Thoughts on Walks

What do you do when the weather turns bad? Do you give in to the weather and let it control you, or do you take control and use the weather to your advantage? Do you find a way to have fun with it? In my village…and all around Western New York…we tend to grab the weather by the tail and ride it for all it’s worth. Especially in the Winter, folks in and around Buffalo just seem to find a way to make the weather fun. Tons of snow? No problem! That just means more skiing, skating, sledding, snowmobiling…and other sports that begin with “S” apparently! For me, it means ski-shoeing…a cross between cross country skiing and snowshoeing. I use a hybrid ski called a Hok, made by Altai Skis. I love them! Join me on Episode 10 of Thoughts on Walks as I ski-shoe around Knox Farms in my little village of East Aurora, New York. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs1bOGJhfb5/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

What is your focus for 2019? Are there any goals, aspirations or watchwords that you plan to direct your energy toward this year? https://www.instagram.com/p/BsEkE92BPoH/ I’m not too big on New Years resolutions, but I do conduct an annual review to gauge how my previous year went and I do set some aspirations for the coming year. As I walk through my beautiful little village of East Aurora, I share my watchwords for 2019. Ironically, both of them are Japanese terms…wabi sabi and kintsugi. You can listen in as I talk about what they mean to me, but I’ll also link to the wabi sabi and kintsugi pages on Wikipedia so you can find out more. And just to clarify, though I certainly appreciate the art of kintsugi, I’m focused more on embracing the philosophy in the year ahead and forward. So as you look ahead to 2019, maybe you would serve yourself well to take some time…maybe on a walk around your village or favorite place…to choose one or two watchwords to be your point of focus for the year ahead. Happy New Year, and thanks for joining me on Thoughts on Walks! Thoughts on Walks on Instagram

If you had to pick a location that had a “sense of place,” where would that be? Is it somewhere you’ve visited, somewhere you live or lived? What gave it that sense of place? As I write this, it’s Christmas Eve day in East Aurora, NY. Ironically, we thought we’d be having a green Christmas. It just didn’t seem right…16 miles from Buffalo (which is usually the punchline in snow jokes) and all our snow was gone with a recent heatwave in the high 30s and low 40s. But just as I started uploading Episode 8 of the Thoughts on Walks podcast…as Christmas music plays in the background and my wife is making cinnamon rolls for tomorrow, the skies unleashed with big, puffy snowflakes. It looks like we’ll have a white Christmas after all. Talk about a sense of place! I’m going to spend the day working on those Craftsman-style doors I mentioned, I have an important phone call at 2pm, and then maybe it’s another fire on the sleeping porch with a drink and a book. How about you? Here are links to a few of the things I spoke about as I walked around the village recording Episode 8: The Tweet I saw about the little library in the tree that spoke to me so: The article in The Buffalo News about my little village: East Aurora New York…my village If you use Instagram, connect with me there at https://www.instagram.com/thoughtsonwalks/ Merry Christmas!

If you could go back in time and view history as it was being made as opposed to experiencing it from a historical context, how do you think your views would change? That’s what I was thinking about as I edited and reviewed Episode 6 of Thoughts on Walks.  I wondered what my opinion of Elbert Hubbard would have been if I had viewed his life as his contemporary rather than someone removed by over 100 years. I know my opinion would have been quite different, but would I have been too critical? Would I have allowed his indiscretions to prevent me from seeing the good in him and the movement he led? History is carefully curated by most, as is our social media of today. What would others think of the “real” us if they viewed us first-hand, rather than the carefully self-curated versions of ourselves that we put on social media? And if they only know the social media version of us, do they really know us? Well, speaking of social media, I decided to open an Instagram account for Thoughts on Walks. The Instagram username is ThoughtsOnWalks and the link is instagram.com/thoughtsonwalks. I figured maybe you might like to see some pictures of things I talk about on our walks without having to go to the Thoughts on Walks website. I hope to connect with you there 🙂 Oh…I wanted to make a correction: On Episode 6, I misstated Miriam Hubbard’s birthday year as 1884, when it was in fact 1894. I do all my own stunts here on Thoughts on Walks…usually without a net, so inevitably I’ll mess up a fact now and again. I hope you understand.

