George Malley: You know, if we were to put this apple down, and leave it, it would be spoiled and gone in a few days. But, if we were to take a bite of it like this,George Malley: it would become part of us, and we could take it with us, forever.George Malley: Al, everything is on its way to somewhere. Everything.— Gerald DiPego, scene from the movie Phenomenon The last few days of the year are meant for reflection of what has been, blended with anticipation for what may be in the New Year.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” — Dr. Seuss Where will we go in the New Year? It begins with a spark of imagination, a wee bit of boldness and the inclination to follow through on the things we promised ourselves we would do one day. But just when is one day? It’s the day we step towards it. Having made the decision, booked the flights, reserved a room, and blocked off the calendar, the wait begins until the day of departure.

“But why diminish your soul being run-of-the-mill at something? Mediocrity: now there is ugliness for you. Mediocrity's a hairball coughed up on the Persian carpet of Creation.”― Tom Robbins, Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas Holy Crap (with a capital C), is the year already over?! In a year packed with experiences, did we experience enough? Is the bucket list half full or half empty? Did we reach the promised land of life satisfaction or will we once again carry over unfulfilled dreams to tomorrow? To live an average life is fine.

"Joy is not produced because others praise you. Joy emanates unbidden and unforced. Joy comes as a gift when you least expect it. At those fleeting moments you know why you were put here and what truth you serve. You may not feel giddy at those moments, you may not hear the orchestra’s delirious swell or see flashes of crimson and gold, but you will feel a satisfaction, a silence, a peace—a hush. Those moments are the blessings and the signs of a beautiful life." ― David Brooks, The Road to Character…

"Yes I know that the drop of water carried along by its weight, can ascend to the sky in vapor only to fall again in rain. But the wear and tear of rock, the gravel that the stream carries to the river and the river to the sea, the granite that disintegrates, I know that all that will not again go up the fatal incline; and the highest mountains dissolve into the valley, the plain where their ruins accumulate and become equal. Everything falls from a height less and less lofty with a fall more and more shallow.

“There is no reality except the one contained within us. That is why so many people live such an unreal life. They take the images outside of them for reality and never allow the world within to assert itself.”— Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf How many countless worlds within are never realized? The tragedy of Thoreau's "quiet desperation" is its prevalence. Living an unreal life is a tragic consequence of ignoring what's been calling to us all along. But in a world so relentlessly distracting, who has time to stop and listen?

"You must learn to drink the cup of life as it comes … without stirring it up from the bottom. That's where the bitter dregs are!" — Agnes Sligh Turnbull Celebrating the holidays is easy when we're around friends and family. It's not as easy for those who are alone. Some are blessed with an abundance of people in their lives through proximity and an inclination for connection. Some go out of their way to stay away. Be yourself, but know that you always have a place at our table.

"I should like to say to the young people disoriented by the absence of faith: to make the world rime with something is up to you alone!It is up to man, and man is the starting point. The world, this absurd world, will stop being absurd; it is up to you alone. The world will be what you make it.The more you tell me and insist there is nothing absolute in this world and in our sky, that truth, justice and beauty are man's creations, the more I insist that it is then up to man to maintain them, that his honor demands it.

Fool if you think it's over'Cos you said goodbyeFool if you think it's overI'll tell you whyNew born eyes always cry with painAt the first look at the morning sunYou're a fool if you think it's overIt's just begun— Chris Rea, Fool (If You Think It’s Over) Life is pain, as the Dread Pirate Roberts told Buttercup in The Princess Bride. It's full of setbacks and sadness, betrayals and "between jobs" lean living. But it's also full of climbs to redemption and epic comebacks and the finding of strides.

Rain and wind, and wind and rain.Will the Summer come again?Rain on houses, on the street,Wetting all the people's feet,Though they run with might and main.Rain and wind, and wind and rain. Snow and sleet, and sleet and snow.Will the Winter never go?What do beggar children doWith no fire to cuddle to,P'raps with nowhere warm to go?Snow and sleet, and sleet and snow. Hail and ice, and ice and hail,Water frozen in the pail.See the robins, brown and red,

"Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?" — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations We work hard to avoid being critical of others, but the thoughts are there just the same. We develop a good filter as we grow, keeping some thoughts to ourselves, finding that polite way to say something that must be said, and practicing active-avoidance when absolutely necessary. The last few years there's been a fair amount of active-avoidance as chaos ensued in the world at large.

“It is easy to make plans in this world; even a cat can do it; and when one is out in those remote oceans it is noticeable that a cat's plans and a man's are worth about the same.”― Mark Twain, Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World I planned to do a few things this week that simply didn't happen because of other things that were more pressing in the moment. Perhaps this has happened to you? Naturally. We're all human, we make our plans and God laughs.

Give winter nothing; hold; and let the flakePoise or dissolve along your upheld arms.All flawless hexagons may melt and break;While you must feel the summer's rage of fire,Beyond this frigid season's empty storms.Banished to bloom, and bear the birds' desire.— James Wright, To a Troubled Friend Winter is thriving. The darkest day of the year is almost upon us, and then Christmas, and New Year's, and before we know it we'll be looking ahead to spring. At least that's the hope of winter days. We look ahead, placing ourselves in some future place, brighter and perhaps warmer than where we are now.

