Reminder

Today is a special day in the United States because it’s the one in which we honor our parentage. Every human being that’s ever lived has come from a mother. It’s easy to get caught up in the bullshit of the world, but I think that’s staggering. Where would we be without them? Because it obviously goes beyond the birth. We are who we are because of mothers. It will never be repaid. All one can say is thank you. 

The Tribal Way

I spend most of my time on weekends with family, and that makes me grateful. It is our greatest freedom in the modern world: how to spend our time. I find it best to either explore, or visit with people we love. Won’t we be more likely to want to make the world a better place when we experience it with our tribe?

Acting Accordingly

Today I held the baby that I mentioned yesterday for the first time, and it was profound. A lot of my friends have young children now, and I relish the opportunities to spend time with them, to literally live alongside them. As a species and a planet we possess the most remarkable quality we’ve yet discovered in this universe: the ability to produce life. It is incredibly precious, indeed the most precious phenomenon of which we know. We must act accordingly. 

New Life

One of the most important people in my life had a baby this week. New life coming into the world. As I continue to get older and experience new things, I can’t get over how wonderful this life is. We have so much to celebrate. It’s okay to be sad sometimes when sad things happen, but the gift of life is so incredibly precious and amazing, it would be a shame to not embrace it wholly and fully. I cannot wait to meet you Xander, and I’m so eager to be in your life. We are human, and we are alive. It’s truly a big beautiful amazing world; how lucky we all are. 

Beginning with Breath

I’ve been trying to be more consistent with my daily mediation in terms of regularity and duration. Still to this day, it astounds me how powerful the breath is. We breathe our entire lives, from our first moments until our death. Most of the time we let the involuntary muscles run it in the background. But it is with the breath we can find presence, we can find calm. We creatures on this planet evolved to breathe, a form of continuously interacting with the matter of the universe outside ourselves. It is through this interaction that we can experience union with the universe. Perhaps if we visit this communion more often, we can be more at peace, and thus impart peace upon the world. It truly all begins with the breath. 

Alive and Human

I rose early this morning to exercise, and I felt so alive, so human, when I returned home. There’s something fundamentally human about awakening at dawn and exerting full energy first thing in the morning. It’s ancestral. It’s how we have evolved over the past 2 million years. We are born to move. 

Perhaps this simple yet profound characteristic shapes us more than we know. How many of our larger problems can be attributed to a first world sedentary lifestyle, our poor diets and diminished mental health? Maybe if we get collectively healthier, mind body and soul, we’ll have more will, more energy, and more solutions to offer to our current problems. 

We need to feel alive, to feel human. If we feel these things, we truly live. And that takes care of everything else. 

Living through Action

As I get older I see how elusive time can be, how it keeps ever flowing, slipping through your fingers. That is, if you’re focused on preserving it. I’ve been fortunate to have some great role models who have demonstrated that truly living does not revolve around a preoccupation with the amount of time left, but rather taking action on the things we enjoy and the things that matter. As we claw our way out of this pandemic psychosis, fighting against the technology and mechanisms in society that polarize and shape us, we must remember that. This world is beautiful, and we humans can be good. We can learn from our time, our mistakes in the past, but what matter is our collective indicative to take action now. To live out our lives together, and to work toward something greater than us, so that future generations may enjoy something even better. 

Being a Good Ancestor

Today I looked upon old photos of my ancestors, and it struck me that they had no idea who would come after them two or three generations later. Much like myself, someone without children…who knows who will come after me 100 years later if I decide to start a family? All we can do is enjoy the time allotted to us, and contribute to the betterment of the future. Our actions echo into eternity, creating circumstances of which our descendants inherit. What kind of world will it be?

Saturday Ease

Maybe it’s the sprig that comes with a pleasant Saturday morning, but I feel at ease with the world, with life. We tend to fuss about “the things,” myself especially included, and in the grand scheme of it all, it really doesn’t matter. We’re okay. We’re going to be okay. As a species we need to do some things, and try to work together, and that’s all we can do. We are afforded such a small flicker of candlelight to be alive. We really should just be. It’s a big beautiful amazing world.. let’s feel alive in it. 

Humans in the Cosmos

There’s a difference between drive and pressure, or eustress and stress. Just like there’s a balance between effort and rest; one can’t do either all the time. There’s a need for both. It seems one of the most important skills, or journeys, in life is to explore and learn that balance for one’s self. We enjoy a beautiful planet, interaction and love with our fellow social creatures, and the ability to create, to contribute. We are also atoms and dust, at the end of the day, a mere temporary form in the dynamic changing of matter in the universe. It’s all completely surreal. Life is good and simple: strive and relax, ponder and enjoy. How wonderful it is to be human. 

