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My friend Nōn Wels, a mental health advocate whose podcasts you should listen to—You, Me, Empathy; We Can’t Do It Alone—created these cards with the artist Ess Crossley. They’re thoughtful, engaging and can be used in a variety of ways—with students or with close friends and partners.

Have a look and consider purchasing as a gift for you or others. If you are a teacher or own a store and want to sell or use them, click the link for ways to get in touch with Nōn.

Look for Glimmers & Balance Your Nervous System.

I write this on the Friday before the 2024 election. You’ll receive this the day after; either we’ll know who is our next president, or we won’t. We’ll be devastated, or elated. Some might be planning to leave the country forever, others might be actively renewing their leases.

I worry there will be violence.

I hope we’ll feel relief, and hope.

In the meantime, I’m out here looking for glimmers to calm myself down, and balance my nervous system.

Before I dive into what I mean by “glimmer” I want to tell you a wild story.

The other day, before heading out with Busy for our afternoon walk, I put two books on my little coffee table bench to look through when I returned.

I wrote about one of them a couple weeks ago.

Then we headed out.

I had a 4pm phone call, and I took it as Busy and I did our routine romp around our Brooklyn neighborhood.

As I neared a brownstone, I saw two books, side by side, left out for anyone to take. Anyone who knows me knows my favorite number is free.

Still on the phone as the books came into view, I stood stunned before them, saying: “Holy Shit. What the hell? This is wild. This is madness. This is the strangest thing ever,” while the person on the other end rightfully kept asking, “What? What? Tell me!”

I told her, took a photo, and then left them there, but when I got to the end of the block, the person on the other end asked me to grab them for her, so I did.

The astrologers and psychics who follow me online (I know, who knew?) all DM’d to tell me it was synchronicity, and meant I was on the right path. Which was true—literally.

What does it all mean?

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