1. December Reflections, 2017 with Susannah Conway. “The idea is simply to take a photograph (and share it if you wish) every day in December while reflecting back over the year. I’ve provided a list of daily prompts with a mix of things to photograph — for example: sparkle, red, skyline — and things to ponder. The ponder prompts are an extra invitation to pause for a moment and consider some of your favourite bits of 2017. Share your treasured photos from the year alongside your thoughts. Dig further into the prompts privately in your journal. You may feel moved to create paintings or collages or poems. December Reflections started as a photo project but feel free to take it in any direction that calls to you!”

2. Sleep-over at the library. “Falling asleep in a library is typically the hallmark of an overstressed student, slumped over a desk piled with books in a fit of exam-induced exhaustion. But at this library in a small Welsh village, sleeping among the books is part of the appeal.”

3. 30 Questions I’ve Asked Myself Every Year for the Last 8 Years. I love a good list of prompts.

4. 5 Misconceptions About Highly Sensitive People That Need to Go Away.

5. What I learned from a year of dumpster diving in Australia.

6. Wisdom from Brave Girls Club. This one feels like it was written just for me, but I’ll share it here just in case it was for you too.

Dear Brave Soul,
Listen for a minute, okay?
It’s time to stop waiting.
It’s time to become who you want to become and do what you want to do and learn what you want to learn and rest when you want to rest.
It’s time to take little pieces of your day and do terrific things that are beautiful and personal and unique and true.
Every day we can make progress toward our own big and little dreams. So no more waiting, okay?
It is time. Time to find peace, time to be happy, time to really live. It is time. Today.
You are so beloved. Right now.
xoxo

7. Strangled Roots and More Than One Kind of Silence from Jena Schwartz.

8. Farmland can spark urban renewal—and it’s happening in Detroit. (video)

9. These 10 companies control everything you buy. “Oxfam created a mind-boggling infographic that shows how interconnected consumer brands really are.”

10. Recipes I’d like to try: Vegan mayo and Scalloped Sweet Potatoes.

11. With ‘One Mississippi,’ The Moment For Women Storytellers Is Now. “As some of comedy’s icons have fallen, Tig Notaro continues to rise. We should make way for more women like her.”

12. Health Science Is Bullshit from College Humor. (video)

13. We Can’t Train Our Way to Racial Equity.

14. The Patel Family’s Immigrant Story. (video) “Ravi V Patel joins his family and friends in Chicago to take a trip down memory lane and learn about his father’s immigrant story.”

15. This Cat And Dog Love Travelling Together, And Their Pictures Are Absolutely Epic.

16. Thanksgiving for Native Americans: Four Voices on a Complicated Holiday from The New York Times.

17. Turns Out Tree-Kangaroos Exist, And It’s Impossible To Scroll Down This List Without Smiling.

18. An American Secret: The Untold Story Of Native American Enslavement.

19. Anyone for crickets? Finnish bakery sells bread made from insect. Considering the things we eat and take for granted as food, I’m not sure why eating bugs is viewed as anything out of the ordinary.

20. It is time to Give Back to Black Women for #GivingTuesday. (video)

21. A Texas teenager has a forever home just in time for the holidays after his former teacher adopted him on Friday.

22. This 23-year-old is doing her part to bring clean water to her Navajo community after decades of pollution and neglect. (video)

23. Don’t be afraid to talk about the real history behind Thanksgiving. (video)

24. Eliahu Pietruszka had grown up thinking his whole family had been killed in a Nazi death camp. (video) “This is the moment a 102-year-old Holocaust survivor meets the nephew he never knew he had.”

25. Trump Says He Passed On Being ‘Person Of The Year.’ ‘Time’ Says He’s ‘Incorrect.’ Liar, liar, you are a dumpster fire.

26. Words of wisdom from poet Andrea Gibson,

When I think the light is gone
I consider that it might just be too bright
for me to look at. Especially
if I’ve come directly from the dark.
Which I, and many of us have, lately.

27. Through Our Eyes: Puerto Rico. (video) “Here’s a glimpse at what life is like in post-hurricane Puerto Rico, where American citizens are still without clean water, food, or electricity.”

28. NYT Accused Of Normalizing White Nationalism In ‘Nazi Sympathizer’ Profile. In related news, from The New York Times, Readers Accuse Us of Normalizing a Nazi Sympathizer; We Respond.

1. Modern Love 13-Word Love Stories from The New York Times.

2. Yoga in America Often Exploits My Culture—but You May Not Even Realize It. As a Buddhist, yoga teacher, and white woman, this is something about which I continue to cultivate awareness.

3. Captivating Kids Stories To Recognize Privilege. A great reading list, especially with the holidays coming up. #booksarethebestpresents In related news, ‘Open the doors and let these books in’ – what would a truly diverse reading list look like?

4. Saying ‘No Thanks’ to Lying to Kids about Thanksgiving. In related news, No Thanks: How Thanksgiving Narratives Erase the Genocide of Native Peoples, and Native American Girls Describe the REAL History Behind Thanksgiving (video), and The very first Thanksgiving looked a lot different than most of us realize (video).

5. This couple got married on the U.S.-Mexico border when it was opened for 3 minutes. (video) As I said when I shared this on Facebook: Fuck this shit. Fuck your wall. I mean y’all do realize we live on stolen land, right?

