Scaredy Cats

bonus: kesha also showed up as #mrbaldwide !! 💥

Because Google is totally useless and won't help you with ANYTHING

iNaturalist: Take photos of living things you see, post them, and the community will identify them for you. Data from iNaturalist is used in scientific research.

Wildflower.org Plant Database: Enter search criteria and find some plants. Very useful if you're looking for plants with specific qualities or know what you have in mind.

Native Plant Finder: This website is still in beta and is a work in progress, but it will show you plants for your area ranked by the number of butterflies that use them for their caterpillars.

WildflowerSearch: AMAZING resource for identification and for learning about new plants. Shows you where plants are native/not native, TONS of search filters.

Native Plant Trust: A New England organization, but probably useful to anyone.

Northern Forest Atlas: Great images and identification resources for trees; has good pictures of bark, seeds, buds, leaves.

FloraFinder: Another plant database site that's being slowly built up by a passionate nerd.

MonarchWatch milkweed by USA ecoregion: Tells you what milkweed species you should plant for monarch butterflies.

Native Beeology: Not plants, but a closely related subject.

Let’s all remember that the man , and others like him wake up every day and decide they’re going to harm your friends , your family , innocents who have no way to defend themselves against the power they all wield . And they gladly do so to get a little more powerful than the day before

They don’t get to expect humanity when they’ve spent their miserable lives depriving us of our own

i thought the eras tour font looked familiar

NAOMI KLEIN to SAM ALTMAN:

"...you ingested the entire written output of human civilization without consent, without compensation and without credit to build a system whose primary commercial application is eliminating the jobs of the people whose work you consumed.

Actually actionable advice (break it down into smaller pieces, leave and come back later, find somebody to do it with you so you aren't doing it alone)

My therapist had me start with identifying places/circumstances/items that made me feel more safe and comfortable (for me this was in my bed with heavy blankets and several comfort items, for some it's their car, or a nice chair, or a favorite piece of jewelry, etc) and then really focus on how I felt while there. Later throughout the day try to remember that feeling and see if you can invoke it at all (if you can't, that's totally fine and normal, just repeat the first step a couple times a day/as often as is convenient). After a couple weeks I was able to sort of "catch a glimpse" of the way I felt in my bed. Over time, I was able to feel safer and safer, and it was easier and faster! It took a couple years before it became more of a "habit" than a conscious practice.

There are a bunch of other methods to try if that one doesn't work for you, but that's the one that worked for me so it's the one I tend to share. Once you "find" that feeling of safety, the practice of returning to it gets easier and easier!

Oh- the other key aspect is trying your best to take care of your physical needs (food, water, temperature, pain management, not ignoring an uncomfortable stim or uncomfortable physical position, etc). It is extremely difficult to feel safe when your body is starving/in pain and feels ignored 😬 so even when you can't meet the need right away, it can be extremely helpful to, like, rest a hand on your heart (or whatever works for you) and take a second to reassure your body that you will help as soon as possible. It helps me to think of my body as a kid I had to take care of, that made it a lot harder to ignore my needs or be mean to myself about them (especially when I get tired and can't continue cleaning/working on something.) because I would never talk to a kid the way I used to talk to myself. Some people prefer to think of their body as like a pet. Whatever works :)

I'm not exaggerating when I say that my worst days now feel like my good days back then.