Grace for Life

There will always be hard days. I don’t think what we wish for is only easy days ahead. I think we seek hope, some type of reassurance that it will be okay. It seems we do this through our dying day. 

The only, for lack of a better word, remedy that I’ve found for this is gratitude. Graciousness for all that has been and was, for all that is, and for whatever may be, even with the uncertainty of the future looming large. 

The mechanism toward acceptance of this life, this reality, is gratitude. Because only with gratitude can we fully be present, which is where all our dreams and effort and yes, tears and sadness, but most importantly, our living, happens.

My appreciation for gratitude, when I’m able to channel it, extends beyond what’s possible to be conveyed in writing. In some absurd way, we are cursed yet blessed beings. Being human is all we know; how good at it can we be, with each other?

Twitter Take

There are lots of opinions and speculation flying around with the news around the Twitter acquisition. Mine is only this: whether a publicly traded company or a privately owned one, Twitter doesn’t serve as what many want, claim, or intend—a public forum.

The incentives and interests of Twitter have never completely aligned on that. We probably do need a true American Digital Public Square, and there are still many problems to sort through in order to set it up. One account per person, somehow verified? Tax-payer funded, with “official” polls on important issues? Yes, free speech, as defined and outlined within the US Constitution and US law? Call it a fantasy, but something could be built.

But it’s not Twitter. Let’s separate the hypothetical apples from the potential oranges, so that we can can indeed create a free, open, and just world. 

Thriving Today

In the modern world, thriving is no longer merely survival. It’s making things better, optimizing, for not just ourselves but for everyone. There are millions of people pursuing this goal. 

In order to succeed, one must think outside what they know, what’s normal and obvious and frequent. Improving macroeconomics requires an understanding of the past, and the global finance system and how states interact with each other. The effects of positive improvements, even slight ones, has the potential to impact all of humanity. 

To build or create something new, something valuable, requires a perspective beyond the daily minutia that make up our lives, or perhaps a more critical introspection of it. Novel unique things have the potential to inspire, to effect further positive change. 

We have the ability to pursue these higher objectives because we have inherited a world built upon the work and sacrifice of those before us. When we contribute to this collective goal of changing the world, for the better, for all of us, we insert ourselves into the broader legacy of humanity: the ability to adapt, change, grow, and ultimately, to create. What world will we create?

Back to Beauty

And then there’s the settling back in. Habits can be tough to keep when they’re interspersed with trips to distant places, which is why I try to build ones that are applicable anywhere. What helps me is to remember it’s all part of life: our big exciting trips and our mundane commutes, our greatest triumphs and deepest sorrows. They are all part of this thing called life, and it’s indeed beautiful. 

The Return Home

Even with how much I love to travel, it’s always good to come home. I’ve considered what it would be like to be completely nomadic in the modern world, but part of the magic of travel is the feeling of coming home. There are many different types of people and environments in this world, but to return to the origin of one’s tribe is irreplaceable. For each of us, we have that one special place on Earth that is truly home. 

How we live

I try to keep the end in mind, and live life accordingly. I can’t help but know that the times with family are what’s most Important, what I’ll look back on. We are afforded this amount of time on this magical planet, and our time is drastically determined by who we spend it with. Our tribe is how we live. 

Little Things

Life really does happen in those little moments, those in-between parts. You can be surrounded by beauty, with your two best girls, but you still gotta pay attention. To those little, tiny things. That’s where it all is. 

Explorations

There’s something about walking the Earth with your tribe. That cool dust at your feet as you wander forward; and the memories of it and your day with them. Such is the privileged tales of an explorer. And aren’t we all, making our way through this void?

Goldilocks Harbor

The Earth has this perfect little Goldilocks window that enables us to thrive. I was actually cold on the trail early this morning, something that doesn’t happen often. My hands were numb and I could see my breath in front of me. By the return, some four hours later, my headband was drenched and my back wet as the sun beat down on us. Sure a 40 degree temperature swing seems drastic, but that just illuminates how special we are. The planet constantly shields us from cosmic energy as we blissfully climb around its surface. It’s difficult to fathom. How fortunate we are, to enjoy this uniquely beautiful rock in the cosmos. It’s truly a big beautiful amazing world. 

Hiking Hallmarks

Early wake up calls and carb heavy meals. A crepuscular routine to catch the light on the Earth as the sun rises and falls. Tired legs but an emancipated soul. These are the hallmarks of hiking life. I may behave like a city boy and even resemble one, but do I enjoy forays into desert forests and rocky outcrops. Physical perspective literally yields mental and emotional perspective. We climb the mountain to relish in the journey upwards, but also to connect with the planet as it lays out before us from the top. It is the character of our species. We are a part of the Earth, and must remember that before we return to it.