Loose Leaf Notes

1. A new program in Canada gives doctors the option of prescribing national park visits… “Given the growing body of evidence that indicates nature time can improve all kinds of different physical and mental health conditions, we’re hoping that our PaRx program not only improves patient health, but reduces costs to the healthcare system, and helps to grow the number of people who are more engaged environmental advocates,” PaRx director Dr. Melissa Lem said.  More HERE. 

2. First there was Candy Crush and now there is Wordle and I don’t understand either.

3. Best Super Bowl tweet: “The Bengals can still win if Mike Pence has the courage.” Brian Tyler Cohen

4. “The person you marry is the person you fight with. The house you buy is the house you repair. The dream job you take is the job you stress over. Everything comes with an inherent sacrifice—whatever makes us feel good will also inevitably make us feel bad. What we gain is also what we lose. What creates our positive experiences will define our negative experiences.” ― Mark Manson

5. You wouldn’t tell / that you thought you were a mother / when you were three-years-old / that you lived in the Germantown projects / and had a baby carriage for your baby doll / And you wrote 100 poems / before you wrote this one / like a veteran who doesn’t / talk about the war … Read The Origin Story in its entirety HERE.

6. The Origin Story: It’s a poem that made me think that all the poems I had written before it were merely steps to lead me to it. It was a poem I thought would be impossible to write, and I wasn’t sure I even wanted to try.  But because the idea came to me and all the poems I wrote before it paved the way, it came fairly easy. It’s a poem I had to trust was already in me.

7. “Thoreau says writing is a “distinct profession to rescue from oblivion and to fix the sentiments and thoughts which visit all men more or less generally.” In other words, his thoughts aren’t necessarily special, but writing them down is. simply writing down a thought, you encourage more thoughts to come. When you have enough thoughts pushed together in the same space — a collage of thoughts, juxtaposed — they often lead to something totally new. This is the magic of writing.” Austin Kleon

8. “This is what I learned: that the world’s otherness is antidote to confusion, that standing within this otherness — the beauty and the mystery of the world, out in the fields or deep inside books — can re-dignify the worst-stung heart.” -Mary Oliver

9. In the spirit of poetic memoir and depth psychology, the duo took turns reading poems, presenting an honest and emotional sharing that drew laughter, some tears and frequent applause. “Very good for the heart and soul in many ways,” attendee Kalinda Wycoff later said. Agnes Crowe recommended that others attend future readings if they have the opportunity, posting to Facebook on Monday, “The hour flew by and everyone who was there yesterday enjoyed ourselves.” – More from the  Soulful Aging Reading and Book Signing HERE.

10. On Valentine’s Day morning I was putting two bright red apples in the fruit bowl and wondered why we don’t give our sweethearts a dozen red delicious apples instead of roses for Valentine’s Day. – February 2009

11. “Valentine’s Day was traumatic for me as a child because I was shy, not a popular kid, and I had a home haircut that was not nicely tapered in back but was cut in a series of terraces, and I desperately wanted to be liked and when I looked at my valentines from classmates, I could see that they were the inexpensive kind that came six to a page and were torn out along a dotted line, and the edges had little bumps. Mine were bumpy valentines, not particularly meaningful.” Garrison Keillor

12. THIS looks like fun!

13. There is a lovely idea in the Celtic tradition that if you send out goodness from yourself, or if you share that which is happy or good within you, it will all come back to you multiplied ten thousand times. In the kingdom of love there is no competition, there is no possessiveness or control. The more love you give away, the more love you will have.” – John O’Donohue

_____________Thirteen Thursday