For years we’ve walked around the city noticing the New York Lottery signs at newsstands yet rarely bought a ticket. Then a few months ago, we found Jackpocket, an app that makes it easy to play the lottery. We discovered how $2 dollars a pop yielded a thrilling little bargain.
Read MoreThe Power of Self-Administered Placebos (Kevin Kelly, Ted Kaptchuk)
Writing in the Recommendo newsletter, Kevin Kelly, whose great, useful ideas we’ve been following for years, described his latest find: placebo pills that he buys on Amazon. He’s found them to be helpful to alleviate certain symptoms, echoing research by Ted Kaptchuk and others about the efficacy of open-label placebos.
Read MoreDept of X-Ray Vision: How to See Time
Time management educator Marydee Sklar helps entrepreneurs and other scattered creative types develop a kind of x-ray vision to antidote their often inefficient and energy-draining work habits. I’ve found the essential principles of her method mightily useful, in tandem with poet Naomi Shihab Nye’s approach.
Read MoreThe 25 Best Films of 2021 via Video Sampler, for When You Don’t Know What to Stream
If you’re like us and missed, or haven’t even heard about, many of the past year’s films, David Ehrlich’s legendary yearly Video Countdown will provide a taste of 25 of them. It’s like a 15-minute trailer of a year of films, perfect for when you’re thinking “I can’t find anything to watch on Netflix…”
Read MoreThe New Year is a Seed (Etel Adnan, Stonehouse)
One of the very best views of the New Year we’ve seen is from Lebanese-American poet and artist, Etel Adnan. Shortly after we read it, this poem* from the great 13th century Chinese poet, Stonehouse jumped into our hands. Amidst darkness that seems so pervasive, they gave just the reminder we needed.
Read MoreCaring for Our Nervous Systems on Covid
The most helpful 50 minutes I’ve spent recently was listening to What’s Happening in Our Nervous Systems, a podcast from On Being with Krista Tippet. Clinical psychologist Christine Runyan discusses the physiological effects of the past years of pandemic and the profound changes its wrought in daily life. Knowing “what’s been happening on a creaturely level”, I’ve felt better, more grounded, despite the escalation of a new variant.
Read MoreTree Benediction (Mary Oliver)
Lately Mary Oliver has been coming again into our field of vision. This perfect evocation of being among trees is a balm in this ferocious time.
Read MoreHoliday Uplift During the 4th Wave (Eddie Izzard, James Brown, Yoko Ono, Toni Morrison, Shirazeh Houshiary)
What started with the hopeful return to old ways of celebrating the holiday season suddenly turned into exhaustion and disappointment at yet another wave of a scary variant. Again. Right now, we want relief from it all: momentary escape, joy, illumination, uplift.
Read MoreMicrodosing Well-Being + A Meditation of Well Wishes
What if the future of well-being is about “tipping the scales in the world away from fear and toward love”? asks On Being’s Krista Tippett in The Future of Well-Being. This simple premise feels like a guidepost for navigating the extraordinary elevation of fear the past years have brought, wrought by the pandemic, politics fueled by animosity, climate change. We were particularly struck by the idea of “microdosing of well-being”.
Read MoreA Ritual for Eating a Persimmon with a Sun Inside
Every year when persimmons are in season, I employ a sort of ritual to deeply enjoy the experience of perfection that the miraculous fruit can yield. I amplify it by reading Li-Young Lee’s astonishing poem Persimmons out loud. Poem and ripe persimmon possess beauty in equal measure that never fails to knock me out.
Read MoreMend Peace (Yoko Ono, Louise Bourgeois)
We were instantly riveted by @tumanualidades.de’s tiny videos of mending because they were so restful to watch, offering seemingly simple solutions to fixes we have in the past spent too much time worrying or procrastinating about. They called to mind a cosmic view of mending and sewing from some favorite artists.
Read MoreHow to Slice Garlic, Prison-Style with Poem
We love this clip from Martin Scorcese’s brilliant film Goodfellas for teaching us a way to do something we’ve done thousands of time — slice garlic — to make a little go a long way. As well as for reminding us of garlic’s bigger meaning….
Read More2 Minutes of Forest Therapy + Merwin’s ‘Thanks’
Over the years, we’ve found many ways to express thanks. Close to our heart is this W.S. Merwin poem that finds a way to say thanks in the midst of our beautiful, frightening, wounded, wounding world. We offer it with a big hunk of beauty from a Mexican forest.
Read MoreGiant Parmesan Popovers and Other Recipes for Improvised Holidays
Improvised Life has published A LOT of recipes in its long life, many geared to the holidays. We’re figuring that for many people, this year’s holidays are still going to be improvised and untraditional. Here are a few ideas for whatever form your fete takes. There are lots of ways to celebrate.
Read MoreThinking About This Yields Gold
Reflecting on this sign yields SO much…. For us it catalyzed a meditation on time and change and where we are now, and a randomly-found poem by fourteenth century Chinese Buddhist poet Stonehouse*
Read MoreNew Orleans’ Ingenious Secret Outsider Enclave Heralds the Wild Future
Unbeknownst to many inhabitants of New Orleans, a small enclave of eccentric, often ingenious outsiders thrive in twelve homemade stilt-houses along the Mississippi, hidden from sight by the levees. Macon Fry’s book living in the “batture” is a compelling view of resourceful alt-living choices that may be the way of the future.
Read MoreBecca Eldemire’s Enduring Wisdom
This remarkable letter was found among Becca Eldemire’s letters after she was murdered. Copied and framed, it found its way to me as a gift, and onto a wall where I post things I need reminding of. Its spare, gentle wisdom reverberates in my life daily.
Read MoreLook Up and Stars Will Shake the Everyday (Upstate Diary, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Neil deGrasse Tyson)
At the ever-illuminating @upstate_diary, we suddenly found ourselves looking up through wintry trees into a vast moving star-scape. It transported us to a chilly night in the country. It led to reminders of cosmic views of the everyday.
Read MoreFound Art with Echoes of Duchamp UPDATE
We recently stumbled upon an image of two staircases side-by-side, the steps staggered, with no banister or partition between. There was no commentary. It reminded us of artist Beatrice Wood’s perfect description of Marcel Duchamp’s revolutionary Fountain that upended the art world and changed the way viewed art, and artists.
Read MoreLaurie Anderson’s Test: How to Figure Out If a Creative Project is Good or Not
Before reading his New York Times Magazine profile of legendary, uncategorizable artist Laurie Anderson, Sam Anderson shared a series of questions Anderson asks herself to figure out whether a piece she’s working on is good or not. It is “great criteria for proceeding in life with whatever you’re doing”.
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