First Person Singular by Wendy Braitman

Heading Into Winter in Search of Green

I live in a state where it’s always green, so for me this is a metaphor. I wonder from all of you who reside in real winter climates, how do you get through the months with no leaves on the trees? As we face a new political reality, I’m in search of respite. 

La Mortella Garden by Guy Yanai

We Need You!

Illustration by Marc Johns

Holiday Hangover

Monday mornings after a long holiday can be a fraught time. After days of being off the work grid, it’s a jolt to get back into the swing of things. I had a wonderfully distracting visit with my extended family. We ate delicious Thanksgiving food (twice), drank with abandon, went to the movies (Arrival), sampled awesome Taiwanese-Chinese delicacies and enjoyed L.A. winter weather (rain and 49 degrees). All of which made it harder to navigate the 9-5 reality. And at dawn today, my heart anxiously raced. How about you?

Comic by Toothpaste for Dinner

We’re in This Together, Now More Than Ever

Filled with gratitude for all of you. Happy Thanksgiving!

Illustration by Adam J Kurtz

Garden Variety Rant

It’s the two-week anniversary of staring into the apocalypse, but today I have a mundane complaint. The lower bins in my refrigerator aren’t gliding properly, so I called the company and they scheduled a repair man to come to my place. They gave me a ridiculously long five hour window of when he would show up. (Even more than the cable guy.) With a flimsy “stuck in traffic” excuse, he finally arrived 6- 1/2 hours later. I was steaming mad. It seems odd to be feeling aggrieved about something so trivial given the state of our country. And in a way, it felt like a relief.

Photo by Wendy Morgan

Worry Day Off

So many people are in a heightened state of anxiety right now. My back has been tweaked for weeks, and I’m totally blaming it on #election2016. As some readers might know, I try to take a 24-hour break from worrying each week beginning on Friday evenings. It’s a mind jujitsu and requires practice, but I’ve been doing this for years, and have gotten the hang of it. Today, for the first time, I implemented this practice on a Monday. That’s how much I needed it. How are you coping?

Illustration by Lee Crutchley

It’s a Time for Radical Hope

excerpt from an essay by Junot Diaz:

But all the fighting in the world will not help us if we do not also hope. What I’m trying to cultivate is not blind optimism but what the philosopher Jonathan Lear calls radical hope. “What makes this hope radical,” Lear writes, “is that it is directed toward a future goodness that transcends the current ability to understand what it is.” Radical hope is not so much something you have but something you practice; it demands flexibility, openness, and what Lear describes as “imaginative excellence.” Radical hope is our best weapon against despair, even when despair seems justifiable; it makes the survival of the end of your world possible. Only radical hope could have imagined people like us into existence. And I believe that it will help us create a better, more loving future.

Illustration by Lisa Congdon

In Need of Nourishment

Apart from my post-election obsession with social media and the coming apocalypse, I’m trying to focus on happier things, like Thanksgiving. It’s hard to believe it’s next week. My responsibility is limited. I only have to bring an appetizer – though it’s for 25 people, so it takes planning. I love the planning part, the scouring of cookbooks to figure out what to prepare. This is mostly a Jewish crowd, so I landed on a recipe that I’ve made before from the Barefoot Contessa for chopped chicken liver. It’s fabulous, and reminiscent of holidays around the Brooklyn dinner table of my Latvian-born grandmother. What are your Thanksgiving plans?

Photo by Brenton Clarke Little

The Compliment Project

Tell Me Something Good That Happened To You Today

When I was in San Francisco last weekend, I stayed with my friend who’s a coveted fashion designer. Her collection is beautiful. As I was packing to return home, she pulled a skirt from her closet that she’s never worn. It’s too small for her now, but fits me perfectly. 

Tell me something good that has happened to you lately.

Illustration by Adam J. Kurtz