[sharplungful]

Missing the mountains, but the midwest still holds magic... there's nothing quite like a sea of prairie grass bending in the wind. Hello November! #goleftonsunday #favoritethings #localadventures #milkweed #prairiegrass #november🍁 #getoutside https://www.instagram.com/p/B4a8J2fhsvf/?igshid=rsenktyu77hn

[sharplungful]

This year's Labor Day project... probably washed away in today's morning rain, but that's all part of the beauty. Grandma Max's pastels still going strong. Big thanks to Scott for always keeping a square on reserve :) #sidewalkchalk #streetart #lastdaysofsummer #reflection #connection #community #edgewaterchicago #independentspiritsinc (at Independent Spirits, Inc.) https://www.instagram.com/p/B18_nq-BONx/?igshid=viy0c8u3g7fy

[sharplungful]

Had my heart from day one... always there for each of us at the right time. Rest in peace Edgar, you inquisitive little angel. https://www.instagram.com/p/B1toKGwhJPJ/?igshid=1mrkkd1f43hzv

[sharplungful]

Ridge roaming with the wandering women

#Kananaskiscountry #Pocaterra #themountainsarecalling

[sharplungful]

This summer has been about a renewal in faith - in myself, in others, and in universal energy. And with it has come an unbelievable surge of connection, compassion, joy, and inner peace; an ability to ride emotional waves that once pulled me under. Suddenly, I feel spaciousness and stretch, an expansion of mind and body. Everything is within reach and there is no urgency. I thought about this a lot during the long trek through Yosemite. There is usually a moment for me in every climb...a sharp lungful of thin mountain air, a rush of easy clarity. I had two of these moments today. One was in the inky pre-dawn shadow. It's the first time I've ever set out so early - I could barely see the next step in front of me. The only natural light was the soft glow of open sky, an intricate web of constellations blinking. It felt easy somehow; a sure-footed climb by starlight, the ghostly Vernal Falls thundering beside me, cold mist spraying my cheek. I have never felt so clear or strong than in that slippery darkness, the universe suspended above. I have scaled many cliffs in the Black Abyss, but was always waiting for the inevitable misstep. The silent, screaming fall. Today, I just went up. I was excited for sunrise, I wanted to see the first pink-orange beams filter through pine and burn golden on the cold, sheer rock. There was never any doubt. The second was coming down from the summit - hanging one-handed from the Half Dome cables, laughing, the valley spread beneath me like some cosmic gift. I could have lived there in the morning sun, practically perpendicular to the rounded granite, breathing it in. The part of this hike that I was most worried about turned out to be my favorite moment. When I decided to do Half Dome, I thought it would be a test of grit, courage, and spirit. Instead, it was an affirmation. A declaration of my own truth - that I have and have always had these things, and always will. Even when I can't see them, they are still there; a secret in the darkness, waiting for the dawn light. #reflections #forward #nature #faith #fate #womenwhowander #hikingadventures #halfdome #yosemitenationalpark (at Half Dome) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0r5snlBWn1/?igshid=1b2cjh1xb1z72

[sharplungful]

Lurie garden: June blooms.

[stimman3000]

.

[coffeeinmybeard]

Thalassophobia and then calm

[sharplungful]

Flow

[velvetmysoul]

[awed-frog]

Prairies are some of the most endangered ecosystems in the world, with the tallgrass prairie being the most endangered. Only 1-4% of tallgrass prairie still exists. Prairies are critically important, not only for the unique biodiversity they possess, but for their effect on climate. The ability to store carbon is a valuable ecological service in today’s changing climate. Carbon, which is emitted both naturally and by human activities such as burning coal to create electricity, is a greenhouse gas that is increasing in the Earth’s atmosphere. Reports from the International Panel on Climate Change, a group of more than 2,000 climate scientists from around the world, agree that increased greenhouse gases are causing climate change, which is leading to sea level rise, higher temperatures, and altered rain patterns. Most of the prairie’s carbon sequestration happens below ground, where prairie roots can dig into the soil to depths up to 15 feet and more. Prairies can store much more carbon below ground than a forest can store above ground. In fact, the prairie was once the largest carbon sink in the world-much bigger than the Amazon rainforest-and its destruction has had devastating effects.

