1. Hurricane Harvey in Photographs on The New York Times, (And btw, The New York Times has lifted the paywall on articles about the storm). In related news, A Catastrophe for Houston’s Most Vulnerable People, and The Trump administration will check people’s papers as they evacuate from Hurricane Harvey.

2. What you can do to help: Donate to Austin Pets Alive! who is helping shelters in the direct line of Hurricane Harvey, or check out this list from ABC News, or this list on Texas Monthly, or this list from Vox.

3. Old Feral Cat Becomes Grandpa To Foster Kittens. “This old feral cat hated living in a home — until he met the loves of his life.” I shared another video of him already, but this one was too good to keep to myself. In related news, as in “other examples of animal videos that make me stupid happy,” here’s one from West Coast Heeler pack, just a bunch of furry friends out for a walk.

4. Recipes I want to try: Two Ingredient Watermelon Ice Cream and Flour Tortillas.

5. Humans of New York, the series! (video)

6. The Running Activist. (video) “Running is not just about running fast…It’s a way to engage people in conversations, and really change the narrative on what it means to be a Black woman.”

7. 13 Nonfiction Books About Race, Written By Women Of Color. In related news, Amy Gallo’s Five Essential Books for Having Difficult Conversations, and 70+ Race Resources for White People.

8. The cover of Women’s Running, The Great Outdoors Special Issue. “On the cover is the inspirational Mirna Valerio, the woman behind the Fat Girl Running blog, who within the issue writes about how nature inspires every aspect of her life.”

9. An Ariz. Man Is Out of a Job After Posting About Plan to ‘Drive Through’ Trump Protesters. “I think we have a solid candidate for ‘Dick of the Year’ here.” Agreed, and yet, even worse is that this sort of nonsense is pretty common.

10. Wisdom from Patti Digh,

Just a suggestion to my white friends: Rather than spend energy asserting that you don’t have white privilege, investigate how you can use your privilege to dismantle racism. Because trust me, you’ve got it. The very color of your skin provides you with an unearned privilege that people of color don’t have. If you see “privilege” as “wealthy,” then you’re misunderstanding what I mean by white skin privilege. Unearned social advantage by virtue of just having white skin. You’ve got it. Don’t apologize for it. Don’t feel guilty about it. Don’t be ashamed of it. Just use it to dismantle racism.

11. 94-year-old man builds pool for neighborhood kids. (video) “After Keith lost his wife, his house grew silent and lonely. So Keith put in a pool, and the neighborhood kids now fill the silence with laughter.”

12. Buddhism’s Origins, a short video with Morgan Freeman.

13. This 4 year-old percussionist is amazing! (video) His teacher, Baba Donn, continues to teach at the Harlem School of the Arts where he has taught for over 25 years.

14. Wait, Do People Actually Know Just How Evil This Man Is? “Joe Arpaio’s reign was two decades of intimidation, cruelty, and abuses of power.”

15. Facebook is being accused of ‘racially biased censorship’ by the ACLU.

16. All Your Favorite HGTV Shows Are Totally Fake. I already knew some of this, but it doesn’t stop me from watching – it’s still good fiction.

17. Why I Stopped Talking About Racial Reconciliation And Started Talking About White Supremacy.

18. A Love Letter to Activist from Desiree Lynn Adaway.

19. What Trump’s Generation Learned About the Civil War.

20. #introvertproblems hashtag on twitter. In related news, 7 Things Introverts Will Never, Ever Understand.

21. From Alexandra Franzen, in her recent newsletter where she talked about publishing your writing: “To help you get started, I made something for you: CLICK HERE to download a list of 25 places that would love to publish your work. Yes, really. Yes, you. This is a list of blogs, websites, magazines, literary journals, and other places that are currently accepting submissions from new writers. I compiled this list along with my friend Susan—we run a writing class together—and we hope it’s super helpful for you!”

22. Jim Carrey: I Needed Color. (video)

23. Death to the Dichotomy from Be Nourished. “Our individual cycles of self-neglect are only mirrors of what is offered up by the culture, collectively and systemically.”

24. I’m 35 and I may suddenly have lost the rest of my life. I’m panicking, just a bit. “Stop just assuming you have a full lifetime to do whatever it is you dream of doing.”

25. Don’t forget the second step from Seth Godin.

26. The Diet/Beauty Industry Cycle of Dis-Empowerment. When I first looked at this chart, I stared at it for a really, really long time — stunned, gobsmacked. #truth

27. Consider a membership with Everyday Feminism. They do really good work, and need our help to continue doing it.

28. These sex toys are for women, engineered by women.

29. Where Will You Stand? If we are to uphold the dharma, says Rev. angel Kyodo williams, we must stand up to racism and expose its institutionalized forms—even in our Buddhist communities. “Our inability as a nation to atone for the theft of these lands and the building of wealth, power, and privilege on the countless backs and graves of Black people is our most significant obstacle to being at peace with ourselves, and thus with the world.” (Thanks for the link, Rita).

30. Love Everyone: A Guide for Spiritual Activists on Lion’s Roar.

31. ‘Let Us Eat Cake’: The Tina Fey Effect in 2017.

32. What becomes possible when you say No?

33. What do you expect? on Life is Limitless. “Suffering comes in when you have the bar too high for yourself with expectations that sound more like orders or dictates and most of the time stem from other significant people in your life (parents, teachers, etc)…Suffering is experienced in the body when your bar is set from a place of striving and expectation and/or is set by others or from societal pressures of who we think we should be, what we think we should have or what we think we should do.” *sigh*

1. NASA is live streaming the eclipse here. In related news, from The New York Times, How to Watch a Solar Eclipse, and Annie Dillard’s Classic Essay: ‘Total Eclipse.’

