautiful. P.S. Any of the Humans of New York books would make great holiday gifts.

2. Call this number and a live person will sing you any Christmas song, 24/7. Really. This is SO cool.

3. Neil Gaiman Reads “A Christmas Carol.” OMG. I could listen to him read the phonebook… *swoon*

4. Romantic moment this morning at the farm! A cute video of two dogs in front of the fire — when you want to play, but you are too warm and sleepy.

5. Orangutan finds magic trick hilarious… Stupid cute video.

6. A Thank You Gift, “a free downloadable PDF containing the process I utilise each year to review how that year has gone and to being the creation process for the next year” from Life is Limitless.

7. Mandy Patinkin visits Lesbos, Greece. “Actor and activist, Mandy Patinkin witnesses first-hand the situation in Greece, where many thousands of refugees have been arriving. Escaping life from war-torn countries, refugees hope to have a better life.” To help: https://engage.rescue.org/donate/mandypatinkin

8. Being A Girl: A Brief Personal History of Violence. *sigh*

9. Photographer Captures Soulful Portraits Of Man’s Best Friend. Stupid cute…

10. New Embroidered Leaves by Hillary Fayle. I love so much that there are people who think to do this sort of thing, who do it and then share it with the rest of us.

11. ‘The higher the hair, the closer to God’: Glorious BIG hair from the 1960s. I’m just gonna say it: fashion can be so dumb.

12. Bun Bun, Destroyer of Leaves! My aunt had a bunny named Willy when I was a kid, and this little bun reminds me so much of him.

13. Wisdom from Arianna Huffington, speaking at the BlogHer conference in July 2014, “We need to change the delusion that we need to burn out in order to succeed. We have a much better understanding of the battery status of our iPhone than the state of our own wellbeing.” Oh, snap!

14. I was a respectable, high-functioning junkie. I wholeheartedly recommend everything Jennifer Matesa has ever written about addiction.

15. We’re coming for you 2016!, Susannah Conway’s “Unravelling The Year Ahead” workbook (FREE!), which has become a yearly ritual for me. She’s also offering a free 5-day course, Find Your Word for 2016. (P.S. I think my word is going to be “path” but I’m going to do this course just to be sure).

16. Embroidered Psychological Landscapes by Michelle Kingdom. Beautiful and a tiny bit creepy.

17. Mother Cat Brings Her Kittens To Meet An Unlikely Old Friend. Spoiler alert: it’s a dog.

18. Mind-wandering: the rise of a new anti-mindfulness movement, an interesting perspective.

19. The Internet Criticizes Reese’s Peanut Butter Trees, But Then Reese’s Drops The Most Witty Response. So perfect.

20. Text Santa Downton Abbey, a hilarious spoof with the actual actors from the show, almost as good as Downton Arby’s.

21. 20 Reasons Life Gets Way Too Complicated from Marc and Angel Hack Life.

22. 27 Question to Ask Instead of “What Do You Do?”, a set of great options on Medium.

23. Centered and complete, and Light on your feet, wisdom from Seth Godin.

24. No One Gets to be a Messiah: On Quiet Acts of Kindness + The Human Reality (Sometimes Life Does Actually Suck), such an important read, from Meg Worden.

25. 15 holiday gift ideas. (Mostly “experiences.” Not much “stuff.”) from Alexandra Franzen, a nice reminder that we don’t always need to buy stuff to show someone they matter to us.

26. 8 Meaningful Gifts to Support a Simple Life from Be More With Less.

27. How to find your voice from Austin Kleon.

28. Truthbomb #949 from Danielle LaPorte, “The best self-help is self-compassion.”

30. Wisdom from Brave Girls Club, “It’s a great day to put down the heavy bag of rocks called expectation and worry…and to just let yourself be…to just do your best, and then let it be.”

31. Inspiration + Aspiration on Zen Habits.

32. Easing someone’s suffering…without suffering. Is it possible? from Danielle LaPorte.

33. No alcohol, no coffee for 15 months. This is what happened.

34. She Who Hears the Cries of the World by Christina Feldman, a great article on compassion. “The path of compassion is cultivated one step and one moment at a time. Each of those steps lessens the mountain of sorrow in the world.”

1. Good stuff on Medium: Why Starting a “Blog” is a Terrible Idea, and When you work for yourself: stop doing shit you don’t like, and Starbucks Wants To Talk To You About Race, and Lighten Up.

