"If you wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down." –Toni Morrison in Song of Solomon ♥️RIP View in browser
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5 quick things –
Photo of two smiling women (Liza to the left and her daughter to the right) standing in front of a bright yellow traffic sign that says

Hello, friend.

Here is this morning's sunrise over Miami Beach (no filter, just pure warmth.) Sometimes when everything else feel like it's in pieces, I take comfort in knowing that the sun will keep rising and setting each day.

And on cloudy days, I tell myself: the sun is up there, Liza. It's just obscured by clouds right now. But it's there.

This is obviously such a good metaphor for basic goodness, or God, or the benevolent power of the universe, or whatever you believe, but I take comfort in its very literalness: the sun rises in the sky each morning. ☀️We find buoyancy where we can, don't we?

    Okay, here's your 5 things for the week. ⏬

    THIS WEEK'S PRACTICE :: MINDFUL NEWS CONSUMPTION
    1. it's okay to log off

    Yes of course we all need to be taking action right now to fight against the hatred that threatens to envelop our society.

    But this is your gentle reminder that constantly staying up on the news is not taking action, and it is probably harming your well-being. Here are some tips for managing your news consumption:

    • turn off all push notifications + unsubscribe from all news emails (they have their needs in mind, not yours)
    • unfollow news accounts on social media & keep that space for human connection
    • read or watch the news at dedicated times only
    • don't let the news become background noise or entertainment; what is happening matters too much to go numb

    If doing all these things feels like too much, just do one of them. Take care of your heart and your soul so that you can give the most energy possible to the important fight at hand. 💕

    (BTW, I was on the Breathe Like a Badass podcast last week talking about this–and many other things.)

    photo of Mr. Rogers and Officer Clemons sitting outside on a hot day with their feet in a baby pool
    recommended
    2. wonderful documentaries

    I loved all three of these documentaries for very different reasons: 

    Won't You Be My Neighbor makes a fantastic case for Fred Rogers as a modern day saint. This is a must see! Truly a beautiful story that will hold your heart gently. (HBO, YouTube, Amazon Prime)

    Three Identical Strangers really seems at first like it's about three identical triplets who were separated at birth, which is an extraordinary enough story. But then what happens shocked the filmmakers as much as it astounded me. (Hulu, YouTube, Amazon)

    Love and Mercy is not a doc; it's a dramatization, but I am lumping it in here because it is about a true, heartbreakingly beautiful story. I literally did not care about The Beach Boys, but it was so well rated, I gave it a chance. And holy crap, it's a beautifully told story about mental illness, genius, and love. (YouTube, Amazon, iTunes) 

    what can I say? it's a stunning photo! a bunch of badass women entrepreneurs of all colors and sizes surrounding a beaming older woman in a red dress
    OOH COOL
    3. my work is in the . . . Smithsonian ? !

    Not to brag (that's what I say when I am about to brag), but I forgot to shout from the rooftops that a piece I conceived and produced was hung in the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery last year!

    Here's the story about how it all went down.

    pink book cover with the purple title
    SPILLING THE FAMILY TEA
    4. we did the college application process all wrong

    Last spring was a difficult time for our family. The scariest part was that my monkey was hospitalized for a mysterious mosquito-bourne tropical disease she got on our mommy-daughter surf trip to Central America (the working theory is that it was Dengue Fever.)

    But the heartbreaking part was the college application process. It was terrible. We really bought into the ideas that 1) years of hard work and having the appropriate credentials would pay off, and 2) that the kind of school she went to mattered. We were shocked at how badly we were wrong about all of it.

    After a gap year traveling the world and a huge shift in perspective, she's landed somewhere perfect for her. AND she is starting to share her perspective on what happened.  And so, I am proud to share this, her first published piece on what we did wrong: 

    Relevant Experience, Desire, and the College Application Process 

    (I'm not sure I am describe how proud I am to have a child who is like, HEY LOOK EVERYONE I SCREWED UP AND NOW YOU CAN LEARN FROM IT! because that is how I aspire to live my life. She is my constant teacher.)

    a gif of a storm cloud over the ocean with a SEA TORNADO coming down from it
    NATURE IS AMAZING
    5. this casual sea tornado I saw 🌊🌪️

    Okay first of all, I know it's called a waterspout because people keep correcting me, but to me this is a SEA TORNADO.

    I was casually strolling down the beach on a sunny sunset walk and I look up and there it is! I was the only one on the beach watching it. I literally did now know it was a thing. So now I know, and if you didn't know–now you do, too. 🌪️

    Nature is a constant joy.

    I'm heading back to NYC this weekend, which means I need to shift out of working-ten-hours-a-day-in-my-PJ's mode and back into social-and-family-human mode. I tend to get hugely caught up in the momentum of what's in front of me. Trying to see that as "being present in the moment" and not "tunnel vision to the detriment of all else." So much of loving ourselves is about creating kinder stories for us to live in, isn't it?

    Love,

    ps. Words are empty without action, but words are a good place to start. So: where I stand on white supremacy.

    MEANWHILE, ON SOCIAL MEDIA . . . 

    Instagram photo of an old, sepia toned photo of a young Liza gazing at a gorgeously fat baby, which is draped in a leopard print blanket
    A Twitter post that says,
    Instagram photo of a handsome man proudly wearing a white tshirt that says, in pink block letters,
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    Liza Kindred

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