What We Need Is Here

Monday wondering

WONDER: A feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.

Super-Hero window-washers! What a magical thing to do for hospitalized children. 

We could all take a page from Ben Franklin's notebook.

And here's another take on how to get a good start on your day. 

I hope these "sketch-notes" might inspire you to listen to this interview with an amazing Chicagoan-Palestinian-Muslim man. 

This song has been in my head since before Christmas. It's not a bad thing to have in there. 

Monday wondering

WONDER: A feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.

Skating by Sound. Blind from cancer at the age of two, skating since he was ten. This will make your day.

50 Life Hacks.

get∙unstuck. Unplug for one day each week.

Good books for little girls (and their families). How many have you read?

First steps toward fixing our broken food system - by famous foodie Mark Bittman. 

{photo: Outside Ledigo - Camino de Santiago}

 

Monday wondering

WONDER: A feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.

Could you give up eating plastic? 

A free man.

Bound book? or eBook?  

There is a Bridge - The disease that we fear takes everything away may also offer opportunities to make connections and possibly restore some of our own humanity. 

I'd like to grow old like this guy's grandfather did. 

{image: NYT article - Eat Like a Mennonite}

Monday wondering

WONDER: A feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.

I have heard about the Up Documentary Series for years but just started watching it over the holidays. The kids who are profiled are just a little older than me, and it's wondrous to watch them grow and change every seven years between the ages of 7 and - the latest, 56!

Adrienne Rich is one of several women I think of as "other mothers," women who were such guides and signposts to me over the years that I am a different person because of them.  She died last year, and this obituary by Cheryl Strayed (author of the amazing Wild) expresses so well what a wonder she was. 

Krista Tippett's On Being is at the top of my podcast list. Her thoughtful interviews with a hugely diverse group of thinkers and seekers has something for everyone. Here's a nice litle article about her and her show. 

Why do some of us tend to be "meaning junkies?" Here's an answer. I like the distinction it makes between happiness and joy. And Vicktor Frankl is the man - "another father" for me. 

Last but not least, something beautiful from our own Gainesville to brighten your day. This video was produced by local Santa Fe College professor Becky McKee, and all the folks in it are connected with the college. The diversity of our little town will warm your heart, and the beautiful words will inspire you to "be the change you wish to see" in 2013. 

Monday wondering

WONDER: A feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.

It has been a while, and I have a little backlog of some wondrous thing I really want to share:  

Beautiful mid-20th century color photography: "It must have been overwheleming to see things that beautiful and that tragic... A lot of times I think that's what his life is about, learning to come to terms with things that are so overwhelmingly beautiful."

Iceland road trip - "There exists in the western peninsula of the great island of Iceland a radio station devoted entirely to the most obscure gems of early Nashville Sound. Which turns out to be a pretty swell soundtrack for the drive. We call this chapter Patsy Cline Was My Copilot Through Middle Earth."

Small, good things: "Another such culinary miracle can be found in J. D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey. When the benignity of Bessie’s chicken soup offering goes unnoticed by Franny, Zooey tells his sister that “if it’s the religious life you want, you ought to know right now that you’re missing out on every single goddamn religious action that’s going on around this house. You don’t even have sense enough to drink when somebody brings you a cup of consecrated chicken soup.”

No Time to Sleep: ". . . Everything and everyone must grow in opposition. To resistance and contradiction. This ain't no time to go to sleep."

Jonathan Sacks, "Chief Rabbi of Great Britain," on The Dignity of Difference:  "One way is just to think, for instance, of biodiversity. The extraordinary thing we now know, thanks to Crick and Watson's discovery of DNA and the decoding of the human and other genomes, is that all life, everything, you know, all the 3 million species of life and plant life — all have the same source. We all come from a single source. Everything that lives has its genetic code written in the same alphabet. Unity creates diversity. So don't think of one God, one truth, one way. Think of one God creating this extraordinary number of ways, the 6,800 languages that are actually spoken. Don't think there's only one language within which we can speak to God."

Monday Wondering

WONDER: A feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.

"If you're feeling helpless, help someone." 

"Mom, I'm fat." One woman's response to her 7-year old.

How doctors choose to die.

A good book for the new year.

Why to bake bread.

{photo from Reading Revolutions: Intellectual History}

 

Monday Wondering

WONDER: A feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.

The Birthday Project - Celebrating with one random act of kindness for each year you've been alive. You can read more here. I've got till August to think up ... a whole bunch of actions.

Friendly Sky Kit - What a great idea for parents traveling with children! A little gift to give to the passengers next to you to make up for the possible disappointment they feel when they see you and the baby (or, horrors! a two year-old) heading toward them. I've been on both sides - trying to comfort my distraught child while begging forgiveness and understanding from fellow passengers AND being the passenger with grown children who truly empathizes but really, really needs a nap. I think you could make these on your own. 

English test - "If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world."

Ten New Year's Resolutions for a Lifetime - Thank you, Gandhi. 

Sweatin' to NPR - Accompaniment for your other New Year's resolution. 

Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943 - It's just amazing to see these "black-and-white" years in living color. 

{photo: garden adjacent to a dug-out home in New Mexico, 1940 - from "Captured," above}

Monday Wondering

WONDER: A feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.

Some inspiration for taking care of yourself in the new year. 

What life is like if you don't like football. 

An inner city Los Angeles school stages its first play in twenty years - OT: Our Town.  It streams on Netflix, or you can watch it here. 

Louis C.K. does what artists do - helps us see ourselves. But somehow he makes us laugh too. 

I have a new year's tradition of writing thank you notes to five or ten folks I have most appreciated over the previous year. Imagine doing it every day!

Monday Wondering

If you aren't tired of Christmas yet (it's only the second of twelve days), here's a fun look at how it's celebrated around the world. 

If you love New York City and old photos, here's a little gift for you - from the early 20th century, and the 1940s. 

Life in a Day. Eighty thousand videos from 192 countries were uploaded by people wanting to share what their day - specifically July 24, 2010 - was like.  It streams on Netflix, or you could watch it here. 

A sweet post-holiday story by Rachel Naomi Remen, physician, medical reformer, and educator.  

The Lives They Loved - a memorial to "ordinary" extraordinary folks who left us this year - created by those who remember. 

Monday Wondering

WONDER: A feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.

Grandmother-led movement to feed a town for free. 

We are closing in on the end of the year, more or less.

How to have a good day (it's the holiday season; suspend your cynicism for a moment! This is really lovely).

On another holiday note - this one-man show at the Hippodrome is amazing. One guy plays all 32 parts of the age-old movie It's a Wonderful Life. It was really wonderful!

Or entertain yourselves at home! One of the younger members of our family introduced this dance tutorial to us last Christmas. We are not much of a dancing family on most days, but the holiday spirit - and a critical mass of children - turned us into one (sort of) temporarily.