1. Wisdom from Omkari Williams: “The world feels very hard right now, let’s do what we can to bring some softness to it.”
2. Issue #252 of The Red Hand Files from Nick Cage, in which he explains the benefits of both humility and curiosity, advising that we “try to make more use of humility and curiosity – these attributes have a softening effect on our sometimes inflexible and isolating value systems. They allow us to remain true to our temporary selves but fluid and playful in our dealings with this strange and ever-changing world.”
3. Good stuff from Lion’s Roar: Waking Up in Dark Times (“In order to shed light on the realities of climate change, says Ajahn Sucitto, first we should get more comfortable with the darkness”), and Get Curious About Your Anxiety (“Buddhism and psychoanalysis take the same approach to calming the anxious mind, says Dr. Pilar Jennings—look with friendly curiosity at your anxiety and what causes it”), and How to Help When Your Heart Breaks (“Caring for people who are suffering is a loving, even heroic calling, but it takes a toll. Roshi Joan Halifax teaches this five-step program to care for yourself while caring for others”).
4. How to Stay in Touch With Long-Distance Friends as an Introvert.
5. Declutter Clothes: 10 Steps to End Closet Clutter.
6. A memoir in plants. “A Q&A with Briana Loewinsohn, author of the graphic memoir Ephemera.”
7. Healing from Trauma Step by Step from Gretchen Schmelzer. “All learning is this way—and healing is really learning—only some of the most difficult learning—because it is both an unlearning and learning. You have to unlearn all of the protections and defenses you used to survive that no longer serve you, and you have to learn new thoughts, behaviors and attitudes that can help you grow again.”
8. 11 reasons not to make art from Danny’s Essays, by Danny Gregory.
9. 3 Empowering Ways for Sensitive Introverts to Use ‘I’m Sorry’.
10. The Divine Right to Beautiful Things from Frederick Joseph. “Understanding that people in-need also deserve joy.”
11. On people-shaped holes from Patti Digh. “Acknowledging the people on the periphery of our lives.”
12. Open Secrets, “an online magazine for memorable, revealing personal essays about all the subjects we’re taught to keep ‘secret.'”
13. Good stuff from Seth Godin: It goes without saying and I’ve been doing it wrong all along.
14. The Other Side of the Portal: Speculative Fiction in The Sun.
15. Why AI art struggles with hands.
16. How To Spend Less Money (25 simple tips) from Tammy Strobel on Be More With Less.
17. Wisdom from Sarah Ban Breathnach, by way of her book Something More: Excavating Your Authentic Self: “But at the end of the day, when we’re finally alone, we’re peering down into the black hole in our hearts. Our insatiable, inexplicable, longing probes the emptiness much the same way you do when you can’t keep your tongue out of that sensitive, empty spot that once held a decaying tooth.”
18. The Courage to Be Yourself: Virginia Woolf on How to Hear Your Soul.
19. Questions for Higher Weight Patients and Their Healthcare Providers from Ragen Chastain. “Our current medical view of weight and health is deeply muddied by weight loss industry involvement. I created this list of questions as a guide to interrogation. It can be used by or with healthcare practitioners, or by anyone who wants to take a critical look at our current weight and health paradigm.”
20. A Creative Evolution from Abigail Rose Clarke. “I wasn’t an artist when I started selling my art. I’m not sure I’m an artist now.”
21. Recipe I want to try: Broccoli and Apple Salad.
22. Why Do Feldenkrais? In related news, Feldenkrais Method: a new way of thinking about health.
23. For When People Ask, a poem from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.
24. Lost In Translation at 20: Is it still Suntory Time? “The culture has shifted in the two decades since Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson bonded in a Tokyo hotel. So, does this film still hold up?”
25. Want to Thrive? First, Learn to Fail. on The New York Times.
26. Kirk Franklin Reunites With Biological Father After 53 Years, Finds Out They Lived Just Minutes From Each Other. “To live over half a century with somebody who lived in the same city as you… I suffered so much as a young man without guidance.” The accompanying short documentary, Father’s Day: A Kirk Franklin Story, is really beautiful.
27. ‘When it’s cold at night, it’s no longer a game’: living off the grid in Colorado. “Thousands of Americans are attracted to the idea of a self-reliant life in a remote area, but the dangers can be profound.”
28. Aparna Nancherla Is Looking for Comic Relief on The New York Times. “The comedian’s mental health got so bad she had to stop performing. Now she has returned.”
29. Complete Sentence, “a magazine of single-sentence prose. We champion punchy and poignant work that celebrates syntactical exploration—narratives that expand or contract within a single sentence.”
30. How Accurate are Dystopian Novels, Really?
31. Gorgeous figures ‘painted’ with a power washer on dirty driveways by Dianna Wood.
32. ‘An Indigenous Present’ Is a Paradigm-Shifting Illumination of Native North American Art Today.
33. Where I’m From on A Grace Full Life.
34. Craft Tip: An Exit Strategy from Maggie Smith.
35. Life In the Slow Lane: Why Soft and Slow is the new Busy from Tammy Strobel on Be More With Less.
36. Super cute animal videos I saw on Facebook: Scout the dog escaped his shelter three times and showed up to an assisted living facility so he lives there now, and Donkey Plays with Pink Unicorn, and Yukon Wildlife Cam, and Woman pulls over to rescue a teeny-tiny puppy — watch what happens when she brings him home to her huge dog.
37. Maria Bamford Is Hilariously Transparent. “The prolific comedian spoke to GQ about mental health, the importance of negotiating for better pay, and her new memoir, Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult.” I just finished her book last night — so good!
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 