The following is one in a series of shared stories Believer Magazine recently ran about “newfound attachments” since Covid. They are charming and to the bone. Yes, my grandmother saved the dough, and, yes, we saved tin foil until it cracked and no longer held together. 

If enough people read this Starbucks could, literally, lose business. Why? Alicia Dantico is right! 

I am including the link, here, if you want to read a few more of the stories. The one about the Christmas tree is charming.

Writer James Baldwin on hate as a defense mechanism:

“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”

Source: Me and My House

Blessing for the Longest Night

All throughout these months
as the shadows have lengthened,
this blessing has been
gathering itself,
making ready,
preparing for
this night.
 
It has practiced
walking in the dark,
traveling with
its eyes closed,
feeling its way
by memory
by touch
by the pull of the moon
even as it wanes.

This week’s post is by Nir Eyal, a Stanford MBA, author, and entrepreneur who has started and sold several successful companies. He currently focuses on behavior and habit formation.

I found this article more than timely. One interesting part was Jimmy Fallon asking for feedback regarding a policy attributed to Hillary Clinton—when it was actually from Trump.

This works both ways, folks. Time to calm down, get out of our “camps” and get into the light of day. 

The Secret to True Kindness

Research shows it’s measured by the benefit of the doubt

Babies. They’re such jerks, aren’t they? They wake you up in the middle of the night. They make huge messes for you to clean up. And let’s not forget to mention the inevitable diaper blowouts that happen at all the wrong times. Who do they think they are?

Below is an article from The School of Life… “How to Choose a Good Present.”

The essence of the article? Gifts are important. That thought is ingrained in childhood and isn’t likely to go away. But what does an adult need when it comes to a gift?

Excerpt from article:

Anything our friends are likely to want, they buy for themselves – or we won’t be able to afford to buy it for them. This isn’t to say that (our friends) don’t have any (needs); it’s merely that what they seek from us is largely psychological rather than material in nature.