5 Quick Things, #133 ⏳

Local more than ever, plant pom-poms, keep a diary, & charming priests

Hey there,

Well, here we are — another week of more of the same. Are you getting used to this new normal of ours? How have your spirits been? For me and my household, a rhythm to our routine has been our sanity saver, as have daily walks, family workouts, and our dog (who is living her BEST life right now). We’re still doing nightly read-aloud storytime, we’re still asking each other the best and hardest parts of our days around the dinner table, and they’ve still got afternoon chores to do (after their classes via Zoom). We’re doing our best to find a semblance of ordinary, and I couldn’t be more grateful when we find it.

My neighborhood gym is also doing something cool — we first make a small donation, and for 21 days, we do the daily at-home workouts they’ve provided then log our time into the gym’s app. If we work out for 21 days straight, we then get a gift card for the full amount we donated to one of several local businesses in our neighborhood, helping keep their lights on. I love this example of communities coming together, of mom-and-pop shops supporting each other.

Where are you seeing goodness these days?

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5 Quick Things ☕️

1. This week, I did a quick roundup of useful and encouraging links for social distancing well — think working from home, homeschooling, and staying sane.

2. “She grew up in the last generation where your livelihood depended on the skills of homemaking.” What a good reminder.

3. Today on The Good List, I’m sharing a habit we should all take up during this strange time of quarantining. Our descendants will probably thank us.

4. This is hard read, but really important and required, IMO — "The few people walking past us on the sidewalk don’t know that we are visitors from the future."

5. What haunting, surreal, beautiful photos.

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Quotable 💬

“Solitude is fine but you need someone to tell that solitude is fine.”

 ― Honoré de Balzac

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Time Machine ⏰

Five years ago (while we were backpacking around the world), I wrote about the art of noticing your three square feet. Feels apropos right now.

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Elsewhere 📌

Tsh Oxenreider @tsh

When all this is over I still want the late-night talk show hosts to do low-res videos from their homes, Patrick Stewart to still read Shakespearean sonnets, DJs to still host virtual global dance parties from their kitchens, authors to still read their books from their couches.

tshoxenreider

Even more than usual I’ve been appreciating the WWII-era slogan "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" and that generation's ability to be so scrappy with so much less. (I remind myself this when the store is out of eggs for the 3rd time in a row.) #coronavirus

March 26, 2020

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Have a good weekend — and keep washing those hands,

xo, Tsh

p.s. This made me laugh with delight.