Something Good

1. How Bisa Butler Went From Being a High School Art Teacher to an In-Demand Quilter. “We spoke with Butler about her whirlwind year, why finding success in her 40s has been a blessing, and how she recharges in stressful times.”

2. It’s Time to Defund the Causes of Suffering on Lion’s Roar. “Following the police killing of Daunte Wright in Minnesota, Constance Kassor examines how calls to defund the police can be linked to the Buddhist call to eradicate causes of suffering.”

3. Q: Why Blog? A: Blogs Are Great.

4. Poet Ross Gay Discusses How The Pandemic Has Given “The Book Of Delights” New Meaning.

5. Tressie McMillan Cottom on Angela Davis, Gwendolyn Brooks, and the Books She Re-Reads the Most.

6. Author Jenny Lawson Talks Humor, Depression, and the Underrated Virtue of Kindness.

7. Watercolorist Carries On Centuries-Old Tradition by Painting Ethereal Designs on Silk.

8. If You Find These 10 Things Overwhelming, You Might Be an HSP. In related news, Why Highly Sensitive People Are Attracted to Jobs That Burn Them Out.

9. A sign language performer, in the field of music, translates “Feeling good” by Nina Simone. (video) Make sure to turn the sound on.

10. What to do instead of calling the police. “These alternatives can help keep communities safe for everyone.”

11. LaDonna Allard Dies at 64; Led Dakota Pipeline Protests on The New York Times. “She started a resistance camp that turned into a movement that opposed fossil fuels while it embraced tribal sovereignty and environmental justice.”

12. After Growing Up In A Cult, Lauren Hough Freed Herself By Writing The Truth. In related news, Book Review: ‘Leaving Isn’t The Hardest Thing’ Isn’t Just A Cult Memoir.

13. The rare and unnerving reality of catching COVID after being vaccinated.

14. The Salvific Power of Writing Through Terrible Grief.

15. Moonlit Forests, Fish, and Branches Populate Kirie Silhouettes Cut from a Single Sheet of Paper.

16. Maslow Got It Wrong. “It’s time for us to let go of narratives like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the American Dream, which leave out any mention of participating in community well-being and tell a story only of individual flourishing. This is a profound distortion of reality and leaves us living in illusion, needing to wake up. As Daniel Suelo says in The Man Who Quit Money, ‘there’s not a creature or even a particle in the universe that’s self-sufficient. We’re all dependent on everybody else.'”

17. Flora and Fauna Intertwine in Delicate Mixed-Media Artworks by Teagan White.

18. There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing on The New York Times. “Languishing is a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield. And it might be the dominant emotion of 2021.”

19. There Can Only Be One: Battle Of The Joshes Brings Hundreds To Nebraska.

20. Prayers for India, a poem from bentlily. After you read this one, take some time looking around at her others. You won’t regret it, and if you do: why are we even friends?

1. ‘Comfort Decorating’ Is All About Making Your Home A Sanctuary. “It’s called ‘comfort decorating,’ and it can provide a sense of normalcy even when everything around us feels, well, not very normal.”

2. How Sara Gruen Lost Her Life. “The Water for Elephants author’s six-year fight to free an incarcerated man left her absolutely broke and critically ill.”

3. You Can Now Download a Collection of Ancient Japanese Wave Illustrations for Free.

4. The Grief Crisis Is Coming on The New York Times. For each person who dies of Covid-19, experts say there are at least nine newly bereaved. We must begin to address the toll.”

5. Fear Of Flying | Stop Motion Animated Short Film. “It’s time to migrate south, but Dougal is afraid of flying. The tragicomic adventure of a bird and its phobias.”

6. The 31 Finalists Of 2021 Bird Photographer Of The Year Awards.

7. The first photo I ever took of my daughter, and the last.

8. Detox Your Mind: 5 Practices to Purify the 3 Poisons on Lion’s Roar. “Five Buddhist teachers share practices to clear away the poisons that cause suffering and obscure your natural enlightenment.”

9. Wisdom from Pema Chödrön:

There’s a common misunderstanding among all the human beings who have ever been born on the earth that the best way to live is to try to avoid pain and just try to get comfortable. You can see this even in insects and animals and birds. All of us are the same.

A much more interesting, kind, adventurous, and joyful approach to life is to begin to develop our curiosity, not caring whether the object of our inquisitiveness is bitter or sweet. To lead a life that goes beyond pettiness and prejudice and always wanting to make sure that everything turns out on our own terms, to lead a more passionate, full, and delightful life than that, we must realize that we can endure a lot of pain and pleasure for the sake of finding out who we are and what this world is, how we tick and how our world ticks, how the whole thing just is.

10. Black Collagists on Instagram, “A digital archive and arts incubator highlighting the work of Black collage artists globally.”

11. For the introverts: Dreading Going Back to ‘Normal’? Reentry Fear Is Real and Why a Clutter-Free Environment Is Important for Introverts.

12. Return the National Parks to the Tribes from The Atlantic. “The jewels of America’s landscape should belong to America’s original peoples.”

13. I’ve had the same supper for 10 years. “I have lived in the Teifi valley, in west Wales, all my life: 72 years. I’m a farmer and look after 71 sheep. My boyhood was spent helping my family on the farm. I have never wanted to run away from it, even as a young lad. This valley is cut in the shape of my heart.” His is such a sweet, inspiring story, to live your life exactly as you want it, content with who you are and what you do, even if it might seem strange to everyone else.

14. A Pastor’s Son Becomes a Critic of Religion on TikTok on The New York Times. “John Piper is one of the most influential theologians in America. His son Abraham calls evangelicalism ‘a destructive, narrow-minded worldview.'”

15. The Ms. Q&A With Ani DiFranco: “You Have License To Be All the Aspects of Yourself and To Be Unashamed of Them.”

16. Ada Limón on Preparing the Body for a Reopened World: The Challenges of Emerging from Lockdown.