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This Woman Doesn't Believe In God, But Her View On Life And Death Is Absolutely Heavenly

Flowers have always been sappy to me, until this writer compared me to one. I think we could all benefit from feeling already in bloom. Julia Sweeney is one of the great storytellers of our time, and this is just one of the many gems of wisdom she has dropped into my life.

Health

Motivation expert explains how two simple words can free you from taking things personally

You don't need to take responsibility for everything and everyone.

Mel Robinson making a TED Talk.

Towards the end of The Beatles’ illustrious but brief career, Paul McCartney wrote “Let it Be,” a song about finding peace by letting events take their natural course. It was a sentiment that seemed to mirror the feeling of resignation the band had with its imminent demise.

The bittersweet song has had an appeal that has lasted generations and that may be because it reflects an essential psychological concept: the locus of control.

“It’s about understanding where our influence ends and accepting that some things are beyond our control,” Jennifer Chappell Marsh, a marriage and family therapist, told The Huffington Post. “We can’t control others, so instead, we should focus on our own actions and responses.”

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Library holds 'March Meowness' forgiving library fines for cats

There are very few things more annoying than forgetting to return your library books, especially if you forget multiple days in a row. Before you know it fines have racked up to a few dollars instead of the original ten cents. To some a few bucks may not seem like enough to keep you from going back to the library to get more books, but for some it can be a pretty significant barrier.

With everything becoming more expensive, the library is one of the only places people can go to check out things they need. Many libraries offer more than just books. You can check out free movies, audiobooks, computers, some libraries even have tools patrons can check out, making life a lot easier for people that just don't have the money to purchase these things outright.

One Massachusetts library system didn't want fines to be a barrier to people needing to check things out, so they came up with a fun initiative.

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Representative Image from Canva

There's probably no wrong time to shower, as long as you're doing it consistently.

Dr. Jason Singh, who has all kinds of medical insights on TikTok, recently weighed in on the topic he joked was “more debatable than pineapple on pizza.

That debate would be whether it’s better to shower in the morning, or at night.

You would think the “right answer” would be largely up to personal preference, much like which way to face while showering and whether or not to snack in the shower…two previous hot button issues online.

But according to Singh, there are definitive pros and cons to each option, which could settle the debate once and for all.

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Democracy

From adding spikes to removing benches, anti-homeless architecture hurts us all

These "solutions" to homelessness issues are making things worse.

"HOMELESS JESUS" by sculptor Timothy P. Schmalz in Toronto, Canada

Have you noticed it's getting harder and harder to find a place to sit in public spaces these days? There's a reason for that. It's a purposeful choice many municipalities are making in an effort to keep people who are homeless from setting up camp or making beds out of benches.

The anti-homeless spikes that make lying down on steps, along buildings and on other flat surfaces have been addressed by communities in creative ways, such as the artists who set up a cozy bed with a bookshelf attached to it over one set of spikes in London. But there are other manifestations of hostile architecture popping up around the world as the homelessness crisis reaches dire proportions in some cities.

Hostile or anti-homeless architecture makes the environment incompatible with comfortable rest and relaxation, which serves the purpose of pushing homeless people out of those spaces (but does nothing to actually solve the problem). And at the same time, it makes shared public spaces a lot less comfortable for everyone.

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Pic from Twitter.

The texting experience between two different men.

Saving old text messages from exes can sometimes be an asset when you need to remember exactly why you left them. Alternately, sometimes digital relics from old relationships are a good reminder of how much good we have in our lives currently.

At least, they did for the Twitter user May Larsen, who recently posted screenshots of two text threads with two very different men.

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Gerod Roth's racist Facebook post.


Gerod Roth posted a photo of himself with a coworker's child last month.

And while it might not be immediately obvious why this was such a mistake, well ... let me tell you.

The initial photo, screencapped and tweeted above by Twitter user Dr. X, is seemingly adorable. But the comments and Roth's intent soon turned rather ugly.

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