1. Meet the world’s smallest bird: the bee hummingbird. I love this so much.

2. The Diary of a CEO podcast | Maisie Williams: The Painful Past Of A Game Of Thrones Star. “Maisie Williams is one of the biggest actors in the world today. One of the breakout stars of Game of Thrones, Maisie hasn’t known a normal life since she was 11 years old when she was cast in the biggest tv show in the world.” She didn’t have a “normal” life before 11 years old, either. Beautiful and brutal.

3. To Transform Work, We Must Rest. “Rest must be central to our reimagining of everything in our daily existence, including our work.”

4. I have a crush on Jacques Pépin: Jacques Pépin, at 86, finds a new way to express his love — of the chicken, and America’s most famous French chef on the ‘Art of the Chicken’ and a life well lived, and At 86, Jacques Pépin Isn’t Slowing Down on The New York Times.

5. Recipes I want to try: Carrot Cake Muffins and Cinnamon Butterflake Rolls. Also this whole set, 13 Over The Top Apple Recipes To Make If You Go Apple Picking. Pass me by with the pumpkin spice. I’m Team Apple.

6. A New Refrain From Artists: We ‘Almost Gave Up on Instagram’ on The New York Times. “Photographers and illustrators who once eagerly shared images of their work on Instagram are moving away from the site as it emphasizes video.”

7. TrueFood, “a research project that unveils the degree of processing of all food products.” I am not a fan of categorizing food as “good/bad” but this is an interesting project.

8. The hidden faces of hunger in America. HOW do we continue to be okay with this reality? “Nationwide, more than 33 million people, including five million children, are food insecure, according to the USDA. No community is spared, with rural areas, families with children and communities of color disproportionately affected.” And yet, must our national strategy include “decreasing obesity and diet-related disease — such as diabetes — through healthier eating, good nutrition and physical activity” when the research shows that a person’s overall health is a result of a complex interplay of biological, psychological, and environmental triggers, including but not limited to chronic stress, genetics, poor sleep, socioeconomic status, “fat shaming” and the stigma of living in a bigger body?! Let’s make sure everyone is consistently fed, has access to good food and healthcare, and address the cultural/social issues that impact health, solve all of that before we start nitpicking people’s choices, m’kay?! If you feel yourself wanting to disagree with me, might I recommend the book American Detox: The Myth of Wellness and How We Can Truly Heal?

9. Interview with Standup Jim Gaffigan: ‘I never wanted to do us-and-them comedy.’ “The Grammy-nominated US comedian with a nice-guy reputation has warmed up for the pope and doesn’t swear on stage. But since he called out Trump on Twitter, are we seeing a new, spikier side to the ‘king of clean’?”

10. Charity invents shoe that grows five sizes to help underprivileged children and fight poverty.

11. Milkweed, Cypress Spurge, and Other Native Plants Soar into the Sky in Mona Caron’s Poetic Murals.

12. 8 Terms to (Re)Consider Using When You’re Teaching Yoga. “Improve your ability to connect with students by using inclusive language.”

13. “Let the Bees Tell You.” On the Holy Bible (For Beekeepers) of Buckfast Abbey.

14. Why You May Need A Sunrise Alarm Clock, According To Psychologists. We’ve had one for 16 years and I would never go back.

15. A Menagerie of Contemplative Animals by Mila Zemliakova Weave Textile Traditions and Nature.

16. Early Cormac McCarthy Interviews Rediscovered on The New York Times. “The Pulitzer Prize-winning author has done vanishingly few interviews during the course of his career. In these early ones, some newly uncovered, he is less guarded.”

17. The Greatest Nature Essay Ever by Bryan Doyle.

18. Bill Murray’s 20 best performances – ranked! “As the actor swigs with Zac Efron and Russell Crowe in new comedy The Greatest Beer Run Ever – and celebrates his 72nd birthday – we rate Murray’s finest work.”

19. My Grandfather’s Death Party Was a Final Gift to His Family on The New York Times Magazine. “The end of life is often invisible, shut away in nursing homes or intensive-care units. There’s another way.”

