Life | hi, it's mike

Monochrome. A dead tree against a misty background.

A tree on the floodplain

Once we recognize that all things are impermanent, we have no problem enjoying them.

'Toxic Positivity'

Resilience isn’t denial. Resilience is acceptance.

a German Shepherd with an orange coat lying on the floor looks up at the camera.

Goodbye, Elsa

Today our family said goodbye to Elsa.

Sea cliffs. A lone figure stands at their base.

Cool Alone

‘We don’t deserve resolution; we deserve something better than that. We deserve our birthright, which is the middle way, an open state of mind that can relax with paradox and ambiguity.’

Alan Watts' book "The Wisdom of Insecurity" on a wooden table with an open notebook next to it.

Be here now

Longing for a remembered state of perfect presence is to not be present with this imperfection.

a pause for appreciation

An early pandemic moment of gratitude.

Two longboards lined up against a trailer.

The Mid-Life Longboard Purchase and Use Lifecycle A Selection of Advice

One of the nice things about wisdom is that it includes learning about your limits. Just get out there, give it a shot, see how it feels, and quit if/when it stops being fun. If it never becomes fun in the first place, put the board up on Craigslist for $25 off retail.

A woman looks into a shop window. Behind her is a bike with a bouquet of white balloons.

Journals Against Stories

This is about a supplemental habit I’ve picked up to go along with my recent anti-story practice, and it’s also a mini-review of the DayOne app. I’ve known for a while that it’s good for me to have some sort of journaling to help deal with ADHD. I slip in and out of it, and use a variety of means to journal, including this blog, plain text files, and physical notebooks . For a while, my practice involved a pair of daily entries meant to help me figure out the day ahead, then retrospect. It evolved from something I learned from one of my commanders at Fort Bragg, who started and ended each day with a sheet of legal paper she kept by her keyboard. ...

Please be considerate of my neighbors

Thoughts on the way people treat my neighbors down on the Springwater.

A man walks down the sidewalk squinting into the rain.

You can't say what you are, but you should try anyhow.

I say 'I consider myself a feminist,' because I really do. But I always feel like I'm taking a big risk when I say 'I AM a feminist,' because there is always, always some other feminist out there who will show you that you're wrong. Usually they'll also show you that you're awful for it. — Someone somewhere I visit regularly Another feminist here. That’s an understandable sentiment. Personally, I hate calling myself anything at all, ever. I spent four years trying to reconcile what I thought I was, what I wanted to say to people I was, what I wanted people to think I was underneath, and what I wanted to be with what I was being every single day by just waking up where I was waking up and doing what I was doing. ...