The Crossing

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So we begin another year.


I, for one, am hopeful.






Dubious, but hopeful.


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We stayed up until the crack of nine-thirty watching "The First Spaceship on Venus" by way of MST3K and went to bed sober and the New Year got underway without our assistance.

We began the new trip around the sun with an hour of Sun Salutations. We were trying for  108 repetitions but I gave out at sixty. She could have kept going but was gracious enough to pretend that her legs were shaking, too.

It felt good, though. It was a nice way to say hello to the year. That and our long walk on the East/West ranch with the bulldog. We met up with a Russian lady walking four basset hounds, a crazy-looking mut, and carrying a little dog in a snugglie on her chest. She warned us that one of the hounds was autistic.

I wonder how that diagnosis came about.

"Well, he's three years old and still hasn't said his first word. And he can't tell time at all."


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Saigon Eggroll in Paso Robles for lunch. Bahn Mi pork sandwich and a huge bowl of Pho. Fresh  and spicy and fragrant and murderously good.



Cacio E Pepe for dinner. Fancypants way of saying pasta with cheese and pepper. Plain, but delicious. Big salad and some leftover broccoli and crusty bread.


Long walk in the cold dark after. Through the deserted streets. In the vibrant silence.


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I am going to try again this year to do all those things that will perhaps bring me closer to the man I imagine I am capable of being. Yoga and meditation. Not a lot but consistent. Something physical in the morning, a bike ride or a hike in the woods or a run on the beach or some good old fashioned calisthenics and jumping rope. Not a lot, but consistent. Eat clean Monday through Thursday, eat whatever I want on the weekends. Give my liver a rest.

Approach life with equanimity and some humor.
Remember that it's fatal, but not serious.


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Love my wife yet more.

Give myself to the world without fear.

Be easy on me.

Find a way to help.

Have a good time.

All that regular old simple ass shit that is so easy to say and yet.


And yet.


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I pray that this year brings you everything you want and nothing you don't want.


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Namaste.


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