Something Good: What You Need to Read This Week

Land art experiments, recipes to jumpstart spring, and how to deal with bad company culture—your weekly dose of good.

This is a curated version of a list that originally appeared on “A Thousand Shades of Gray.” For more of your weekly dose of happy, please visit the complete list here.


Macro Photographs of Nature’s Tiniest Architects by Nicky Bay. The world is full of amazing things, some so tiny we can’t even see them without help. It reminds me of the images of sand under a microscope.

Landthropologic, Earthworks In Motion: Stunning Animated Land Art Experiments by Paul Johnson, beautiful and slightly creepy.

A Gentle Warrior’s Manifesto to End Busyness, a really great list from Be More With Less. “In a society that always wants more from you, it’s important to draw a line in the sand. What I’ve learned though is if you can draw the line with your heart, you can take a stand with a smile, dump the guilt around doing less, and instead of disappointing others, remind them what’s important in their own lives by honoring what’s important in yours.”

Bear, Lion And Tiger Brothers Haven’t Left Each Other’s Side For 15 Years. I hate the way they met, but I’m so glad they have each other.

21 Small Ways to Make Life Simpler, a great list of really simple things that work.

Recipes I want to try: Rhubarb, Blood Orange and Almond Crumble, and Spinach-Quinoa Patties.

What to Do When the Company Culture Sucks from Laura Simms. If her list “10 signs that things are all wrong with your office culture” sounds all too familiar, read on to get some tips on what do about it.

Just what we needed dept: The pre-peeled, plastic-packed orange. This seems like it must have been a joke, but it wasn’t. At least Whole Foods pulled it from the shelves.

Inside the Florida Jail that Doubles as an Exotic Animal Zoo. “Behind bars, abused and abandoned animals are finding refuge. Caring for them calms prisoners. Petting them draws thousands of visitors.” This good idea ranks right up there with dog rehab programs in prisons, preschools in assisted living facilities, and chocolate with peanut butter.

19 Amazing Caterpillar Transformations. Click on each image to see what the caterpillar turns into. Fun!

Jill Salahub

Jill Salahub writes about the tenderness and the terror, the beauty and the brutality of life, and of her efforts to keep her heart open through it all on her blog, A Thousand Shades of Gray.