20. How to help victims of Hurricane Ian in Florida.

21. Sinead O’Connor Doc “Nothing Compares” Is As Powerful As Its Subject: Review.

22. This Is What Brown Noise Sounds Like And People Are Calling It Life-Changing.

23. Wisdom from Nicole Kalil on Fried The Burnout Podcast: “The best way to distinguish between head trash and your inner knowing is that your head trash is mean. If you are would not say what’s happening in your mind to somebody you love, your partner, your best friend or your child, then it’s head trash. Because inner knowing may challenge you, it may say something you don’t want to hear, but it will always come from a place of love and kindness.”

24. The Dark Wood of the Golden Birds: “Goodnight Moon” Author Margaret Wise Brown’s Little-Known Philosophical Children’s Book About Love and Loss. I think I need this book.

25. Wisdom from Andrea Gibson: I Love It Here: (and no, I’m not wearing rose-colored glasses) and May Our Last Words Not Be, ‘I’m Sorry’: Thoughts on apologies, accountability, and imperfection.

26. How I Handle Panic Attacks as an Introvert. In related news, As an Introvert, My Home Is My Haven, So Please Don’t Show Up Unannounced.

27. The Lost Art of Rest from Summer Brennan.

28. Gone, Gone, Everything Gone on Lion’s Roar. “Like leaves in the autumn or wood in the fire, all things pass. But, there is a moment in which we can see things as they are.”

29. Visions In Blue Illustrations on Instagram. Beautiful.

30. My new favorite word from Courtney Carver on Be More With Less: “Toomuchness is the anxiety of trying to keep up when all you really want to do is slow down.”

31. What’s Happening in Iran and What Can We Do?

32. What is Slow Living?

33. This Jac Ross YouTube playlist. His voice. His VOICE. His voice…

34. Cancer is stupid. Here are some people who need help: Help the Sunby Family kick cancers ass and Joseph’s Acute Myelomonocytic Leukemia (AMML). Also, WHY, HOW is the U.S.A. considered a “first world country” (stable democracy, high standard of living, capitalist economy, and economic stability) and yet people go broke paying for healthcare?!

35. Bears don’t get diabetes. Understanding why could some day revolutionize treating the disease in humans. Hibernation is the key. See you next spring! 🙂

36. This horse can’t stop running away to visit his friends at a dementia unit. “They fed him carrots once and now hilarious horse antics ensue.”

37. A Playful Population of Ceramic Specimens Inhabit the Imaginary Planet of Monsieur Cailloux. Weird and cute, my favorite.

38. Man Turns Abandoned Tiny Home Into Dream Cottage. Love it.

 

1. The Way It Is, a poem by William Stafford.

2. How an adopted son honored his birth mom. (video) “A boy was never supposed to know his birth mother, but his adoptive parents had other plans. When he recently had his own son, he found a way to honor her. Steve Hartman shares more in ‘On the Road.'” 

3. The Enduring Wisdom of ‘Goodnight Moon’ on The New York Times. “It’s the first book many babies receive as a gift, and one of the few that parents will keep when their child is grown. Why does this 75-year-old story have such staying power?”

4. Were you a ‘parentified child’? What happens when children have to behave like adults. “The phenomenon has little to do with parental love, and much more to do with the personal and structural circumstances that stop parents from attending to the immense anxiety and burden that a child may be experiencing on their behalf. The parent is often unable to see that their child is taking responsibility for maintaining the peace in the family, for protecting one parent from the other, for being their friend and therapist, for mediating between the parents and the outside world, for parenting the siblings, and sometimes for the medical, social and economic stability of the household.”

5. This brown bear helped itself to some late night treats at a 7-Eleven. (video)

6. Madison Lee is a master of her craft. At 31, she has established herself as one of the world’s foremost cake artists and sugar flower experts. (video)

7. Puerto Rico has lost more than power. The vast majority of people have no clean water. In related news, How to help people in Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Fiona and 5 Organizations Helping Victims of Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico. To be fair, Puerto Rico isn’t the only place that needs help. HOW could anyone still believe that we aren’t in the midst of a terrifying environmental crisis?!

8. Person Asks “Doctors, What Was The Worst Thing You’ve Seen In A Patient That Another Doctor Overlooked?”, And 30 Folks Deliver. **Trigger warning**: this post will ENRAGE you.

9. Élise on Instagram, a digital creator from Southern Colorado, “Food • Photography • Lifestyle”, who makes me smile. Clearly, the best content creators are named Elise or Elyse, because Hi, I’m Elyse Myers. Welcome to my podcast: Funny Cuz It’s True.