2. Friends honor artist’s last wishes with water ballet in a Seattle kiddie pool. (video)

3. Charlottesville: Race and Terror – VICE News Tonight on HBO. (video) I’ve only been able to watch the first few minutes, but it seems worth it to keep trying.

4. “This Isn’t Us” from Chuck Wendig on Terrible Minds. “We are at our best not when we say this isn’t us, but rather, this is us, but we don’t want it to be. We are at our best when we are truthful to ourselves and our children as to how we got here and to the cost we made others pay — and the cost we continue to make them pay today.”

Also from Chuck, Last Chance To Get Off The Ride. “If you’re a person out there who supported this president and who supported the political party to which he supposedly belongs, here’s your chance to get off the ride. Well, first, fuck you, because you should’ve known better.”

5. Ep. 154 [Raise Your Hand and Say Yes]: Laurie Wagner on Telling the Truth. Laurie says of writing, “You never get so good at it that you get beyond it.” Laurie has a new offering, 27 Wild Days, a great introduction to the Wild Writing practice and Laurie’s teaching. She’s beyond brilliant. You should totally check it out.

6. Because there’s no ignoring this and we need to keep trying: Ten Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide, and 6 Things White People Can Do To Reach Friends and Family Members to End Racism, and on racism, discrimination & bigotry, and I Studied the Alt-Right So You Don’t Have To, and Read the transcript of Donald Trump’s jaw-dropping press conference, and People Are Making Memes Showing Iconic Moments When There Was Violence “On Both Sides,” and A Flowchart For People Who Get Defensive When Talking About Racism, and White supremacy may be rearing its ugly head right now, but it’s nothing new (video), and Here are the words and phrases the “alt-right” uses to sanitize its racism and white supremacy (video), and 7 Unmistakable Signs Your Allyship Is Performative, and 17 Books On Race Every White Person Needs To Read, and For Our White Friends Desiring to Be Allies, and The White People Who Need “Proof of Racism,” and What Trump gets wrong about Confederate statues, in one chart, and Charlottesville’s Ongoing Fight Against White Supremacy (video), and Everything We Do Matters, But Two Things Are Critical, and The Sugarcoated Language Of White Fragility, and Racism Scale: Where Do You Fall?, and Crowdsourced Actions: things you can do re: Charlottesville, and So You Want To Fight White Supremacy, and On Fragility.

7. I need to talk to spiritual white women about white supremacy (Part One), wisdom from Layla Saad. “If it seems like I’m being judgemental, I am. That’s the very least white supremacy, racial hatred and domestic terrorism deserve.” And this,

…without meaning to, a lot of times nice, well-meaning white women can contribute in a big way to the problems we see because they don’t speak up, or they want to keep things polite, or they think the best thing they can do is just focus on being a loving person rather than ‘getting involved in politics’. This white silence, white privilege and white shame leads to a lot of white complicity in white supremacy.

8. Wisdom from Pema Chödrön, “Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already. The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That’s the ground, that’s what we study, that’s what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest.”

9. 4 Questions Introverts Who Are Feeling Drained Should Ask Themselves. These seem liked they’d be useful contemplations for just about anyone.

10. Violence Turned Inward, wisdom from Rachel Cole.

When we aren’t connected to our innate enoughness and our place in the family of humans our pursuit of enoughness and belonging too often turns violent. For some white men, this violence turns outward. For too many women, again, especially white women, the violence turns inward, toward the self. Through perfectionism, loathing of the body, suppression of hungers, silencing of voice, denial of pleasure, dismissal of intuition, resistance to rest, and constant comparison to others, we are violent to ourselves.”

11. Black pastors release video, announce NFL boycott in support of Colin Kaepernick. In related news, Colin Kaepernick receives support from both inside and outside the NFL, and Will ‘BlackOut’ Be the Movement to Shut Down the NFL?.

12. 4 Signs You’re Culturally Appropriating Buddhism – And Why It’s Important Not to.

13. Tina Fey did this thing, (video), and the discussion happening around it is fascinating. Here’s just some of it: Tina Fey’s Response to Charlottesville Is White Privilege Personified, and The Outrage Over Tina Fey’s “Sheetcaking” Bit Is a Waste of Collective Energy, and Not Everyone Found Tina Fey’s “Sheetcaking” Funny, And Here’s Why, and The Brilliance of Tina Fey’s Cake Satire, Explained, and this twitter thread from Leslie Mac of Safety Pin Box. In related news, Late Night Hosts React To Charlottesville, Virginia. (video)

14. Lizzo is a singer-songwriter using her voice as an instrument of change. (video)

15. Free Yourself of Your Harshest Critic, and Plow Ahead on The New York Times.

16. Arts council members call for Trump to step down in their resignation letter.

17. Living In Between Fat and Thin. “In a society where size means everything, we are constantly negotiating to fit in.”

18. Recipes I want to try: Cashew Thai Quinoa Salad with Peanut Ginger Sauce and 2-Ingredient Sorbet 4 Ways.

19. Reusable food wrap from etee. “Say Goodbye to plastic wrap, sandwich bags & bulky storage containers. Preserve your food and protect your family – naturally – with these reusable food wraps.”

20. Why We Need To Talk About Racism, Prejudice And Dog Rescue. P.S. the image they use for this article looks like baby Ringo.

21. The memorial service for Heather Heyer, the woman killed Saturday after the white supremacist rally, held in Charlottesville, VA. (video) Here’s another video of the same.

22. Jamila Woods – Holy (Official Video). #blackgirlmagic

23. Video footage of rare all-white moose in Sweden.

24. Waking Up Is a Prerequisite to Reckoning, wisdom from Jena Schwartz. “The past isn’t the past when it’s present in our everyday lives, in ways many white Americans continue to diminish, downplay, and downright deny.”