Things to Read, Things to Hear

Your weekly chaotic recommendations.

Hey fam,

It’s hard to believe this week is over, but here we are staring at the weekend. It was the first week back to the grind after Passover and I definitely feel ground down to a fine dust.

I’m finding it difficult to balance my actual job at the library with the various activism projects I’ve taken on and the multiplicity of responsibilities that come with family, household, and partnership. I know the logical thing to do is to take some things off my plate; I cannot do it all. As we say in Hebrew, I have already been in this movie.

But I also feel pulled to do something something something, even the littlest thing to be a part of the resistance movement. I want to make sure the local Board of Education knows how important it is to protect LGTBQ+ kids. I want to do what I can to support the people working on peace in my motherland. I want to make a better world for my children to live in one day, and it kind of feels like a now or never moment.

I’m also doing some extra contract work because, in case you hadn’t noticed, everything is more expensive now. All this amounts to this kind of a feeling:

That being said, I’ve incorporated a number of soul-filling practices and protective boundaries into my daily life. With so many things drawing on one’s energy levels, these have become non-negotiable parts of my day-to-day. If I am going to have the strength for a spontaneous walk around the block with Toddler before editing a newsletter about standing up for peace in the Middle East after bedtime, I need some damn parameters.

So here’s what I’ve got so far, and it’s only for me. Maybe something else works for you! That’s great, and I would really love to hear about your strategies!

1. No intense podcasts or books after 9:00 pm. Only jokey things or beautiful music before bed — I am very strict about this.

2. Every morning and every evening, 10-30 minutes of garden time. Touching soil twice a day and breathing the scent of growth and renewal is healing.

3. Take part in exercise I enjoy at least once a week. As an ADHD-er, this has become a key part of how I manage my emotional lability (read: meltdowns) and I simply cannot live without it. Or, I can, but I’ll be less focused, crankier, less present with the people I love, and generally kind of a mess. For me, this is usually running and lifting weights, but can also be rock-climbing, dancing, going on a long walk with a pal.

4. The hours of 5:00 to 9:00 belong to my family. Insofar as it’s possible, I do not work, do activism, or otherwise engage in things that don’t have to do with my fam during the afternoon. Presence, baby.

5. Eat when I’m hungry and don’t be weird about it. At some point, I’ll write about having struggled with disordered eating throughout my life. But for now, I’ll just say — my internal dialogue around this is very intentional and it’s basically, babe, eat what you want when you want it.

What are you up to? Do you have practices that are working for you? I’d love to hear about them in the comments (or in my inbox).

Shabbat shalom,

Mikhal

Hey there! Welcome to the Chaos Palace is a space uplifting ADHD, queerness, Judaism, and how to find opportunities for growth & creativity in the messiness of life.

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Reading Recs:

As always, these works are not necessarily things I endorse, although some are! Have fun guessing! What they all have in common is the ability to make me think and expand my mind. Some I had to come to with more compassion and deep breaths than others. All were worth the time it took to listen or read.

1. The New York Times’

   Paul Tough
   wrote a very intriguing piece about ADHD that about 14 different people have sent to me. I think it brings together a bunch of different threads I’m tugging on in my brain and braids them together in an interesting way.

2. Also from the Times, DNC Vice Chair and Gen Z wunderkind David Hogg is trying to reshape the Democratic Party from the top down and the bottom up at the same time. I’ll be keeping my eye on this particular trend, don’t know about you all.

3. In The Guardian,

   Eran Zelnik
   wonders what makes him, an Israeli peace activist, so different from Mohsen Mahdawi and Mahmoud Khalil.

4. Also in the Times (wow, I read the Times a lot this week), how do Palestinian Christians feel about American Evangelicals? Mentioned in this article is a woman named Alice who is being kept from her family’s land unlawfully. You can support her here.

5. [HEBREW]: Haaretz did an incredible project of speaking with various soldiers in the Israeli Air Force about why they are (or are not) refusing to serve in Gaza anymore. That’s a gift link, so anyone can read it.

6. The Dingus of the Week is the all-male committee to convince American women to have more babies!

7. Kelly
   wrote about the particularities of ADHD burnout in a piece I appreciated for reasons mentioned above.

8. jeanette winterson
   on sacrifice and renewal and one message of Easter.

9. My pal

   Heidi Fiedler
   on how to support parents of autistic kids.

10. Rabbi Sandra Lawson
    on the danger of Project Esther and the complexity of American Jewish identity.

11. Is gender affirming care scary? No! Here are some details on what it actually means, based on science instead of Fox News scare tactics, from the delightful

    Your Trans Cousin
    .

12. Jericho Vincent
    wrote a brief but deeply felt meditation called Every Child Has a Right to Life for Holocaust Remembrance Day.

13. Last but very much not least — I’m listening to the audiobook of Tara Brach’s Radical Compassion and I will have to write a whole essay about how important it is for everyone everywhere. Especially now. I borrowed it from the library and so can you!

Listening Recs:

1. This whole concert is WOW:

2. This is not a drill! Amy Poehler has a podcast and it is very much the joy, silliness, and introspection but in a fun way we all need now. This episode with Kathryn Hahn is a delight, but so are all the episodes:

3. New release by Lana del Rey! It’s very lovely.

4. Rhiannon Giddens has a new record out. Banjo, fiddle, joy, closeness, beauty — this thing has it all.

And now for some heavier things…
[HEBREW] This podcast is doing a whole series on how/if/why it is or is not possible to envision a two-state solution. I found these three episodes fascinating:

[HEBREW] The incredible

Yael Omer

who has saved our family on more than one occasion has a podcast about parenting kids with ADHD! We should all be grateful!

Finally… this conversation with

Viet Thanh Nguyen

was a whole journey, and I’m so grateful to the folks at Code Switch for stepping into challenging spaces with such grace and compassion.