I don’t know about you, but I am coming off a seriously lovely holiday weekend. I know it was America’s birthday party, but it felt very much like mine. There was an unapologetic sum of eating, chilling, and being generally lazy in good company. I have seen more parades, grilled meat and small dogs in costume than any one person is allowed. Yesterday was gorgeous, so we spent it up at the Chicago Botanic Garden, which is lovely any time of year, but especially when the waterlilies are in bloom and the whole place is like walking around in a giant Monet painting.
Also. This was interesting!
Well. Gosh. It swallows a beetle, then changes gender, and births up the beetle all that in one day? This makes me feel really under accomplished!
The mathematical principal reveals how to get what you want in life. (In short: The one who fears rejection the least will end up with the most – but it doesn’t say anything about victoria waterlilies).
I am OBSESSED with these treehouse tents.
The girl scouts turned down a $100,000 donation because the donor was a dirtbag. Then they made three times that anyway. Way to enterprise, ladies!
Whoa: 270 Reasons women choose to not have children.
Photographs of where children play around the world.
The state of Ohio’s health director, whose refusal to list a gay man as the surviving spouse on a death certificate (which led to last week’s landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling) delivered the reading at a same-sex wedding last weekend. (fyi, it was from Mark 12 “Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.”) (And if that isn’t full circle living, I don’t know what is.)
Eight drag queen makeup hacks that will change the way you put on your face.
Do you end up with a pile of sea shells at the end of the summer? Here are ten nifty things you can do with them.
Joseph Campbell on how perfectionism ruins relationships.
Holiday of the week: Different Colored Eyes Day. This holiday celebrates the diversity of eye color, as well as heterochromia – the eye condition where people have two different colors of eyes (now brown, one blue, etc). Do you know who almost has ? Jane Seymour, aka Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman. Also a lot of other celebrities, including David Bowie, but not really. Because David Bowie wasn’t cool enough already? Sigh.
Word of the week: XinTeng. The Chinese term for heartache with a particular emphasis on shared pain, or the heartache that comes from witnessing a loved one in pain. In America we just call this “feeling sorry for someone” but this is more empathetic. Why do we not have this word in English?
And. Don’t watch this if you are hungry.
I call dibs on the blonde.
I missed the 270 Reasons article – it is AMAZING! So great! I think I’m going to have it on standby to send to people.
That 270 reasons article is great!
Thank goodness I no longer have a choice and therefore don’t need to answer the “Why don’t you have kids”? question – if I had a $1 for every person who told me I’d be a good Mom I’d be so freakin’ rich. . .
Thanks for the reference to the mathematical principal about getting what you want in life. I’ve been doing some fundraising for a friend to get her son to the US to dance (from Australia – it’s a long way!), and have been asking donors (business people) to donate items for giveaways etc, with no concern whatsoever if they said “no”. And if you ask, it turns out they normally give you something. Whereas if I have waited for them to offer, well, I’d still be waiting. Sometimes you’ve just got to grab life in both hands and live!
Agreed. No harm in asking 🙂
I worked with a lady for 6 years that had two different colored eyes & I never noticed until she got contacts. Then once I noticed I could no longer not notice. My eyes would of their own volition look from one eye to the other and back again. No matter how hard I tried not to do that, it happened. And I know she could see my eyes do that how could I hide it! I felt so bad about doing that. Then I finally got smart and started looking at her eyebrows instead of her eyes. And I could finally relax around her again.
What I love about drag queen makeup is that they’re not afraid to go for the glamour. There are no “good girls don’t” messages running around in their heads. One more thing I like is putting a touch of highlighter on my forehead between the eyebrows as it seems to light up the eyes, just like a tiny dot of red pencil at the inner corner of the eye seems to elongate the eye without looking strange.
Your eyebrows are stunning. Must try that.
Great to see the lily pads and learn about how they change color and gender! The natural world is pretty incredible and amazing! Thanks for sharing such interesting info.