"Ye live not for yourselves; ye cannot live for yourselves ; a thousand fibres connect you with your fellow-men, and along those fibres, as along sympathetic threads, run your actions as causes, and return to you as effects." — Reverend Henry Melvill On Author's Ridge at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts the legends are interred—Emerson, Hawthorne, Alcott, Thoreau and others. I've visited and written about Author's Ridge many times in this blog, because it fascinates me that so many who reached such literary fame would then choose to spend eternity in such close proximity to one another.

"Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made."― Immanuel Kant We are all imperfect beings. Perfectly so, we might add. And it follows that to look for perfection in others or ourselves is a foolish pursuit of what will never be. It's a false peak that excites us for a brief moment before we recognize that we haven't arrived yet. For every step forward in one part of our lives, we seem to take two back in some other part. Such is life. We may embrace our imperfections while still pursuing better.

It's been a frustrating week for people who believe in the inherent good in humanity. Violent acts played out in Australia and in the United States (who would have thought it could ever happen here?). Rob Reiner and his wife were murdered, apparently by their own son, and the person who some believe is the leader of the free world chose to mock that horrible situation with a gleeful diatribe. Class act, orange clown. These are days that test the soul. For we want affirmation that we were right about people being good, because we do our best to be good ourselves, and assume others will be doing the same thing.

"Where your fear is, there is your task." — Carl Jung There are a millions ways to avoid doing things. I've managed to skip my hardest workouts for two weeks now, not because I didn't have the time, but because I got very creative in finding ways to use that time for other things. It's not the easy workouts that I'm talking about (the walks with the dog continue uninterrupted), it's those zone 4-5 workouts that I practice active-avoidance with. The answer is to do the hard work first, before the day gets away from us.

"Il faut vivre et créer. Vivre à pleurer" (Men must live and create. Live to the point of tears) ― Albert Camus I've moved away from apps that teach me to read other languages, because they never really brought me to conversational French or German or Spanish. They aren't immersive enough for that. Perhaps some of the AI-driven apps will deliver on the promise of multilingual proclivity, but as with most things, we learn by immersing ourselves in proximity to others doing that which we aspire to do. Which is another way to say we ought to challenge ourselves to go and do and be that person who is beyond where we currently are.

"This world is a great sculptor’s ship. We are the statues and there is a rumor going round the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life.”— C.S. Lewis When I was younger we had a Great Dane named Zoe. As you might expect with Great Danes, Zoe was a large and lanky pup, who could easily knock over small children, not out of aggression but in exuberance. She wanted to be a puppy, and puppies get in the mix. Great Danes who get in the mix pump into things now and then.

“History enters when the space of the possible is vastly larger than the space of the actual.” “History itself arises out of the adjacent possible.”― Stuart A. Kauffman, Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion What is success to you? Isn't success something that stirs emotion within at the very idea of achieving it? Or of having achieved it? Success isn't a thing at all, but a belief. People chase the idea of success, but often don't have an idea of what would satiate that drive.

“When a problem is disturbing you, don't ask, "What should I do about it?" Ask, "What part of me is being disturbed by this?”― Michael A. Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself If learning is a lifetime journey to understanding, we ought to make our quest more efficient by learning to ask better questions. Sure, there are no wrong questions, but there are questions that draw our focus down the wrong path. We won't know we're on the wrong path because we grow excited about finding the answer, not realizing until we're far off the scent that we were barking up the wrong tree all along.

“How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?”― Dr. Seuss December came so quickly, and so too did winter... Sure, it hasn't officially begun, not until we hit 21.I don't feel all that much olderand surely not very wise.Tempus fugit, they said.Ain't it funny how the time flies.We're all surfing each day in our own way. Today will fly by like all the rest.

"Remember that there is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self." — W. L. Sheldon, What to Believe: An Ethical Creed The quote above is often attributed to Ernest Hemingway, but like most things on the Internet, a little digging reveals that the truth is somewhere else entirely. Perhaps some more digging would reveal that Sheldon wasn't the original source either, but really, nothing is original, is it? We are all consciously or unconsciously influenced by everything that brought us here.

“Use your mind to think about things, rather than think of them. You want to be adding value as you think about projects and people, not simply reminding yourself they exist.”― David Allen, Getting Things Done When we get really busy (not just a little busy), all the little things start to creep into our thoughts relentlessly, persistently, voraciously to grab our attention again in the quiet moments when we wish they'd not. The devil is in the details, they say, and when the details aren't polished off just so, the devil comes a callin'.

"Trust, but verify." — Ronald Reagan There's an interesting story about that expression, "Trust but verify", attributed to Ronald Reagan. During his Presidency, when the Cold War between the US and the USSR peaked, an advisor to the President told him that the Soviets like to communicate using proverbs. "Trust, but verify" is the english version of an old Russian proverb, doveryai, no proveryai. Whatever we each may believe about Ronald Reagan as a President, we can all agree that he was a talented communicator who captured the imagination of his followers.