Dear Sugar

[L]et’s take it slow this last week of the year.  We have a lot to absorb and a future to dream.

Where have you been this year?

I’ve been to Uganda and Costa Rica.  I’ve been to the kitchen and the coffee shop.  I’ve been to California and New Orleans.  I’ve been scared and curious and anxious and exhilarated.  I’ve been to New York and Nashville.  I’ve been in the sky and on the ground.  Literally.  I have the plane ticket stubs and the scraped knees to prove every bit of it.

I’ve also been hungry.  For all the things all at once.

•  The end of the year brings with it many photo roundups.  Here’s another… let’s call this one astonishing.  More and astonishing photos of 2014.  It’s the big, beautiful, complicated, troubled, marvelous world we live in.

•  Peter Edward Kassig was a US Army Ranger and aid worker in Syria and Lebanon.  That’s too easy to type.  He was also a son, student, flawed human, cool dude, laugher at jokes… you know the deal.  In 2012 he founded Special Emergency Response and Assistance, an aid foundation dedicated to providing medical assistance, supplies, and food to refugees in Syria and Lebanon.  Extra ordinary. He was taken captive in eastern Syria on October 1, 2013 by ISIS and beheaded November 16, 2014.  Please read this story about one man trying to save another.  It’s really remarkable.   The Race To Save Peter Kassig.   

•  This wall lay you right out on the floor.  It’s astounding.  10 of the best “Dear Sugar” Advice Columns by Wild Author Cheryl Strayed.  My advice: read every word of it.  I love “The Ghost Ship That Didn’t Carry Us”.

•  Then there’s this:  The Obliterated Place.  Dammit all.

•  3 Ways to Responsibly and Compassionately Respond to Panhandling

•  You should know that, as much as I’m into butter and sugar… I’m also really into space and Mt. Everest.  5,200 Days In Space.    

•  How To Write:  A Year In Advice.  What does it mean if I find the advice itself daunting?

•  I’ve Got Fifty Trivial Problems.  Join the club, buddy.

•  Golden State.  See what they did there?

•  Everyone should have a friend like Whitney A.

•  My purse and travel palette.  Yes, we’re talking about makeup for a moment.  Thanks for letting it happen. Can we know about the world, care about people, and talk about makeup all at once?  Sure we can.  Sure we can.

Happy Monday, my friends.  I love you.  Don’t make it weird.

xo Joy