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So, our half-marathon yesterday. As I wrote yesterday, circumstances brought us to the big day underprepared. Our response was to listen to our bodies, run as much as we could, and walk the rest. The result was we finished hand-in-hand, proudly running across the finish line, solidly in last place. It […]

I have good reasons for being underprepared for today’s half-marathon. But Steve Zegree, my mentor and inspiration for this race, made a mantra of “No Excuses” – so I’m not going to even mention them.   So what do you do when you’re underprepared for a challenge? Say, a concert, or a contest, or an […]

Individually, and as a whole, we vastly underestimate what kids can do. A few examples from my recent experience: My family has been playing a board game this summer, labeled 14 and up. We were cautious about the nine-year-old, but he picked it up immediately. It was our six-year-old who surprised us. He […]

Do you wish your life was a little more like a LEGO set? Or an Ikea bookcase? Get the perfectly-sized box for one of these Nordic products, and you’ll be greeted with exactly the pieces you need to create what you want. A carefully designed set of instructions will wordlessly guide your […]

For a long time, our approach to gardening was mostly one of weeding – rid the plot of the weeds, and then come back later to do it again. More recently, we have begun to intentionally cultivate plants we want to see there. Now we come back to encourage these plants to […]

The choral world was abuzz yesterday with links and discussion of a takedown review of our most famous living composer. Sorry, I’m not linking to it. I have enjoyed good hatchet jobs before – it’s a very particular and virtuosic form with a long history, stretching back to include things like Dorothy Parker’s hilarious takedown of […]

My sons have spent the last two months without piano lessons. That’s a long time in the life of a six-year-old! But as they’ve begun reviewing for their first lesson of the year this week, I’ve seen several interesting results of the break. 1. They didn’t really stop. They kept practicing, just […]

I’m running a half-marathon next Saturday. Well, running is overstating it. I am doing a half-marathon. Okay, I am starting a half-marathon. Mandy and I committed to this race in March and started on a training plan that wasn’t too ambitious but would get us ready. However, injuries and other obstacles […]

An excerpt from Sometimes, a 2008 poem by Mary Oliver that encapsulates what I’m trying to do both in my life, and here in my daily writings. Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. All three are hard. You need all three.

As of this morning, Jon Stewart is retired from his sixteen-year run at The Daily Show. To have lived in the era of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is like living through the peak years of Will Rogers, Dorothy Parker, Mark Twain. We are lucky he spent so many years as the […]