My Christmas wishes for all my friends and family. A year of struggle and if need be some tragedy. We only grow and change when confronted with struggle. A mild drought broken by rain. We only appreciate the rain after a drought. A good New England Snow Storm. It helps you appreciate the summer and gets you talking to your neighbors. If your young a broken heart or two. You have to go through a few infatuations to know when you have found your true soulmate. If your old, friends and family to spend time with. A night or two spent sleeping in the woods. A night or two by the ocean. A trip to visit friends. Finally a funeral or two. If we let them, they make us think deeply about life. And with that a few tears. Save them when they come,, they let you know your alive.

©️ words and pictures by Dan DeMarle

Part of my Americana series.  On Park Avenue, Rochester NY.

© words and picture by Dan DeMarle 2017

A part of our nation’s insanity, is that very few of us spend time walking in the woods, let alone walking.  Winter leaves visible proof of who gets out of their houses.  So many of my neighbors and countrymen and women simply go from house to car to work.  That is not really a way to live. Nature tells us stories. Nature tells us what is real.  Nature tells us who we are at a very deep and real level.  There are no Presidents or Senators in a campground, or when camping in a secluded glen.    All campers in a campground are equal.  There is no meritocracy among tenters in a field of grass, except for the bushes that provide the berries.  One of our past presidents said, if you want to see America go to a National Park. I would say go to any park or woodland trail.  There it becomes obvious.  It can be hard to see America when in a car driving at 70 miles an hour past a homeless camp, or group of woods being cut down to put in the newest fast food restaurant.  So this weekend, go for a walk.  Maybe you’ll see me there.

© words and picture by Dan DeMarle 2017

This is Frodo! He’s a fire hydrant.  Normally Frodo is quick and responsive when his bestie fire fighters need him.  He rises to attention with no problem.  But Frodo, like all fire hydrants has a problem.  It’s called Snow Erectile Dysfunction or  SED.  When cold covers him up, it takes fire fighters a lot longer to get him up, ready and spraying away.  If he is completely covered, sometimes he can’t even function.  If your house is on fire, those extra minutes can be the difference literally between life or death or losing or saving your house!  So you don’t want your fire hydrant, like Frodo, to suffer from SED.  Luckily there are simple things you can do to help your friend.  NO, no need for fancy medicines, or therapists.  He just needs a little extra care to function well and to keep functioning well.  Just clear off the snow in a large square around him, just like in this picture.  Its that simple, no need for full spectrum lights or a subscription to the fire truck porn video site.  Don’t let you friend suffer from SED.  Do the right thing.  Once you do that, then check to see if any of the other fire hydrants near you house are suffering from SED.  You may need them sometimes as well.  So get out there and keep those hydrants up and erect.

© words and picture by Dan DeMarle 2017

 

 

 

““When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?” “What’s for breakfast,” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?” “I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh   

Your invited to an end and to a beginning.  I know, somewhat confusing, isn’t that.

Well you know the saying, a journey of a 1000 miles begins with one step.  Well one of my thousand miles journeys’ is coming to an end.  Your invited to come celebrate it with me, this Saturday, December 16th at 7 oclockish in the AM in the parking lot behind Breu coffee.   You are then invited to start the next 1000 mile journey on Saturday the 6th of January at the same time and in the same location.   Bring your walking shoes.

“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh   

So a little history and some pertinent facts.

Fact 1- There is a Walking Group in the 19th ward that walks every Saturday from that same location and at that same time.  It is mostly a women’s walking group, but the odd man or men are always welcome.  If your a man, you don’t have to be odd, but it may help.   The group walks generally at a slow to moderate pace. This is a walking group, and not a running group.  The group generally walks between 2 and 4 miles on every outing, depending on the weather and other commitments.

History 1.  Around September of 2016 I happened to be looking at my total miles walked. Yes I keep track of those things with a phone app.  I then realized, that with a bit of effort, I could walk 1000 miles by the end of the year.   Around 260 miles later in the last week of December, I finished those miles.  There was also biking and swimming miles goals, but since  I bike to work, most days, those are not nearly as challenging.  After accomplishing those goals, I then said, lets do the same thing next year.

“A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh   

Fact 2. There are 365 days in a year. To walk a 1000 miles, you need to average 2.74 miles a day, or around 80 miles a month.  – Unless its a leap year.

History 2: I actually ended up walking 1,011.1 miles in 2016.

History 3.  So on January 1st, 2017 I started out on this current 1000 miles journey.  I am currently at 989.1 miles.

So, your invited to finish this 1000 miles walk with me this weekend.  I may have crossed the 1000 miles sometime earlier in the week, but who knows.   Then join me on Saturday the 6th to start the next 1000 miles together.

Hint, I would have started already, and you may have wanted to as well.

Fact 3. I generally walk two to three walks during the day. Having a dog helps.

Fact 4:  You don’t have to walk a 1000 miles, you could walk 100, 200, 300, whatever!  Just walk.

“Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow
Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead
Walk beside me… just be my friend”
― Albert Camus

Also, if you do decide to walk, this year on Giving Tuesday, I donated to 10 charities each one 100th of the miles I aimed to walk this year.  You could do the same thing.  A gift to the world from you, or the you, you will be then.  Because the amazing thing about walking a 1000 mile journey is that there is no guarantee that you will be the same person at the end of those 1000 miles that you were when you started.

So , finally a journey of a 1000 miles begins with one step.  Start your next one with me. Then we can put a pebble in our shoes, and walk, and talk. And at the end of that 1000 miles we can take that pebble and our new us’s, and say meet your new road.

Dan

 

1/2/18 As an update, I finished the year with 1,031.7 miles.

 

© words and picture by Dan DeMarle 2017 – unless otherwise noted

” I suppose an honest man shines more in politics than he does elsewhere. But shouldn’t a senator keep his word? Or a president? Shouldn’t he set a high example? Is keeping one’s word so extraordinary a thing when the person achieving that feat is the first citizen of a civilized nation?”

Mark Twain

With the cold air outside,

listening to George Winston,

after a day of talking with fearful grieving parents,

I think about our shoes,

As we ran on the winter snow covered streets.

Our breath creating fog around our faces,

Glasses fogging up and freezing,

needing to be taken off and pocketed,

to defrost, before being put back on.

Our footprints the only marking of our passage,

until they filled with snow.

Peter’s beard freezing with ice.

Fred entertaining with a long story about…

something.

Stories told, stories embellished,

And one of us always chasing that younger version of his former runner self,

that fleet high school athlete,

left in the long ago past,

on some race track somewhere.

.

Running,

we solved the problems of the world on those long runs,

many times over.

.

Now older,

things have changed.

Time has moved the pieces on the chessboard around,

moving people in time and place.

Yet,

On days like tonight I see us all rounding that final corner.

Each eying each other,

who will break for the end of the street first,

who has been saving some in reserve.

All those quarter mile dashes,

chasing hats or bouncing pony tails.

.

Tonight, however, I will stay at my steady pace,

And prepare to take the dog for a walk.

I’ll look at the stars,

and give thanks,

Thanks to have answered some of life’s mysteries.

In the company of other runners.

 

© words and picture by Dan DeMarle 2017

 

If I could see tomorrow,

know what the day would bring,

would I just stay sitting here,

under this talking , whispering oak,

or run all the way to Samara.

The rustling leaves,

whisper to me,

disturbing news of tomorrow,

or is it of possible tomorrows?

Why do oracles always speak in whispers,

or riddles,

or in the rustling of leaves.

Can’t we just tell the truth,

The truth is that we will all die,

no matter what the rustling leaves say,

or promise.

.

The only real question,

the last remaining true one,

is how do I live my life between now and then.

 

© words and picture by Dan DeMarle 2017

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to give thanks, certainly for you health, your loved ones, your family. But also to give thanks in the larger term.  Think of all the foods on your menu today. Think of the farmers, the food processors, the factory laborers, the grocery store employees who all had something to do with getting that food to your table. Think of the people and perhaps artists or artisans involved in the plates, bowls, saucers that you will serve that food with. Think of a miner somewhere or growers who were involved in that salt and all of those other spices. Think of the food scientists and all of the other scientists and inventors involved in your  meal, and creating the technology to print that recipe book or to design and build the transportation system that will bring you or your guests wherever you or they are going,  We like to think of the holiday as individuals, yet that meal would not be possible without much of society working together to make it happen.

Lastly think of the fact that you are eating it, in the midst of “peace time”.  America is not actually at peace, and we have ongoing military actions across the world. We have men and women working today across the world to protect our country.  Some of our service members were able to make it home for the Holiday, Others are far from home serving our country. Some are eating far from home with friends or are being fed by others.

So when you sit and eat today, give Thanks, not just for the family members with you, but for all those others out there who literally helped you make that meal.

© words and picture by Dan DeMarle 2017

Will you have a real Thanksgiving this year?  To answer that you have to think for a bit about what the first Thanksgiving was.   It was a group of First Nations people, celebrating with a group of new immigrants from a land far across the ocean.  Of course they did not think of themselves as immigrants, but as people who would soon steal the land from the people they were eating with.  In a sense those first Pilgrim settlers were the reality of our worst immigrant fears. But before that happened, it was a group of disparate peoples coming together to break bread.  Strangers from different cultures eating together in celebration.  So forget the later genocide, for a day, and think about, or try to actually have a meal with someone unfamiliar to you.  And no that does not include  your daughters new boyfriend or your son’s new girlfriend, or your daughter’s new girlfriend, or your son’s new boyfriend.  Ok, maybe it does.  Regardless, remember that the first Thanksgiving was one people celebrating with their new immigrant neighbors.  Try to do the same.

© words and picture by Dan DeMarle 2017