6. ‘This is such a scam’ — this senator won’t tolerate any bullsh*t about Trump’s tax plan. (video) In related news, Congresswoman masterfully exposes Trump tax scam as a giveaway… (video) This is the kind of thing I hope is happening in politics everywhere, behind every closed door, in every meeting and session — resistance.

7. Teachers Learn About Their Bias Towards Students. (video) “The ratio of white teachers to students of color is a national problem. This New York school district is training educators on how to talk about race, and address their own biases.”

8. Experience: my workout nearly killed me. Thank goodness my eating disorder and messed up notions about my body didn’t exist in the thick of the CrossFit era. I might be dead.

9. Recipes I want to try: (or an alternative title for this list, “many ways eat Brussels sprouts”), root vegetable gratin, and Bacon and Brussels Sprout Salad, and brussels sprouts, apple and pomegranate salad, Brussels Sprouts Gratin, and Brussels Sprouts with Pine Nuts and Parmesan, and Gingerbread Apple Muffins, and Cornbread 4 Ways. In totally related news, How To Make Brussels Sprouts Taste Way Better.

10. Confusing Malaise from PHD Comics.

11. This brave woman has something to say to her body shamers. (video) Fuck you and your fat phobia. Even if she weren’t doing a single thing to modify her body, she can put whatever she wants in her mouth, eat whatever she wants AND enjoy it. What you eat or what your body looks like is NOT a moral issue, and it’s certainly nobody else’s business. In related news, Seemingly Overweight Dancer Blows Audience Away With Epic Swing Routine. And again, I say: Fuck you and your fat phobia. And just to underline the point, Roxane Gay Wants You to See Fat People as Humans and Aidy Bryant Puts Fat Shaming In Its Place and Letting Go of “Health-ism” and Related Panic.

12. 10+ Neighbours Who Made The Neighbourhood More Interesting.

13. If music gives you goosebumps, your brain might be special. My brain is special. Maybe you’d already guessed that? 🙂

14. The amount of food we waste every year is absurd. (video)

15. Gentle Giant Adopts Tiny Rescue Owl, His Protective Ways Will Make Your Day.

16. These people received a special surprise for being kind. (video)

17. White People Are Smashing Their Coffee Machines to Show Support for Child Molestation. I wish people would just admit they are racist, misogynist bigots and stop pretending to be so righteous and offended. In related news, this is how you do it: Why Kaep Takes a Knee. (video) “Colin Kaepernick has been named ‘Citizen of the Year’ by GQ. Here’s a refresher on what Colin’s protest is all about.” The same kind of people smashing coffee machines were burning his jersey.

18. Food Psych #130: How to Fight Fatphobia in Woke Spaces with Melissa Toler. I didn’t get to listen to this yet, but it’s a great podcast, and Melissa Toler is doing really great work.

19. Lemonade for Love. (video) “This little girls kindness and generosity is so well needed in this world.”

20. This kid is so awesome. (video) “When Hurricane Harvey slammed into Dickinson, TX, 13-year-old Virgil Smith trudged into the water with an air mattress to transport his stranded neighbors to safety.”

21. An Ode To the Women Who are “Too Much”, which I found because Lindsey shared a quote and link on A Design So Vast.

22. Some things I’ve noticed… from Chaz Hutton.

23. Who knows who you’ll help? Susan Hyatt makes a really good point about the importance of doing what you do. “We’re all here to serve one another. Whether it’s through a blog post, an article, a business, a fundraiser, or some other project, we’re all here to serve humanity. So, go create and share. Please don’t hold yourself back. Because who knows who you’ll help?”

24. So You’ve Sexually Harassed Or Abused Someone: What Now? from Ijeoma Oluo. “You can never erase this, but you can repair some of the damage done, and the damage your inaction is currently doing. You can be a part of the solution. And you have to be. You owe it to your victims. You owe it to us all.” This wisdom applies, regardless of the specific wrong you’ve done. Also from Ijeoma Oluo and in related news, When You Can’t Throw All Men Into The Ocean And Start Over, What CAN You Do?

25. Five Science-Backed Strategies to Build Resilience.

26. ‘I’ve Always Queered That Normative Space’: A Q&A With Rhea Butcher and Cameron Esposito.

27. The Truth About Christmas: The Epic, Untold Story of the holiday’s True Origins. This is just one small example of why it’s so important to understand the origins of things, to know actual history, and to seek out the truth.

28. A Wrinkle in Time Official US Trailer.

29. Being better to your fat friend this thanksgiving.

This holiday, before you comment on how much you’ve eaten, the weight of your regret, your fears for the body you might grow into, your fears for the bodies around you, your anxiety about anyone eating too much, stay silent for a moment. Sit with how it feels not to say it. Sit with what you wanted to say. Ask why you wanted to say it. Ask who it would benefit.

30. Give Back To Black Women on Giving Tuesday.

Giving Tuesday is a national movement fundraising day that happens on Nov. 28th which focuses on altruistic giving, particularly in the online space. Like most structures impacted by systems of violence, Giving Tuesday has become monopolized by the Non-profit Industrial Complex. To make it plain: huge heirarchal non-profit organizations take up space and collect money that the very communities they proport to organize for never see. We are disrupting that model and centering Black Women and femmes. Join us in the work!

31. 100 questions to spark conversation & connection from Alexandra Franzen.