"And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been."--Rainer Maria Rilke

 

Repeat after me: I am about to walk into the greatest year of my life.

Louisa May Alcott

“I make so many beginnings there never will be an end.”

Robert Burns, “Auld Lang Syne”

“We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne [for old time's sake].”

Dr. Seuss

"You’ll never get bored when you try something new. There’s really no limit to what you can do."

Anne Frank

“What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven't even happened yet.”

William E. Vaughn

"An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves."

The ground is hard,
As hard as stone.
The year is old,
The birds are flown.

And yet the world,
In its distress,
Displays a certain
Loveliness–

John Updike

Happy 2024!

(daily ex. 2 walks=4.7 miles, slow pm jog 4.3 miles, total miles run/walked this year 2009.6 miles, 13.4 short of my goal of 2023 miles.  I'll do better next year)

 

“Note to self: All you have to do is show up. Be late. Be scared. Be a mess. Be weird. Be confused. Just BE there. You'll figure out the rest as you go.” ― Nanea Hoffman

 (daily ex., morning walks 4 miles, pm slow jog/walk 2.5 miles.  I just reached 2000 yearly miles, will not reach 2023 this year but will be close. I'll have to make it up next year.)

“The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen.” - Tom Smothers

 RIP Tom Smothers

(daily ex. update, morning dog walk 2.6 miles, pm slow jog 3.7 miles. 1994 miles run/walked this year, I won't quite be making 2023 but will be close)

“To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the season of mists; and may each and every one of us always give the devil his due.” ― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 4: Season of Mists

 I hope everyone had a nice Christmas! Mine was great. Now to get back to everyday routines and prepare for the new year.

(daily ex. update, 2 walks=2.6 miles, pm jog 4.1 mi., getting back into a routine.) 

“And don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter. It’s quiet, but the roots are down there riotous.” — Rumi

 

• "Winter is a season of recovery and preparation." - Paul Theroux
• "In the depth of winter, I find within me an invincible summer." - Albert Camus
• "One kind word can warm three winter months." Japanese Proverb
• “To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake it is necessary to stand out in the cold.” - Aristotle
• "The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear." - Rumi

• The Winter Solstice is the time of ending and beginning, a powerful time -- a time to contemplate your immortality. A time to forgive, to be forgiven, and to make a fresh start. A time to awaken.

  Frederick Lenz

The days will lengthen starting tomorrow.  I always love that. Happy Winter Solstice.

(daily ex. update, 2 dog walks = 1.8 miles, streak saver pm jog 1.2 miles)

My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year.

 “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” ~Robert Frost Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village, though: He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound’s the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep.

“I see nothing in space as promising as the view from a Ferris wheel.” ― E.B. White, The Points of My Compass

 (daily ex., 2 dog walks=2.2 miles, pm slow jog 4.3 miles)

“‎Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.” ― Voltaire

Didn't Molly Brown do that after the Titanic went down?

(daily ex., 2 dog walks=3.9 miles. pm slow jog 5.2 miles)

 This is the last poem shared by Alareer.

If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself—
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up
above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/refaat-alareer-poet-gaza#:~:text=As%20if%20aware%20of%20the,Israeli%20airstrike%20in%20northern%20Gaza.

(daily ex. update, morning dog walk 2.4 miles, pm jog/walk 5.7 miles)

"What does it feel like to be alive? Living, you stand under a waterfall. You leave the sleeping shore deliberately; you shed your dusty clothes, pick your barefoot way over the high, slippery rocks, hold your breath, choose your footing, and step into the waterfall. The hard water pelts your skull, bangs in bits on your shoulders and arms. The strong water dashes down beside you and you feel it along your calves and thighs rising roughly backup, up to the roiling surface, full of bubbles that slide up your skin or break on you at full speed. Can you breathe here? Here where the force is the greatest and only the strength of your neck holds the river out of your face. Yes, you can breathe even here. You could learn to live like this. And you can, if you concentrate, even look out at the peaceful far bank where you try to raise your arms. What a racket in your ears, what a scattershot pummeling! It is time pounding at you, time. Knowing you are alive is watching on every side your generation's short time falling away as fast as rivers drop through air, and feeling it hit." — Annie Dillard, An American Childhood

 (daily ex., morning dog walk 1.8 mi, pm jog/walk 6.2 miles.  78 miles remaining to run/walk by year end.  Not sure I will make it with the holidays coming)

/ Terence McKenna / . "We are told No, you're unimportant, you're peripheral - get a degree, get a job, get a this, get that, and then you're a player. You don't even want to play that game. You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that's being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world."

