When people hear I take years to fill a load of garbage at home, after their incredulity passes, they often ask, “What’s in your garbage?” It’s weird for people to be interested in your garbage. I mean, how often has anyone asked you what’s in your garbage? I guess it makes sense as a knee-jerk response, but the more interesting question isn’t what remains in mine but what fills up[…] Keep reading →

I’ve meant to write this post for years. It may be the longest past due. Why? Because it relates to many parts of my life and involves decisions that will affect me the rest of my life. I’ll stick with the basics to put the main thoughts on paper, so to speak. When I started doing burpees daily, it was ten a day for thirty days with a friend in[…] Keep reading →

A month and a half ago I wrote about Eugene’s reflections on finishing the ninth of the ten exercises in my book Initiative in my post The Life-Changing, Inner-You-Revealing, Passion-Unleashing Magic of Initiative. He finished and posted about the tenth exercise at his blog: Method Initiative (Round 4) – Exercise 10: 10 Valuable People (And final Initiative methodology thoughts), and it’s as inspiring. Read the whole post for all he[…] Keep reading →

I’ve shared Eugene’s public postings of his experience doing the exercises in my book Initiative. At each stage, he learns more about himself and making his world work for him. Taking initiative forces you to learn your values, not in some abstract way, but: How do I want to spend my time, money, energy, and resources? How long do I want to follow other people’s values, or the worn path[…] Keep reading →

Meditation instructors often talk about thoughts arising and passing away in consciousness, as if they just come out of nowhere and go to nowhere. I’ve found otherwise. No part of your mind is superfluous. The human brain uses up too much energy for evolution to allow unnecessary parts to persist. Each part does something that helped your ancestors survive and pass their genes on to you. For example, some part[…] Keep reading →

Different people define middle age differently, but having just turned 51 I think I’m in it by all definitions. Physical My first sense of my body physically declining came in my early thirties, when my potential to compete in ultimate began to decline. Before then, I always felt motivation to practice since I knew the next year my potential would be higher. After then, no matter how much I practiced,[…] Keep reading →

Yesterday I ran outdoors for the first time this spring. Two days before I lifted weights and was still feeling tired, plus I’m fifty years old, so I took it easy and ran at a comfortable, even slow pace. Now I’m so sore that tossing and turning in bed wakes me up. [EDIT, the next morning: Note that I’m not complaining in this post. I’m just observing. If anything, I[…] Keep reading →

Unrelated to sustainability, sidchas, leadership, education, famous no-packaging vegan stews, burpees, and my usual subjects, I’m embarking on a new experiment. For years I’ve woken up to mild back pain. I suspected my mattress was getting old. I bought it around ten years ago and it felt like some parts lost their support. Was I sleeping on a not-flat surface? Maybe it was just me getting old. I started looking[…] Keep reading →

I’ve been avoiding things I devalue lately. After writing about the day after Thanksgiving, also known as Buy Nothing Day, I decided to strive to buy nothing but food that month and succeeded, if you don’t disallow that I bought two things that I later returned. I’ll write more about it when I eventually do buy something, as I’m still going. Next, I decided to avoid social media and news[…] Keep reading →