[source]

[revretch]

I just have to add–that extensive root system? It’s not just how the plant eats, and how it keeps itself from getting pulled out of the ground during storms, or dying when its aboveground portion is eaten… it’s how it talks to its friends and family, how it shares food with its friends and family, and more than likely, how it thinks. That’s a whole plant brain we’ve domesticated away, leaving a helpless organism that has trouble figuring out when it’s under attack by pests, what to do about it, has very little in the way of chemical defense so it can do something about it, and can’t even warn its neighbors. Even apart from the ecological concerns, what we’ve done is honestly pretty cruel.

[bogleech]

Here’s some more articles on this too! https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/may/02/plants-talk-to-each-other-through-their-roots http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141111-plants-have-a-hidden-internet

https://www.the-scientist.com/features/plant-talk-38209

Whether or not you think this should qualify as a form of “intelligence” as we know it (which in itself as a pretty nebulous and poorly defined thing), plants exhibit complicated interactive behaviors that help them grow and thrive, and the way we harvest a lot of them for our produce just doesn’t even give them a chance to reach their maturity and begin trading nutrients the way they’re supposed to.

[sharplungful]

***Important

[sharplungful]

First lakeshore ride this year 🚴🏻‍♀️ Sunshine and skyline, sharp spring air. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv7eZWwhd00/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=10g6vnlw441r8

[leahberman]

poppy field sunset

instagram

[sharplungful]

The lightness inside me is blooming

[itscolossal]

Decorative Laser Cut Paper Compositions with Hand-Painted Ink by Julia Ibbini

[itscolossal]

VTN Architects Designed a Vietnam Home With the Green Space on the Inside

[sharplungful]

My future home

[vajeentambourine]

Your mixed feelings about your parents are valid.

Shout out to people like me who have parents who are loving but are black holes of emotional labor… It took me a long time to realize that it’s okay to have mixed feelings about your parents, about your relationship with them.

Sometimes parents can love you but be somewhat toxic to you and your growth, and that’s a very hard realization to come to if you, like me, grew up extremely close to them.

Sometimes parents can love you genuinely but lack emotional maturity, forcing you to perform disproportionate amounts of emotional labor. Some parents manifest symptoms of their mental illness in ways that are toxic to your mental illness.

Some parents, like mine, try so hard to be good parents but fall back on habits of emotional manipulation because they haven’t processed their own traumas and are modeling behavior they grew up with. That doesn’t make their behavior acceptable, and it’s okay to feel exhausted and hurt when they betray you. You don’t have to forgive every mistake.

I want you to know that it’s okay to protect yourself, to need some space apart from them. The love you have for your parents is still valid, and you are making the right decision.

Placing a safe emotional distance between myself and my parents has been one of the most difficult, heartbreaking processes I’ve ever gone through… it hurts to try to curb the strength of your own natural empathy around people you love. It feels disingenuous to your heart’s natural state.

But I promise you, you are not hard-hearted or ungrateful, and you are not abandoning them. You are making a decision about your own emotional, mental, and spiritual health.

I know what it’s like in that confusing grey area of love mixed with guilt and anxiety, of exhaustion and quasi-manipulation and unreciprocated emotional labor, and I promise you, you are not alone.

Your mixed feelings about your parents are valid.

[itscolossal]

Paper Illustrations and GIFs Explore the Body and Mind in New Work by Eiko Ojala

[sharplungful]

Heartbeat

[thejoyfulsurprise]

“Really, though, the hard part is not the “meh.” The hard part isn’t hearing the words “I can never be your boyfriend” or “We aren’t sure you’re a good match for the company” or “You’re not someone I want to be friends with.” Every person must accept some “meh” into their lives, because even if you face yourself and grow a lot, you’ll still land in that space a million times over. Landing in that space just means that you’re trying new things, meeting new people, having new adventures, and being brave instead of hiding. When you’re broken but you’re trying new things, you will hear echoes of your brokenness. You will feel wobbly. Accept it. The important part comes next: You hear the echoes that sound like “Am I bad? Am I repulsive? Am I doing it wrong again?,” and you try very hard to reassure yourself instead of becoming a human question mark. You say to yourself, “You are good. This is how it feels to be a human being.” Then you take a deep breath, and you feel wide awake and alive. Because you know that you’re okay and everything is fine. You know this because you’ve been talking to other people and really listening (instead of doing all the talking) and you know now that everyone feels a little ashamed and weird and broken sometimes, particularly those people who are reaching for great things.”

— Heather Havrilesky for Ask Polly

[itscolossal]

Glass Lilac, Daffodil, and Magnolia Blossoms Thrive Underground at New York City’s 28th Street Subway Station