A Drink With a Friend

There are things that, while we'd never wish for all this, have turned out to be okay. In fact, there are some things that are, dare we say, a little better than when life is “normal.” Tsh:  Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

By making intentional choices about our household errands, we help local businesses during this tough time, and supporting markets and other shops run by immigrant communities means you’re saying you want these businesses to stay.   Tsh:  Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

There are just enough echoes of camaraderie, resilience, and finding contentment of the unknown during World War II for this lovely show to feel a little bit familiar right now. (Plus, a second unexpected work of art!) Tsh:  Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

If you’re craving more of a reason to move your body a bit more, maybe this little mindset shift will work for you. …As an introvert, I'm intrigued. Anne Bogel Tsh: Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

I'd forgotten the surprising delight of receiving a handwritten letter in the mail. Tsh:  Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

This is for those of you who could use a little boost of encouragement with physical activity, a quick win, or something with a good before-and-after visual. Low-pressure, but feels good to get done. (Hint: smaller is better.) Tsh:  Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

There’s something really grounding (no pun intended) with tilling the soil, getting about as offline as you can get, and doing something that humans have done for millennia. Tsh:  Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

Think of some of your favorite restaurants, coffee shops, gift shops, and bookstores that aren’t a national chain in your community. Then imagine them gone post-pandemic — closed up. ...If you’re like me, that’s not a world you like imagining. Tsh:  Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

Being a good neighbor, good citizen, good human being means staying in the know, but not necessarily about everything right away — definitely not to the detriment of our health. Tsh:  Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

There’s a first happening right now: almost every parent is homeschooling. My friend Sarah Mackenzie has a brilliant but simple idea to make it a little easier. Sarah Mackenzie Tsh: Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

There are three main questions you can ask yourself for just about ANY issue that will help you get to what’s really going on. Tsh:  Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

It's apparently gone way down, while their work (and need for safety) has gone way up. Let's do our part. Tsh:  Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

If you need a little pep to your day today, go watch these videos. (You probably have already — it's gotten 10 million views in 3 days.) Some Good News Tsh: Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

These are not normal times. So for the next little bit, I’ll be coming to you more often, for an even shorter amount of time. Tsh:  Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

Keep a low-pressure, ordinary, daily diary during these days of quarantine-ing and social distancing. Your future self will be glad you did, and your descendants will probably be glad you did, too. "A Quarantine Diary" Google Doc Tsh: Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

There’s one little thing I do in my daily routine that has nothing to do with “getting things done” or being productive. And I recommend it even in “normal” life, when we’re not social-distancing or otherwise going through a global pandemic. Tsh:  Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

Right now we need to do our part to love our neighbors as ourselves, and that also looks like taking care of ourselves. Art is a great, soul-filling way to take care of ourselves because the best stuff points us to the true, the good, and the beautiful. Tsh:  Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

You need art in your life more than you probably realize, and you need to notice the local art done BY your community, FOR your community, more than you probably realize. This is definitely true for me. Tsh:  Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

This isn't about a super-fancy, high-end pen like you’re Mr. Burns and a Bic pen a store-brand pencil are beneath you. It's about finding that pen or pencil in your life that you care about — whatever it is — and enjoying the upgraded version. Tsh:  Newsletter |  Website Frixion refillable, erasable pen Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at the...

Because life is short; because death doesn’t make life pointless, it makes it purposeful. So what does it look like to take this idea and turn it into a habit?  Tsh:  Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

This story is about romantic love, but it’s also about familial love: between brother and sister, son and mother, father and son. It’s about the love between friends; about love in all its depths of ordinary life. About Time Tsh: Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

These people are the only ones that matter — and keeping this in mind will probably help you keep the right things, the right things. Plus, Tsh's friend Crystal hops on to share what idea is currently on her Good List. Crystal Ellefsen Tsh:  Newsletter |  Website Pick up a round of drinks  & help keep the show going Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

We’re talking about something so common it might seem like it hardly warrants an entire podcast episode. But because they’re so commonplace, there are interesting ways to use them in your work, home, and even spiritual life. Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

Visiting yours regularly is a passport that opens your eyes and hearts to the world beyond your front door, one of your best hopes against tyranny, xenophobia, hopelessness, despair, anarchy, and ignorance. Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe

Don’t be so immersed in your Important Work that you neglect the side of you that wants a really good story. A Small Fiction on Twitter A Small Fiction , by James Miller Get full access to The Commonplace at thecommon.place/subscribe