November 16, 2018

Were you snowed in this week? Maryland had the first snow-before-Thanksgiving in years and personally I loved it. I spent the afternoon with my favorite snow day food (grilled cheese and tomato soup) and my favorite snow day company (my black lab during the day, my intrepid husband back from CA in the evening). Back at work today caught up on sleep and feeling cozy.

1. The Freedom of Designing a Non-Performing Home. “Inspiration and copying certainly primes the pump — but then it’s time
   to let go and trust we don’t need to make our homes for the world, but
   simply to reflect the people living inside them.” This is such great advice for anyone who looks at staged interiors online and then back to their own lived-in living rooms with a sigh. It’s your space, it’s supposed to function for and reflect you! I like this piece a lot.
2. “For Strong Women,” by Marge Piercy. I recently discovered this poet, whose words are rooted in nature and feminism in perfect measure. This poem is from the 80s but sounds as relevant today. “Strong is what we make / each other.”
3. RSPB Scotland’s Nature Prescriptions calendar. I heard about this pamphlet from this piece in the Cut, but I encourage you to check out the checklists for each month! Hearing about doctors prescribing nature, and specific ways to encounter it, made may day. I want to talk to a pony or make a rock sculpture on the beach this November!
4. Laziness Does Not Exist. “I know, of course, that educators are not taught to reflect on what their students’ unseen barriers are. Some universities
   pride themselves on refusing to accommodate disabled or mentally ill
   students — they mistake cruelty for intellectual rigor. And, since
   most professors are people who succeeded academically with ease, they
   have trouble taking the perspective of someone with executive
   functioning struggles, sensory overloads, depression, self-harm
   histories, addictions, or eating disorders. I can see the external
   factors that lead to these problems. Just as I know that “lazy” behavior
   is not an active choice, I know that judgmental, elitist attitudes are
   typically borne out of situational ignorance.” I really appreciate the author’s compassionate perspective on student “laziness.”
5. The Mindful Twenty-Something: Life Skills to Handle Stress…and Everything Else, Holly B. Rogers. Reading this book with some coworkers as we explore how to make mindfulness a conversation on the campus at large. If you’re a 20 something (or not! the advice is approachable and mostly age-neutral), and new to the ideas of meditation, paying attention to your breathing, and practicing non-judgment to yourself and others, this book really lays it out in a friendly and doable way!