El Steinbach

What’s the book? Also, this bag is gorgeous and just *chef’s kiss*.

Wait. I see it in the alt text. Just needed to scroll down 😋

Can you explain context of photo? I don’t understand.

YUP

Rough sketch of a chickadee. Above drawing is a reference photo from a magazine of a black-capped chickadee with the text bird tales special Winters can be long and cold in southeastern Michigan, so bird-watching is a favorite seasonal pastime. The black-capped chickadees are amusing to watch as they snatch sunflower seeds from the neighbor's feeder and land on tree branches to crack the shells open and eat the seeds. This little one took a short break and I was able to capture this moment. I love the beautiful blue sky in the background highlighting the details of its feathers. Deb Brokaw ST. CLAIR SHORES, MICHIGAN

Chicka-dee-dee-dee

None of us are fit enough to determine deservingness; but we should all have enough heart and humanity to consider need.

Notebook open on a desk. Both pages are filled with lines of color and various shapes like circles, squares and triangles.

Notebook open on a desk. One side is filled with a tangle of interlocking squiggles filled with various colors. The other side is a sequence of lines in various colors, one row is filled with squares and another row is circles.

Creating helps stave off the sad, at least a little.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. The slow process of doing something yourself. How it provides moments to be present in your body. How it reminds us that we are fundamentally creative creatures.

Something about rejecting the Faster, Easier, Cheaper of capitalism. About having a relationship with our material world. About valuing the resources we take from our environment. About how we spend our time. About outsourcing everything creative in our lives. About imagination and play and skill...

A wool scarf in brown and red tones in progress on a small rigid heddle loom. It is inexpertly executed but passable. The stick shuttle with the weft yarn lies across the project.

Meditating this morning, as I learn weaving on a small loom, on what it is about the slow, laborious, and expensive qualities of many crafts people embrace

that feels anti-capitalist and human at its core.

Weaving a scarf for a friend, maybe not on its own revolutionary, but also, not NOT, either.

A grumpy looking black schnauzer is wearing a Frankenstein hat.

Franken-pup!

[She was very unhappy I made her try this on. 😄]

Morning checklist:

Stationary, Springfield, Mo

Brown creeper
Carolina chickadee
Carolina wrens
Dark-eyed junco
White-throated sparrows
House sparrows
Blue jay
American robins
Northern cardinals
Eurasian collard doves
European starlings

A great thread if you're looking for new stuff to read!

This is so so hard.

And—entirely human.

“All humans are aware of death. So we’re all a little bit sad, all the time. That’s just the deal.” (Eleanor, The Good Place)

With every breath, disabled people write a disabled future, one in which we all belong, regardless of the circumstances of our births or the collisions of our fragile flesh with a harsh and sometimes toxic earth.

Nova, Grandma and I sitting on the porch. I am smoky broadly at the camera. Grandma is looking attentively at the camera. Nova is sitting on my lap looking past the camera.

I miss sitting on the porch with you, Grandma.

I miss her so much.

I miss our routines.

I miss waking up each morning listening for her sounds downstairs.

I miss the way she smiled and the way she frowned.

I miss her joy at being alive.

I miss giving her a kiss on the forehead.

I miss the way she relied on me like no one else.

I just keep thinking: I don’t know how to do this.

I don’t know how to just move on with my life. I don’t know how to let her go. I don’t know how to just go back to my old life.

And then I remember: that’s ok. I’m not supposed to know. Grief is its own thing and will take its own time.

I recommend creating simple routines around the necessities (e.g. eating, movement, hygiene, etc) and boundaries around distractions (e.g. communication, media consumption, etc). Then, let the rest flow as it will.

I have found I do my best work when I don’t force it at all. Let your bodymind lead.

I would dearly love to see a New England town using its historic cemetery for one of its original purposes (sheep pasture). You could even do spinning, dyeing, and drying there. Think of the marketing for the yarn!

Die Dye Die

Dyed and Gone to Heaven

Spinning in the Grave

Alas, Poor Yarnick

I have yet to see a use case for AI in the classroom that wouldn't also be addressed by smaller class sizes & more paid prep time for teachers.

“There is no moment when all is lost, and the credits roll. There is no cue that we can all throw our hands up now and give up on each other. No matter how upsetting the headline, no matter how frustrating the organizing meeting, no matter how pompous and arrogant that one guy was, no matter how tired we get of this bullshit or of each other—if you’re still here, feeling, thinking, and hoping for a way out of this, if you’re still holding onto your values and each other, it’s not over. If you are still breathing and trying, it’s not over. It’s not too late, because too late is a fake idea. The people around you will always be worth fighting for, as will your community, as will your humanity.” - Kelly Hayes

"You don’t need to have a blueprint for the revolution. You need a next move. Because it’s not too late to help someone, to be a moral person, or to fight for another future." organizingmythoughts.org/we-have-to-m...

Barn owl on a post by a flower field.

Barn owl hunting over flower field

Barn owl flying over flower field

Barn owl sitting on a post when a Cooper’s hawk at the top left flies over and then starts to harass the owl.

Serendipity. I was admiring the flower plot at the San Diego CommunityGardens early this morning when this barn owl showed up. The owl was noticed and chased by a Cooper’s hawk (last shot).

Rewatching Dead End Park for Spooky Season. I love it so much!

It hits on so many levels: neurodiversity, disability, trans, queer, non-speaking and more.

It’s also just delightful and has excellent spooky-lite vibes (aka it has tons of spooky elements, but it’s not actually scary).

Stop doomscrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness (if you feel like)

Okay, last post about Frankenstein, Missouri... Here's a vintage news report on the town that has so many great moments I can't pick a favorite. This is why local reporting matters, maybe!

🙌

Stimpunks.org Artist rendering of two beings, one silver-blue and one red-gold out in space. They are straining toward one another as if they might kiss, but others (who are out of sight, we can only see their hands) are pulling them apart. The two appear to be exchanging energy or breath maybe between their open mouths. Text reads: "Tell me the story about how the Sun loved the Moon so much he died every night to let her breathe." Art by Heike Blakley

Thanks! I see it now as I read the page more closely!

Stimpunks.org Artist rendering of two beings, one silver-blue and one red-gold out in space. They are straining toward one another as if they might kiss, but others (who are out of sight, we can only see their hands) are pulling them apart. The two appear to be exchanging energy or breath maybe between their open mouths. Text reads: "Tell me the story about how the Sun loved the Moon so much he died every night to let her breathe." Art by Heike Blakley

Thanks! I see it now as I read the page more closely!