Surround Yourself With Good People…and Their Words.

Sometimes the internet and social media and even ordinary household items (like makeup) contribute to a shared fake reality. One that doesn’t really connect us despite appearances. But, in the midst of the web’s inauthentic parts, there are people like these who are smart and wise enough to pause this machine called life and reflect well.

I hope their words bring a smile and breath of fresh air to the beginning of your weekend. Happy Friday.

Seth Haines, well done, on your post about Inner Sobriety:

Though it may seem counterintuitive at first, I have not centered my reflection in the celebration of being drink-free. Instead, I’ve turned inward, beyond the obvious point of celebration. I’ve examined the condition of my inner sobriety, asking whether I’ve dealt with the things that led me to over-imbibe in the first place.

This story about how Zilla Van Den Born exposed the truth about the Internet speaks for itself. Read it.

After waving goodbye to her family at the airport, Zilla Van Den Born, 25, went to extraordinary lengths to fool her friends into thinking she was travelling through Thailand, Cambodia and Laos by mocking up photographs of exotic food and tourist attractions (from her bedroom). …The backpack of lies was all part of her university graduation project, to show how social media does not always reflect reality.

Read about how Elizabeth Gilbert told a fellow writer that her fears were boring…and how all of us feel similar fears in some aspect of our lives:

Listen, honey — I read through all your anxieties and your fears here. And I just have to say something very bluntly: Your fears about your book aren’t very interesting or very original! I can say this with complete authority, because they are exactly the same fears that I have, whenever I am about to release a book into the world. And I know for a fact that my fears are not interesting at all. (Click the quote above to read the rest and see the great, encouraging places she takes this.)

Here’s a couple for my fellow moms, starting with Glennon Melton on A Whole New–and Necessary–Way to See Your Messy House.

I remembered this passage from Thoreau’s Walden: “I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.” Walden reminds me that when I feel lacking — I don’t need new things, I need new eyes with which to see the things I already have. So when I woke up this morning, I walked into my kitchen wearing fresh perspectacles. Here’s what I saw.

You guys. I have a REFRIGERATOR.

And then there’s this…interesting…illustration about women opting for heavy makeup, and whether that’s insane or glamorous or real or fake. It’s from Grace Gold.

The HALF-made-up face photo below, which accompanied the post, almost drives a point home in and of itself, don’t you think?

Oh and there’s something wholly beautiful about what Kelly Corrigan’s mom asked for on her 75th birthday.

“Maybe something big, that all three of us can go in on?” I encouraged, knowing my brothers and I would cough up whatever it cost while also suspecting that any gift she might think up would be of a piece with birthdays past; bath salts or a wrinkle cream she’d saved a coupon for or possibly something mysterious but affordable like 2001’s request for a paraffin wax bath (for “softer, more youthful hands”).

“I know exactly what I want from you kids,” she said, like she’d loaded this gun a month ago.

Here’s Kid President reminding us THIS:

And from the wonderful, world of Facebook:

This…from Kate Silcox:

And here’s friend and poet John Blase on why things are going to be okay. If you’re not already reading him, the best thing you do this week may be to check out his many stirring words here.

A quote captured by my friend and stand-out social media guru, Tim Schraeder:

Oh and here’s my friend Anne Marrie Miller’s new book. Please join me in SUPER-LOVING the sub-title to all 8-ish planets and back.

Photo source: hands