#365Gratitude Day 339: I bit a financier

We were in New York, and I couldn't help myself, since I had the financier in my mouth. 

Before you think I have some sort of Wall Street Banker fetish, you should know something: a financier, as it turns out is a small sort of french cake.  

I didn't know either! 

Missy and I tried them when my aunt took us out for brunch yesterday at the Brasserie, a lovely and fairly snooty french restaurant in Manhattan.  

When I saw them on the menu they struck me so funny, I had to order them. 

They were delicious. I'll maybe have to lick a realtor next. ​

#365Gratitude Day 338: Moments & Memories

My aunt often says that life is made of "moments and memories."  It's advice I take to heart, generally favoring experiences and adventures over material things. 

Missy and I just had a weekend like that. We left home Friday night, and drove vaguely in a New Yorkish direction, but with no fixed idea of where we would stop for the night. 

After many hours drive we got off the highway in a town I had heard was plentiful with Ingress portals, and wound up parking in the empty lot of an elementary school around 11:45 at night while I found us a hotel, using an app on my phone.  

We got back on the highway and drove a few miles to our hotel, which turned out to be right across the street from an abandoned car, which was attended by police.  

That's because it was on fire.  

Seriously. 

The next morning we slept in, and got ourselves a late breakfast at an art-deco, retro future chic diner, called the Skylark Diner.  It was amazing. It was also an Ingress portal. 

We sat next to a couple who ALSO happened to be Ingress players and who Missy had been chatting with in-game from the car as we circled the parking lot. 

Eventually we made our way into the city.  We had a wet, rainy day of window shopping and Ingress,  followed by riding in a bicycle cab to see The Lion King. 

The bicycle ride was "soggy, yet satisfying," and very romantic.  

The play was amazing. Funny, beautiful, and moving.  

We did all of this because we were celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary. 

I am so grateful I get to make moments and share memories with my sweet, beautiful, funny, gentle wife.  

#365Gratitude Day 337: Duh, piglet

So over a year ago I ran in a half marathon, and then stopped being mindful about exercise and healthy eating.

A year of such mindlessness took its toll on me, and I've put back a significant amount of weight. ​

For a few months now I've kind of wanted to get back to being serious about health and exercise, and made several false starts with tracking my calories, and working out. ​

This week has been different though.

​First, it's been different in my exercise. I worked out three different times this week, swimming. The first time was 30 minutes of breast stroke. The second was 45.  It was tiring, but felt good.

Before yesterday's workout was the tip over point for me though. I had the choice to do 30 or 45 again, and I went for the extra.  I just wanted it. ​

​Similarly I have been really on top of my calorie tracking. Each day I've come in under budget for my eating.  Several times when confronted with the opportunity to eat poorly, or over budget, I said no. 

I think I know what's changed. I found my de again. ​

De, pronounced like "duh", is a hard concept to explain, or even understand.  The Tao Te Ching (or Dao De Ching) is, loosely translated, "The book of the Way and its Power."

Saying that de is power isn't exactly right though. Over years of reading, contemplation, meditation, and mindful practice I've come to understand de to be "virtue in action."​

De's power comes from applying oneself consistently and constantly in small things.  It also comes from the understanding that small  things are all there are.  You build the Great Wall a brick at a time. You eat (or rather don't eat) a plate of french fries one at a time. 

There's an amazing book about this called The Te of Piglet, by Benjamin Hoff.  Piglet, Pooh's tiny friend is very, VERY powerful.  He's positively LOADED with de.

It's not because he's strong, not because he doesn't get scared of things.  Rather it's because even when he feels unsure of himself, he still goes about his business and does what is necessary. 

As I stood in the locker room of my gym yesterday, I once again found that same familiar, powerful feeling.  

It didn't matter what had come before.  I would swim, and push myself, because it was what I wanted for myself, in my life, now, utterly.  Fear, doubt, the past, the future all were irrelevant.  All there was was this action I was intent upon doing. 

Once I knew that was so, getting in the water and doing it was positively pleasurable.  

I'm so grateful to have found my de about this again.  

#365Gratitude Day 336: Many safety nets

I'm amazed by the number of technical and social safety measures there are looking out for me. 

Last night I got emailed by my bank that my debit card had suspicious transactions. I called them and got it handled immediately. 

This morning I had a doctor's appointment with a sleep specialist. I had put it in my calendar, and when I went to look at my daily overview, the phone warned me to get on my way due to the excessive traffic. 

I have so many things like this in my life, implicitly and explicitly. Having the habit to save money is one such safety net, as is having loving friends and family who watch out for me. 

I'm a big fan of the concept of interdependence, where capable, strong people become stronger still, through mutual reliance. 

It's neat to see it happen for me, to me, at such a personal level.  

#365Gratitude Day 335: Growth will Turn Up

So I learned a new word this morning. 

Neep

nēp/

noun

SCOTTISHNORTHERN ENGLISH

1. a turnip

I learned it playing Words With Friends, with my wife.  Every so often I'll engage in an online scrabble tactic which podcaster John Hodgman disdains and has named "spamming the engine."

That's when you play a word which might be a word, kind of looks like a word, and, penalty-free, can be checked for actual validity as you play it. 

Regardless of Hodgman's disdain, it's an approach to learning new things which is actually pretty good.  

My brother Spacey is fond of saying that people often vastly overestimate the potential negatives of taking risks, of putting one's neck out there.  

I totally see this.   

I'm in a similar neep-acquisition phase in my vanilla career. I've switched technical disciplines, and know some things really well, and am just learning others.

It can be exciting at times, and really intimidating at other times. Today I've got something like that ahead of me. I'm learning a new skill, that I have a succinct high level understanding of already, but have never done before.  I'm both excited and nervous about it. 

I think I'm going to start referring to this seat-of-the-pants skills acquisition as "neep farming" from now on.  

I'm grateful for it.