Streams of repair
Helping Friendly Newsletter, 11.19.21
GM! ☕️ Here are this week’s five things to think about:
Programming note: I’m taking a newsletter holiday next Friday and will see you in December. Peace to you and your loved ones this Thanksgiving and Hanukkah!
1. Streams of repair
This Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for all who repair and sustain me—especially my family, the woods near my house, and the Chesapeake Bay.
Streams of Repair
Jenny PhillipsIn a fever dream, I see streams of repair that nourish all people, every creature, and the far reaches of the land. I gaze on headwaters, and see mystery spring to life. I watch creeks meander. (With an impatient eye, I admit. Next time, I will remember to trust their intuition). As I stare, they broaden into big, bold rivers—rushing, flooding, changing It All. The watershed and I are restored. I wake, thirsty, and give thanks.
2. Grief and the holidays
The holidays can be hard.🤍 Here is a resource for navigating grief during this time, along with some concrete suggestions for honoring loved one(s) and taking care of you. Peace, friends.
3. Digital declutter
I’m about to embark on Cal Newport’s 30-day digital declutter. It goes further than the usual hacks, prompting change through reflection and exploration vs. prescribing rules. I’ll keep you posted, but for now…here’s what it looks like:
4. Meaning…I, too, am haunted by it.
In today’s episode of This Never Happened When We Were Kids, I’m laughing and crying at the high school seniors who DM’d poet and author Ocean Vuong to complain about his literature, which just appeared in Australia’s national exams. Vuong’s answers are perfect. “Meaning…I, too, am haunted by it.”
5. Galaxies on galaxies
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field photograph and Anthony Doerr’s reflection on it for Orion are a mood.
The night sky is the coolest Advent calendar imaginable: it is composed of an infinite number of doors. Open one and find ten thousand galaxies hiding behind it, streaming away at hundreds of miles per second. Open another, and another. You gaze up into history; you stare into the limits of your own understanding. The past flies toward you at the speed of light. Why are you here? Why are the stars there? Is it even remotely possible that our one, tiny, eggshell world is the only one encrusted with life?
Anthony Doerr, “Window of Possibility”
Thank you for reading
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Treasure chest
I bet you find a gem ➔ how to acknowledge territory | an NPR Tiny Desk playlist of Indigenous performers | Indigenous Instagram influencers | gratitude vs. thankfulness | Alice’s Restaurant | THIS is what peak performance looks like | oh, how i love these photos of readers around NYC | what was the writers’ room like for The Sopranos? | letters from a cat | remember this while scrolling👇🏼
Have a great weekend and holiday! I’ll see you again soon.
Jenny
