Of the Empire | Mary Oliver

We will be known as a culture that feared death
and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity
for the few and cared little for the penury of the
many. We will be known as a culture that taught
and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke
little if at all about the quality of life for
people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All
the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a
commodity. And they will say that this structure
was held together politically, which it was, and
they will say also that our politics was no more
than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of
the heart, and that the heart, in those days,
was small, and hard, and full of meanness.

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

“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.” ― E.E. Cummings

 (daily ex.,morning dog walk 1.7 mi, pm tm jog 2 mi)

“Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise” . W.B. Yeats.

 (daily ex., morning walks 3.7 mi., pm slow jogs to get some steps in 3.5 mi.)

“There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.” – Willa Cather

 (daily ex., morning dog walk 1.2 mi, pm tm jog 3.2 mi, cooldown walk 2.1 mi., I am 35 mi behind where I need to be at this time of year to run/walk 2024 mi. in 2024)

 Don't Hesitate

by Mary Oliver

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,
don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty
of lives and whole towns destroyed or about
to be. We are not wise, and not very often
kind. And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this
is its way of fighting back, that sometimes
something happens better than all the riches
or power in the world. It could be anything,
but very likely you notice it in the instant
when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the
case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid
of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.

(daily ex., yesterday 1 mi walk, 1.1 mi jog, today 1.4 mile dog walk, 6.2 mi tm jog, 1.4 mi cooldown walk)

“A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.” – John Steinbeck

 (daily ex,morning dog walk 1.5 mi, pm jog streak saver 1 miles)

Jordan Maxwell / . “That's the most dangerous thing you can do: educate people. Because when people become educated, you cannot control them, you cannot frighten them. People who are educated know their own power, and don't surrender it to others.”

 (daily ex., morning dog walk 1.6 mi, pm jog 3.4 mi, cooldown walk 1.2 mi)