2. Good stuff from Dances with Fat: If Not Weight Loss, Then What? and Willful Suspension of Disbelief.

3. Things That Make Me Happy on A Design So Vast.

4. Don’t Create Content. Move People. from Jonathan Fields.

5. Truthbomb from Danielle LaPorte: “Think of suffering as self-compassion school.”

6. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’ve been kind of obsessed with any conversation around race and racism lately. Here are some thought provoking articles on the subject, if you are also interested: After an Uneasy Start, Finding Common Ground to Discuss Race Relations at Work, and 10 things black people fear that white people simply don’t, and Why Kimmy Schmidt’s Native Subplot is Great: A Native Fan’s Opinion, and Being White Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry: How the Oklahoma frat scandal exposes a racial double standard, and Portland gentrification video: ‘This is painful, but we can do something,’ and this video,

7. Good stuff about writing from Terrible Minds: The Flipside Of My Writing Tirade, and In Which I Emit A Lot Of Grr-Talk About Your Writing Career, and Writing Is A Profane, Irrational, Imperfect Act.

8. I’m also kind of obsessed with the conversation around fattism, fat shaming, Health at Every Size, and such. Here are some good articles on the topic, if you are also interested: the weight of this body, and Virgie Tovar on eradicating diet culture, the joy of moving your body, and Babecamp 2015, and Grieving the Loss of Your Body Fantasy, and What Happens If We Let Fat People Be Happy?

9. Just One Man Remains in Fukushima Radiation Zone – He’s Feeding All the Animals Left Behind.

10. The Girl’s Girl from Brittany, Herself.

11. 40 Guilty Cats Who Deserve To Be Shamed Publicly, but probably don’t care because, well, they are cats.

12. Meg Worden, podcast goddess: Ask the Aunties Episode 1: ‘I am a 35 year old virgin’ and Raise your Hand Say Yes with Meg Worden.

13. If Vegans Said Things Meat Eaters Say.

14. StoryCorps Wins The TED Prize And Builds An App That Lets Anyone Record An Interview On Their Phone.

15. Nurse helps sexual assault survivors heal, move on.

16. Sex Tips That Don’t Suck, a poem performed.

17. Tweet, Memory, Dani Shapiro remembering Lisa Bonechek Adams.

18. Leon Bridges, such a beautiful voice. I can’t wait for his full album. The style of what I’ve heard so far reminds me of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black.

19. A Group Of People Read The Last Texts From Their Exes And It’s Hilarious.

20. The Pitfalls of Pursuing Your Purpose by Adreanna Limbach.

21. Good stuff from Lion’s Roar: On Awakening Through Race, Sexuality, and Gender, and Dig into 3 recipes from vegan chef Bryant Terry.

22. Side-By-Side Photos Of What Rich And Poor Eat Reveal ‘Glaring Disparities’ Worldwide.

23. The difference between commitment and technique from Seth Godin.

24. Wisdom from Pema Chödrön,

Even after many years, many of us continue to practice harshly. We practice with guilt, as if we’re going to be excommunicated if we don’t do it right. We practice so we won’t be ashamed of ourselves and with fear that someone will discover what a “bad” meditator we really are. The old joke is that a Buddhist is someone who is either meditating or feeling guilty about not meditating. There’s not much joy in that.

Maybe the most important teaching is to lighten up and relax. It’s such a huge help in working with our crazy mixed-up minds to remember that what we’re doing is unlocking a softness that is in us and letting it spread. We’re letting it blur the sharp corners of self-criticism and complaint.

25. From Brave Girls Club:

Just like every amazing brave girl, your mind and heart are filled with lots and lots of ideas and dreams. Sometimes that puts us into a panic because we feel like we have to do it all right now, or that we will run out of time, or like the window of opportunity will close.

Please remember, friend, that there is a season for everything. You may find that when you ask your heart of hearts, that you can only focus on one big thing at a time if you are to do it in the beautiful, soulful way that you love to do things…and that other things may have to wait for now. You may find that you can juggle two or three special things, but that you will have to let some others things go to be able to make that happen. What you will most likely NOT find if you are very very soulfully honest with yourself and if you listen very very closely, is that you cannot do EVERYTHING you want to do at once…because sacred things will suffer…most especially YOU.

So please give yourself permission to put some things on a different timetable so that you can give the best of yourself to the things that are very most important in THIS season of your life. It does not make you weak or powerless when you let things go… On the contrary it shows your strength and commitment to all that is best for your own precious life.

26. Introducing April LOVE, 2015!, another great daily photo challenge from Susannah Conway.

27. Good stuff on Create as Folk: Contributor Welcome: Caren Baginski for Workday Wellness and Ever Feel Like a Nobody?

28. The Daily Routines of Famous Creative People: INFOGRAPHIC.

29. Surrealist Sculptures by Ellen Jewett Merge Plant and Animal Life.

30. Now that’s what I call an *acceptance* speech. Amazing job, Kerry Washington.