 (daily ex., morning walk with dog and walk group 3.5 miles, pm jog 4.5 miles, total run/walk miles 1937.1,  I've got 85.9 miles to go this year)

When you can't look on the bright side, I will sit with you in the dark .. ~ Lewis Caroll ~

 (daily ex., morning dog walk 1.9 miles, pm slow jog/walk 4.6 miles)

“Eagles come in all shapes and sizes, but you will recognize them chiefly by their attitudes.” — E.F. Schumacher

 (daily ex. update, morning dog walk 1.5 miles, pm very slow walk/jog 5.2 miles)

Friedrich Nietzsche / . "Do you want to have an easy life? Then always stay with the herd and lose yourself in the herd."

 (daily ex., morning dog walk 1.3 miles, pm very slow jog walk while watching awful Hallmark Christmas movies)

What a foggy foggy day.

 Fog

BY CARL SANDBURG

The fog comes

on little cat feet.

It sits looking

over harbor and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on.

(daily ex. , morning dog walk 0.6 miles,  pm jog 3.5 miles)

Exercising for just 10 minutes a day raises your risk of posting inspirational quotes by 70 percent.

 (daily ex., morning dog walk 1.5 miles, pm very slow jog 4.5 miles)

“If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?” – John Wooden

 (daily ex. morning dog walk 0.8 icy miles, pm very slow jog 3.5 miles)

Muhammad Ali said, “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses—behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.”

(daily ex. update, 35 min of shoveling snow, morning walk 1.5 icy miles Santa Shuffle, pm slow jog 4.7 miles)

Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.” ― George Orwell, 1984

 (daily ex., morning slow dog walk 2 mi.,  pm slow jog/walk 4.5 miles, still pushing to reach 2023 miles by the end of the year)

“The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience so they believe they are clever as he.” ― Karl Kraus

(daily ex. 2 dog walks = 2.2 miles, 1 slow jog 1.2 miles, walk 3.2 miles)

"I'm only one person, I can't make a difference" said eight billion people.

 (daily ex.,2 dog walks=3.1 miles, pm slow jog 4 miles, I'm at 1875 mi run/walked so far, with 148 to go in only 25 days)

Kurt Vonnegut / . "You meet saints everywhere. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society."

In my heart I believe that the majority of people are good, but holy shit the bad ones are very loud and very annoying.

 (daily ex. update, morning dog walk 1.5 miles, pm very slow jog 5 miles)

We will not learn to live together in peace by killing each other's children.---Jimmy Carter

 (daily ex., morning dog walk 1.6 miles, pm slow jog 4.5 mi)

"I think a life properly lived is just learn, learn, learn all the time." — Charlie Munger

 "Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Systematically you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spurts. Nevertheless, you build discipline by preparing for fast spurts. Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day. At the end of the day – if you live long enough – most people get what they deserve."

— Charlie Munger

"It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent."

— Charlie Munger

"Take a simple idea, and take it seriously."

— Charlie Munger

My new goal----to be consistently not stupid.  

(daily ex., morning dog walk 1.3 miles, chilly day, pm slow jog 3.7 miles)

Conflict cannot survive without your participation.....Wayne Dyer

 (daily ex. update, 3 walks=4.3 miles, pm slow jog 2.7 miles.  Year to date 1850.9 mi run and walked.  I will have trouble reaching 2023 miles this year.  I am cutting it close.)

“People are talking about immigration, emigration and the rest of the fucking thing. It's all fucking crap. We're all human beings, we're all mammals, we're all rocks, plants, rivers. Fucking borders are just such a pain in the fucking arse.” ― Shane MacGowan

 Fairytale of New York has been playing in my mind for a couple of days now. It is haunting and unforgettable.  I can understand why it is the most-played Christmas song of the 21st century.   

Farewell Shane MacGowan.  

" I could have been someone

well so can everyone

you took my dreams from me

when I first found you

I took them with me babe

I put them with my own

can´t make it all alone

I´ve built my dreams around you"

Fairytale of New York

(daily ex. update, morning dog walk 1.7 miles, pm slow jog 4.5 miles)