1. How to Design Your Life Around Collective Care. “And why our personal relationships are the starting grounds for social change.”

2. “Portrait of a person who’s not there”: Documenting the bedrooms of school shooting victims on CBS Sunday morning. “Over the past six years, the parents of school shooting victims opened their doors to CBS News’ Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp, inviting them to see what it’s like to live alongside their children’s bedrooms, just as they left them.”

3. Five For Families from We Have Stories. “For the fifth year in a row, we are dedicated to supporting over 200 families from marginalized, economically disadvantaged backgrounds as we enter the fall holiday season. This year, we’re aiming to raise $20,000 to provide these families with nourishing holiday meals and other essentials to help make their season a little brighter. Each meal package includes fresh produce, pantry staples, and holiday favorites.”

4. On Poetry as Historical Record, the Legacy of Colonialism, and Depicting Disaster in Verse. “Dorsía Silva Smith in Conversation with Poets.org.”

5. Meet the 2024 National Book Award Finalists. “Quick Questions for the Year’s Best Writers, Poets, and Translators.”

6. The Gravity-Defying Land Art by Cornelia Konrads.

7. Emerging Fort Episode 125: Laura Pritchett on Being Kind to Yourself. (podcast) “When we asked prolific novelist Laura Pritchett to speak with us about writing fiction, little did we realize that not only would she offer us a host of practical advice about character, revision and ambition, she would also teach us about meeting our art with great self-compassion. We speak about her two new novels out this year, Playing with Wildfire (Torrey House Press) and Three Keys (Random House Books), writing without a plot outline, and much more, including why joy must be a part of a fiction writer’s practice.”

8. Good stuff from Jamie Attenberg on Craft Talk: Some Questions about Online Boundaries (“Featuring thoughts on OnlyFans, the value of secrets, wisdom from Sam Irby, and more”), and Little Crater Heart, and The One About the Tree.

9. Political Activism as a Spiritual Practice from Omkari Williams. “But really, what is the point of a spiritual life if it doesn’t inspire us to engage with the world and its challenges more fully and with greater compassion for others and ourselves?”

10. How Introverts Can Quiet Negative Thoughts for Greater Peace of Mind.

11. Good stuff from Seth Godin: Take good notes and Catastrophizing toward action.

12. Poetry from Julie Barton: For The Giver and Listening. In related news, Though It’s Messy, a poem from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.

13. No One Ever Said You Must Wear Tight Pants…“and 49 other lessons learned during my half-century on earth!”

14. What would love and solidarity do? from Patti Digh. “Beyond the blue bracelet.”

15. Less Moreness. “A meditation on the things we don’t replace, and how buying and owning less might address several big problems at once.”

16. Post-Election Letter To A Friend from Andrea Gibson. “What do we do now?”

17. 25 Simple Ways to Take Care of Yourself Over the Holidays from Courtney Carver on Be More With Less.

18. No, really–you are here for THIS. “Our species is facing unprecedented challenges. That’s what you, and I, and all of those seeking the light, are doing here now. Let’s use our strength to move beyond our Reactive Brain tyrants’ trance of win/lose, good/bad, Power Over/Under. Our true, evolutionary power comes from connecting deeply with ourselves, with each other, and with all that is. Let’s link arms and step into Power With–together.”

19. I’m Not Here to Be a Vessel for Fear on Lion’s Roar. “Kaira Jewel Lingo encourages us to confront our own fears and assumptions with mindful presence and compassion, inspiring a path toward healing a fractured country.”

20. It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall from Rita on Rootsie. “What happens when the roof fails and the foundation rots (literally).”

21. There Was a Time in My Life When I Knew by Dinty W. Moore on Short Reads. “The soundscape of a childhood.”

22. How We’ll Get Through from Jena Schwartz. “Rested, sharp, fierce & deep.”

23. What Dead Writers Teach us About Resilience, “and how to cry everything holy.”

24. A new wave of movements against Trumpism is coming. “Our job is to translate outrage over his agenda into action toward a truly transformational vision.”

25. Inner Field Trip: 30 Days of Personal Exploration, Collective Liberation, and Generational Healing, a workbook from Leesa Renée Hall.

26. How to get through this, “Coping strategies for the next few days — and the next four years.”

27. We need raw awe. “In this tech-vexed age, our life on screens prevents us from experiencing the mysteries and transformative wonder of life.”

28. And finally, this random collection of things I saved to my phone this week.

1. 10 ways to be prepared and grounded now that Trump has won. “The key to taking effective action in a Trump world is to avoid perpetuating the autocrat’s goals of fear, isolation, exhaustion and disorientation.”

2. Your to-do list for the next two months to put you in the best possible position to survive what’s coming.

3. We Were Wrong About America on The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz. Also from John, What The Hell Just Happened, America?

4. Election Grief Is Real. Here’s How to Cope. “Understanding the psychology of ambiguous loss can help people struggling with grief and depression in the wake of the 2024 election results.”

5. Wisdom from Rev. angel Kyodo williams: “Confusion is a gift. It is the gift that indicates that there is something that is stable, steady, that is true, that is right, and something is running into conflict with it.”

6. A pledge from Embodiment Matters: “We embrace with wholehearted love this burning world. We are committed to love and liberation and to a future where all life thrives on this beautiful Earth. We are committed to the practices, principles, gatherings, heart values, and rituals that support each of us in bringing forth our unique soul-medicine for the healing that these times calls for. The Great Turning is that essential shift from the dominating military industrial growth society to a truly life sustaining human culture. As Abigail Bengson sang in a recent song, ‘Who makes the future? We do. We do.’ May we not forget.”

