When I think about the next decade, I mostly want to remain mentally and physically healthy. Age comes for all of us and my hope is to (at least) maintain the status quo. After all, the arc of aging is long and bends toward incontinence. To keep one’s head above water is a constant struggle.
I’m a little torn about this new reality. On one hand, I never have to think about where to put bowls. On the other, there is nothing left to optimize. The problem has been solved and I take comfort in that. My brain can move on. The question is: to what?
We feed it, but not too much. We allow it to breathe but in only one direction. We benefit from thousands of years of practice and experiments. Yet, each fire still feels like a challenge. The perfect fire is not something you ever achieve. It is only an aspiration.
Before I knew it, my shoulder was out of socket. I gasped a string of profanity as Sachi came to help. My arm drooped off my shoulder and the slightest movement shot pain through my arm.
The post below was sent as an issue of my newsletter, Ready for Rain. This might seem strange, but please follow the instructions below... Imagine an apple that’s floating in the space in front of you. It’s red, has a small green leaf and a stem. Now, using your...
We set out to build an efficient home and now that we’ve moved, it’s obvious that some things are not going to fit and I take it as a good sign.
A debate about storing ham in a Tupperware container could have gone in a lot of directions. We found a path without hurt feelings.
The winter of 2020-21 was no regular winter. A range of factors all converged to make it like a hibernation that could only end in the spring.
This question exposed a reality that I wasn’t prepared to admit to myself. I am sometimes driven not by a sense of objective quality or beauty, but because I think it’s cool and I want to be cool. The real answer to Sachi’s question, more than I want to admit, is “I like it because it’s cool right now.”
In my weekly newsletter, Ready for Rain, I usually share recommendations for media, products, and ideas that I find interesting or useful. Today I’m sharing the my recommendations in separate blog posts for easy consumption.
This was my 2020.
After 16 months in our tiny guesthouse, we’ve gotten used to it. But as the house project nears completion, the small things are becoming a bit more grating.
The pile of boxes we have stacked in the guesthouse represent a lot of decisions about the house project.
Being one with the dirt is part of the transition and how you become part of the island itself.
I decided to try being more mindful and focused on one thing at a time. It didn’t go well.
One of the challenges of crabbing in the Salish Sea is dealing with the bait, which can sometimes get very ripe. In this case, the bait attracted our dogs, who shared the love.
We’ve taken on a number of projects in the house construction project. Along with a lot of planning, we are the painters and cleaners. These help save money, help us learn and make us a part of the team.
A report from May of 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic had forced shutdowns of most of the US, including Orcas Island.
Moving from Seattle to an island was a shock for a lot of reasons. One of the most interesting was learning to be more self-sufficient than we ever have.
In the spring of 2020, we were quarantined because of Covid-19. This was our experience early in the pandemic.