You know.

Trust that you know.

Love,

(These beautifully painted rocks are created by Kim Mailhot, aka The Rock Fairy.

MIND

I have long been interested in disappearing languages, and language in general. This man’s work fascinates me: “‘The concept behind this project was to take those qualities—to take the inflections and use those as the basis of music,’ James says. ‘Rather than most music is based on physics-how many divisions of a second can you make, and how do you count that time. And it’s regular, that time is regular you beat out a beat, you keep that beat, you can make it a little faster, a little slower. But when we speak, the inflection is much more fluid. And the same is true of the melodic aspects of a lot of language, in terms of how much register they cover.’”

Language matters in other ways, too. How are we using language now? David Brooks explores that in “What Our Words Tell Us,” tracking the use of words and what those changes might mean: “People see patterns they already believe in. Maybe I’ve done that here. But these gradual shifts in language reflect tectonic shifts in culture. We write less about community bonds and obligations because they’re less central to our lives.”

William Gaddis was a brilliant American novelist. Brilliant, I tell you. And I love this short piece about the recent publication of his letters.

BODY

Dudes and dudettes, we need to play more to reduce our anxiety. We need to stop rejecting any form of non-productivity: “The real problem had been my state of mind. I’d become increasingly adept at rejecting any form of “non-productivity.” I couldn’t allow any form of play if it didn’t contribute to earning money or doing something “meaningful.” Even when I was with friends or doing something that was supposed to be fun, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the time I was wasting. I wasn’t being productive; I was losing valuable time. I had to get back to work!”

Misandry and not: “Unfortunately, the reason that ‘fem’ is a part of the word ‘feminism’ is that the world is not, currently, an equal, safe, and just place for women (and other groups as well—in its idealized form, intersectional feminism seeks to correct all those imbalances). To remove the gendered implications of the term is to deny that those imbalances exist, and you can’t make problems disappear just by changing ‘feminism’ to ‘humanism’ and declaring the world healed. That won’t work.”

22 ways to get your vegan snack attack on. Oh yes.

Great question: Where are all the people with disabilities in the body positive campaigns that are proliferating?: “In the popular media, so-called ‘body positivity’ campaigns leave out disability to a remarkable extent. The body about which we are supposed to feel positive is nearly always the able body. That body might be fat or thin, white or black, Hispanic or Asian, tall or short, rich or poor, but it is almost always able.” Or, as my friends with disabilities like to call it, “temporarily able-bodied.”

10 more uncluttering things to do.

SOUL

These lost photographs of a segregated world are soul-stirring.

WORD

“It’s the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.” -Marlene Dietrich

(photo of peony taken with my iPhone in our back yard)

What if your life was more full of color?

What if your socks were two different hues?

What if you wrote “YES!” on the inside of your wrist with a bright colored Sharpie today?

What if you wore red shoes every Tuesday?

What if you considered your life a big canvas and painted it with a bold rainbow of colors every day?

What if you don’t like the painting so far? Change it. Paint a new self.

Love,

(These beautifully painted rocks are created by Kim Mailhot, aka The Rock Fairy.

We carry so, so much around with us. Hurts, responsibilities, wrongs, rights, weight, dreams.

And mistakes. Oh, we carry them around, and they are weighty.

And when we can’t admit them with grace, not defensiveness, not only are we weighed down by them, but so are the people around us who have been affected by those mistakes.

Own it. Step up. Today. Extend grace to yourself by extending it to others.

Allow others to experience your fullest humanity, shadows, mistakes, and all.

Love,

(These beautifully painted rocks are created by Kim Mailhot, aka The Rock Fairy.

There are a lot of people who will tell you who you should be. Who you used to be.

Listen politely. Cock your head to one side, say “thanks so much for that feedback,” and then remember who you are.

Be you. It’s a relief. It’s a blessing. It’s a life.

Love,

(These beautifully painted rocks are created by Kim Mailhot, aka The Rock Fairy.

Selflessness is an opening up, an offering.

And yes, that’s beautiful and empowering and generous.

And sometimes…sometimes what’s called for is self-care instead. Needed. Required. Not a luxury, but a necessity.

Is that selfishness? Unfortunately it’s been “branded” as selfish, but it’s not.

So today’s imperative is to take care of yourself.

Put your own mask on first.

Love,

(These beautifully painted rocks are created by Kim Mailhot, aka The Rock Fairy.)

Love your life.

Even the low-down, awful, crappy parts. The parts that give you heartburn, the parts that make you sleepless and anxious. The parts you’d rather not remember. Those embarrassments, the things you’d like to do over. Even those parts.

Love them too.

Your life is so precious. And it will be over in a blink.

Love it. All of it.

Love,

(These beautifully painted rocks are created by Kim Mailhot, aka The Rock Fairy.)

I saw an amazing photograph of conductor Gustavo Dudamel a few days ago, his whole body leaning in toward the orchestra, his arms upraised, his torso and head leaning way back with a look of rapture on his face, his black curly hair swept far behind him and suspended in mid-air.

Give voice to your joy like that. Full body joy.

Lean right into it, throw your head back and let your joy shine. Be swept away by it.

Love,

Photo by Los Angeles Times photographer Lawrence K. Ho

(These beautifully painted rocks are created by Kim Mailhot, aka The Rock Fairy.)

Art and life are not two separate things.

Your life–this one right now, this one right here–is the most beautiful piece of art you will ever create.

Use many, many colors.

Love,

(These beautifully painted rocks are created by Kim Mailhot, aka The Rock Fairy.

mind

One question that changes everything: “I wondered what it would be like to ask myself, ‘What could (potentially) be good about this?’ when facing challenging situations.”

And another question that changes everything: “One of the best questions you can ask when something negative happens is this: ‘What does this experience make possible?’”

body

Well, IS HE? “Food choices have become important political acts, with deep moral and environmental consequences. As self-righteous and irritating as this attitude can sometimes feel, it’s still speaking to a very real and scary truth. With rising obesity rates, a destructive system of factory farming, and terror-inducing 24/7 news stories about antibiotics in chicken and E. coli in spinach, many people have come to feel that their own food choices are among the most meaningful life decisions they can make.”

I am a design and typography nerd. Perhaps you are too. “The power of a card as a visual-organization metaphor, the secret of its infiltration,’ said Duarte, is that ‘it makes very clear the atomic unity of things; it’s still flexible while creating a kind of regularity.’”

I am very interested in learning more about this link between diabetes and Alzheimer’s Disease, and am thinking about the implications for my diet and exercise.

Likewise, this list of how to improve brain function is important to me. I’m doing well on numbers 2, 8, 9, 10, and the others need work.

This food right here is on my mind.

soul

Perhaps you will recognize your definition of joy in these.

Sit every day: “The findings are striking—if we practice something, it will rewire our brains, creating a new neural pathway.” This is a very helpful entry point for creating a meditation practice.

Just because I’m missing him.

word

“We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.”  -Anaïs Nin

(photo of the first radish I ever grew, 5/16/13)