10. Monty Don welcomes adorable new puppy in a series of cute posts. I follow him for the gardening, but I stay for the dogs.

11. A Brooklyn couple bought a run-down, 180-year-old farmhouse in the Hudson Valley. More than 13 years later, they say the renovation process ‘really never has ended.’

12. Corn Kid Is Doing Just Fine on The New York Times. “He went viral this summer for his love of corn. Now it’s back to business as usual: elementary school.”

13. Breaking Is Part of Healing by Adrienne Maree Brown.

14. One Hundred Reasons Why I Write.

15. I Am Ryan and My Dog Saved My Life. (video)

16. Kid’s outpouring of emotion meeting his baby brother for the first time has us wrecked. (video)

17. Grace Rose Farm. So gorgeous!

18. The Free Black Women’s Library, “a social art project, interactive installation and book collection that celebrates the brilliance, diversity and imagination of Black women and Black non-binary authors. The library features four thousand books written by Black women, as well as workshops, readings, story circles, performances, cultural conversations and a monthly reading club.” I love this project so much. Check out their reading room (video) and learn more about the project from the founder, (video).

19. Follow @anchoponcho for amazing animations. (video)

20. Alan Rickman’s secret showbiz diaries: the late actor on Harry Potter, politics and what he really thought of his co-stars.

21. Old ambulance finds new purpose as mobile mental health clinic for LGBTQ+ youth. In related news, filed under “other good stuff happening in Colorado”: Aurora looks to expand program that offers an alternative response to mental health crises and They call him Goathead Greg and he has uprooted 427.5 pounds of puncture vine from Denver bike trails.

22. I Don’t Need My Life to Be Remarkable on The New York Times. “I’ve come to see the wisdom in not just seeking but finding joy in the mundane, in the unremarkable, even in the frankly boring, particularly in this era of global — and personal — illness. I realize I am far from unique in my efforts to appreciate the moment. It is the essence of mindfulness, the stuff of my (often failed) efforts to meditate. But it has allowed me to stand still when I might otherwise never stop moving.”

23. 5 Things That Help Me Fall Asleep as an Anxious Introvert.

24. Whatever Happened to the Starter Home? on The New York Times. “The economics of the housing market, and the local rules that shape it, have squeezed out entry-level homes.”

25. Can Brown Noise Turn Off Your Brain? on The New York Times.

26. Oregon church puts out the most inclusive and political messages. “Jesus was most critical of those who used religion as an excuse to marginalize others. We are merely seeking to follow Jesus in the best way we can.”

27. Hilary Mantel on How Writers Learn to Trust Themselves.

28. Why Do Women Gain Belly Fat in Midlife? on The New York Times. “And is there any way to target it through diet or exercise?” — **Spoiler Alert**: the answer is no.

29. How independent bookstores help in the fight against book banning and why it matters.

30. Artist uses AI to create ultra realistic portraits of celebrities who left us too soon.

31. How to Befriend Yourself: 10 Ideas To Deepen Self-Awareness.

32. Recipe I want to try: Cinnamon Sugar Scones.

33. Jessa Dupuis, a mixed media collage artist. (video)

34. Guilt-free Introverting: a roadmap for anyone who craves alone time from Courtney Carver on Be More With Less.

35. Fall Is the Season for Building Mindfulness and Resilience on The New York Times.

36. Poems from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer: The Prayers, For a Moment, and An Open Thank You Letter to Kristen Who Works at the Cemetery.

37. The Pause from Krista Tippett, where she writes about “a deepened experience of a ritual I’ve come to think of as contemplative reading.”

38. Lessons From Chemotherapy from Andrea Gibson.

39. 12. The Confused Chestnut Tree from Summer Brennan. “But there was something sort of magical about it too, ominous but magical, like the tree was caught in two different times at once, flickering between spring and autumn, the present and the past. I suppose it’s a relatable feeling as well, that this tree has about it, when we’re not sure which way we’re going, out or in, going dormant or waking up. Is it time to give it all up and let everything fall so we can rest? Or to muster energy and hope, even against the odds of the season all around us, and send out new green buds? In times of turbulence, it seems even the trees aren’t always sure which way to turn.”

40. How To Start Writing Again.

41. A Trick for Staying Present.