7. Sunshine, Love, Salvation, “& a prompt for warding off despair” on The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad.

8. Health at Every Size® (HAES) 101. “People in all bodies can work towards health — without trying to lose weight.”

9. Poetry from Julie Barton: Purpose, Sick Day, Pandiculation, and At Least There’s Dogs.

10. Micro Activism: How You Can Make a Difference in the World (Without A Bullhorn) by Omkari Williams.

11. Good stuff on Craft Talk from Jamie Attenberg: End Goals and An Interview with Rebecca Clarke, “By the Book” Illustrator.

12. How to Let Things Go: 8 Things You’re Better Off Without from Courtney Carver on Be More With Less.

13. This Morning Ritual Will Set You Up for a More Peaceful Day Ahead. “Five minutes is all you need.”

14. Why We All Need to Pause More Often and How to Do It.

15. Ways to Cope With the ‘Sunlight Blues’ When DST Steals All the Daylight.

16. 100 interesting facts to entertain adults and kids. I love the idea of using these as writing prompts too.

17. Typewriter interview with Lynda Barry from Austin Kleon. “On the magic of music, recreational sleeping, and the smell of dogs.”

18. A Time for Bodhisattvas on Lion’s Roar. “It is now time to ask ourselves, ‘What would a bodhisattva do?,’ and let that be our guide and inspiration. Lion’s Roar offers us the wisdom of leading Buddhist teachers, leaders, and activists as we contemplate how to meet a dark time with the compassion, courage, and skill of bodhisattvas dedicated to the welfare of all beings.”

19. What If Trump Wins? Resources, interviews, articles, and training materials.

20. Protect Democracy “is a cross-ideological nonprofit group dedicated to defeating the authoritarian threat, building more resilient democratic institutions, and protecting our freedom and liberal democracy. Our experts and advocates use litigation, legislative and communications strategies, technology, research, and analysis to stand up for free and fair elections, the rule of law, fact-based debate, and a better democracy for future generations.”

21. There’s No Denying It Anymore: Trump Is Not a Fluke—He’s America. “The United States chose Donald Trump in all his ugliness and cruelty, and the country will get what it deserves.”

22. Some Actually Good News From Election Night. 

23. On Getting Along by Howard Zinn. “You ask how I manage to stay involved and remain seemingly happy and adjusted to this awful world where the efforts of caring people pale in comparison to those who have power?”

24. Good stuff from Chuck Wendig on Terrible Minds: This Is A Doom Post and A Slow, Crooked Path Forward.

25. How Trump Won And What Must Change from Frederick Joseph. “Unpacking the how’s and why’s of the 2024 presidential election.”

26. Joy is an act of resistance from Patti Digh. “So is love. On radical imagination and principled struggle.”

27. something deeper than the mind, “a somatic practice for grief and chaos” from Abigail Rose Clarke.

28. Poet Naomi Shihab Nye reads her poem “Gate A-4.” (video)

29. Inviting Spaciousness by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.

30. 木漏れ日 (Komorebi) [kō-mō-leh-bē] – Sunlight leaking through the leaves of trees on Orion Magazine.

31. I am tired from Rita Ott Ramstad. “We all have finite resources, and knowing what we won’t use them on is as important as knowing what we will.”

32. This is How Much America Still Hates Women. “They hate us, and they think we will learn to hate ourselves, too. But they also underestimate us.”

33. How to Manage Election Season Emotions. “Excellent advice from Dr. Pooja Lakshmin.”

34. One Grain of Sand from Summer Brennan. “It’s just an image from a kid’s movie. Life is not a fairy tale. I don’t know how to oppose the real forces of darkness. This is just a few paragraphs, some words on a screen. I don’t have anything useful or clever to say. All I have is this seed of something, or not even a seed. A grain of sand. Just one. But maybe we can wish on it together.”

35. Hummingbird Heart on Short Reads. “A small good thing.”

36. My Friend Called. We Cried. from Jena Schwartz.

37. Lucky Blue from Julia Fehrenbacher. 

38. How do you sit quietly in the middle of a storm? from Search Engine Podcast. “What if there was an event in the future, the outcome of which you couldn’t personally control, but it was still causing you anguish? This week, we talk to an ordained Zen priest and teacher to get some answers. Rev. angel Kyodo williams helps us learn how you could begin to quiet all the fears in your head that kidnap you from your actual life.”

39. Making a mess from Hugh L. Hollowell Jr.

40. How to survive the apocalypse (again). “Wherever there is a history of homophobia and transphobia, we also find a history of our people celebrating community, mutual care and joy.”

41. Recipe I want to try: Pistachio Lemon Breakfast Bread.

42. I got nothing for you but this shitty little prayer.

43. Power Up: Resources for the Road Ahead. “Focusing on what I can do, and endeavoring to live my values is my greatest comfort right now.”

44. The Pledge I Make on Writings from Wild Soul.

45. Write With Yourself: Expressive Writing Journal Prompts For Self Care by
Christine Scott-Hudson. “‘Write With Yourself’ is about exactly that, getting ‘right with yourself’ through the slow medicine of expressive writing. Returning to yourself, regularly tuning inward, noticing what is there, and then expressing what you truly mean and what you truly feel is a creative wellness practice. Again, and again, returning to your own well, the place inside of you that is your real home, your real center.'” says Scott-Hudson. “This is how you remember who you really are underneath all of the fawning, the hustling, and the people pleasing.” says the author. “Write With Yourself” contains 800 prompts.

46. Pippa Dyrlaga on Instagram. “Artist, papercutter, tea lover based in Yorkshire.”

47. And finally, this random collection of things I saved on my phone this week.