Tag Archives: Soule Mama

Something Good

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1. Begin Here by Maya Stein on Bentlily.

2. Brene’ Brown on The Power of Being Vulnerable on the Goodlife Project.

3. Allison Mae Photography. Beautiful.

4. This quote from Tara Brach: “No matter how much we meditate or pray, we still need others to help us dismantle the walls of our isolation and remind us of our belonging.”

5. Also from Tara Brach, Meditating Daily…”No Matter What” on the Elephant Journal.

6. Women Heal: an online alliance, another beautiful offering from Christa Gallopoulos.

7. Dealing with Exhaustion: Part 2 — Insist on Solitude on Life After Tampons.

8. This from the Daily Flame:

You may not see us or feel us, but I want you to know that, in this moment and always, you are completely supported. Your tribe is here, wrapping you in loving arms and lifting you up. The Universe is here, holding you, guiding you, and sending you signs so you don’t lose your way. I am here, whispering the truth, reflecting back your beauty and brilliance, always aligned and never betraying you. You are not alone. Capiche?

9. This Daily Truth from the Brave Girls Club:

Dear Unmatchable Girl,

Today it is time for you to be kind. To you. Just try, sweet friend, just try. You are the only one who knows the parts of you that need kindness the most, and for this reason, only you can provide this kind of deep kindness that you so need.

So today, please just try to be kind to the weak parts of yourself. Be kind to your addictions and your frailties, your mistakes and all of your human parts. Rather than treating these parts of yourself with hatred and disgust, please just take hands with these parts and say, “I am with you, we will make it through this.”

There are these kinds of parts to ALL of us. These parts are lonely, scared and act out in ways that make us sometimes feel ashamed. BUT, they ARE parts of us, and what if we just TRY to treat them with kindness, to put our arms around these parts of ourselves and let them know that no matter what, we will work hard to BE with these parts and teach them with love and truth. Just try, sweetest girl — just try. BE KIND to ALL of you. Let her know that it’s gonna be ok, that you are gonna love her no matter what as she works through all of this.

It will be worth it.
You are so deeply loved.
xoxo

10. You’re The One on the Daily Breadcrumb. Sunni Chapman is one of the most brilliant and wise women out there.

11. Settling In on Soule Mama. I think if I were a mom, this blog might make me feel bad, but I’m not, and it makes me feel so happy. I want this family to adopt me.

12. Unexpected Guests: Kim Fisher Designs on SF Girl by Bay. This cottage is where I live in my dreams. I want to go to there. Or here.

13. What I Know About Weight from the brilliant Rachel Cole.

14. Book Review: A Field Guide to Now on Scoutie Girl. This book is on my nightstand, and I am slowly reading it, savoring it. Christine Rosalie‘s work, her writing, blog, design, and art, are all gorgeous.

15. “What matters is the work”: 25 lessons for creatives in Patti Smith’s Just Kids.

16. Half the Sky Movement. I want to read this book, see the film, help the cause.

17. Margaret Atwood’s 10 Rules of Writing on Brain Pickings. Margaret Atwood is my favorite author, and I love this particular picture of her almost as much as I love the list of rules.

18. Transitioning on What We Create. Eydie is one of my kind and gentle readers, and this poem and post sums up exactly what I’ve been feeling and thinking this season. She ends it by saying:

Autumn is the season of harvest, of letting go, of decluttering, and clearing…It’s about holding onto only what is essential. Nature is signaling that it’s time to let go of the things, thoughts, patterns and behaviors that weigh us down and diminish our light. As we watch leaves fluttering to the ground, we are reminded that nature’s cycles are mirrored in our lives. Autumn is a time for letting go.

19. Tig Notaro is my new hero. She is funny and so strong, a real badass. Here’s an interview she did on Conan. If you want to buy a copy of the show she references, you can find it here. I downloaded it this morning, and it’s heartbreaking and beautiful and, believe it or not, funny. She was also on this weekend’s This American Life episode.

20. This quote from the Dalai Lama:

Education is the proper way to promote compassion and tolerance in society. Compassion and peace of mind bring a sense of confidence that reduce stress and anxiety, whereas anger and hatred come from frustration and undermine our sense of trust. Because of ignorance, many of our problems are our own creation. Education, however, is the instrument that increases our ability to employ our own intelligence.

Something Good

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1. We saved the Lyric! I absolutely love the design for the t-shirts they made for those who contributed. “Let There Be Light”? Perfect.

We humans are social beings. We come into the world as the result of others’ actions. We survive here in dependence on others. Whether we like it or not, there is hardly a moment of our lives in which we do not benefit from others’ activities. For this reason it is hardly surprising that most of our happiness arises in the context of our relationships with others. Nor is it so remarkable that our greatest joy should come when we are motivated by concern for others. But that is not all. We find that not only do altruistic actions bring about happiness, but they also lessen our experience of suffering. Here I am not suggesting that the individual whose actions are motivated by the wish to bring others happiness necessarily meets with less misfortune than the one who does not. Sickness, old age, mishaps of one sort or another are the same for us all. But the sufferings which undermine our internal peace—anxiety, doubt, disappointment—these are definitely less. ~Dalai Lama

To celebrate, I am going to see a movie there this Thursday with some friends. From the trailer and a few reviews I’ve heard from people I trust, it is going to break my heart.

2. Oh, Mr. Brilliant by Patti Digh. I think I mentioned last week that I was super sad that Patti had just found out her husband had cancer. This post tells a little bit more of their story, ending with a way you can help them. This is further proof of how strange life is, beautiful and brutal.

3. A Weekend of Pies on Soule Mama. You don’t even have to read this post, just look at the pictures and be prepared to drool, (and yes, this list just moved directly from a post about cancer to one about pie, life is like that).

4. Aimee Mann is coming to Colorado! Okay, so maybe Eric is the only reader that really cares about that. We love her, (I have ever since her Til Tuesday days), see her every time she comes to Colorado, so I was really excited when she announced tour dates this morning and I was able to get tickets. Her new album is releasing September 18th, but you can preorder it now.

5. How to Turn Every Email Into a Mini Meditation from Jonathan Fields. I really like this idea, might try it.

6. Fear + Happiness, or Eight Ways to Let Go of Fear from Katie Swanberg. This is a goooood list.

7. And in related news, Go Small, Be Happy from Tammy Strobel.

8. A reminder to let go, from Lao Tzu:

By letting go it all gets done.
The world is won by those who let go.
But when you try and try,
the world is beyond winning.

9. From Austin Kleon, Show Your Work! Episode 1: Vampires.

10. 12 Amazingly Achievable Things To Do Today from Marc and Angel Hack Life.

12. From the utterly brilliant Justine Musk, are you a cup of tea…or a shot of tequila? in which she says:

You want to be a focused, highly skilled, freak version of yourself.

You want to dig down deep to find that unique part, that weird and maybe slightly psychotic part, that beautiful raw fucked-up part, that you spent a lifetime learning to hide in the first place.

13. Piecing Together Connie’s Sky from Judy Clement Wall on her blog A Human Thing. Yes, I am slightly biased here: Judy talks about a post I wrote, and I adore her…but that doesn’t change the fact that this is real and true and important.

14. And to close, a picture of Blue, a most adorable puppy that’s up for adoption at Animal House. That face! *sigh* And I am a sucker for a dog named Blue.