What is it like for you when you learn the “backstory” of a person, entity or event, and it gives you an entirely new perspective? If you learn something positive, it seems to draw you closer to that person. But when the new perspective is negative, sometimes you can walk away feeling fooled or taken advantage of. These days we project our story onto various types of social media, and those who follow us tend to judge us from just that one perspective. We control much of what they see. But what if they knew our “backstory”…our reality? Would they feel more drawn to us or fooled based on what we put out on social media? In Episode 6 of Thoughts on Walks, we talk a bit about the backstory of Elbert Hubbard. We learn a little more about the dark cloud that hung over him in the final chapters of his life, and most certainly became a part of his legacy, and that of the Roycroft. I’m not sure how I would have taken this story if I watched it unfold as his contemporary. Yet, looking back through the lens of history, I still feel drawn to him and his story in many, many ways. Listen in as we wrap up the Elbert Hubbard story. I also share a little snippet from witnesses who saw Hubbard and his second wife Alice in their final moments. So now that you know what Paul Harvey would call “The Rest of the Story,” what’s your opinion of Elbert Hubbard? I’d be very interested to hear your take in the comments. Thanks!

Have you ever noticed how, when viewed from a distance or over time, many things in life are actually more connected than we may realize in the moment? We connect a few dots today. Dots between Michelangelo in 1500s Italy, Elbert Hubbard and other Roycrofters in early 1900s East Aurora, NY, a toymaker of the 1930s, artisans skilled in various trades worldwide, and even a contemporary author who lives and writes in Franklin Tennessee. Add in the sinking of both the Titanic and the Lusitania and you’ll have a little sprinkling of disparate thoughts that run through my mind as I walk around my little village on a December day. How could these people and events possibly be related? Have a listen to Episode 5 of Thoughts on Walks and find out! If  you’re interested in the book I mentioned from Jeff Goins, here’s an Amazon link:  Real Artists Don’t Starve Here is a link to a picture of Paul Bartlett’s sculpture of Michelangelo which is in the Library of Congress…I was a little off on the location 😉 I hope you find some value in Thoughts on Walks. If you do, feel free to share the podcast link with a friend. You can do that using the Share link in your podcast app, or send them a link to the show in  iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher. Thanks!

Be honest…would you really follow your passion if you had the chance? What would your life be like if you did just that? On today’s Thoughts on Walks I continued with the story of Elbert Hubbard, the Roycroft Movement, and how their story effect various facets of my life and yours. From struggling with what to do in my “second half,” to taking steps to create your my own world, Hubbard’s story inspires me. He is certainly not without flaws, but who is? As you listen in to the show, what thoughts go through your mind about your own life…your second half. What are the things that are stopping you from pursuing the life you were meant to live? Here are some links to things I mentioned on today’s walk: A Message to Garcia The Roycroft Campus The Roycroft Inn Here is a snapshot of the North Wind by Jerome Connor (inspired by WW Denslow).          

Do you look back to yesterday to gauge your today? I’ve found that I tend to use history as a lens for understanding my present…for assigning relevance to my life today. I talk a bit about that on this episode, and also begin a story about someone I tend to relate to in many ways…Elbert Hubbard of the Roycroft. Of course, he’s easy to identify with as he’s as multifaceted as we all are. I also emphasize the need for simplicity in my life, and how my family and I use our pillar of Freedom as a way to ensure we’re “free to” explore things we want in life by making sure we’re “free from” the constraints many people put on themselves by failing to account for margin. Please be sure to share this episode with a friend if you think they’d find value in our walks together. The link to the show in Apple Podcasts (iTunes) is https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughts-on-walks/id1444790884 on Google Play the link is https://goo.gl/PBuPSE and on Stitcher it’s https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=335567&refid=stpr Oh…I thought you’d enjoy the sights and sounds of Tannery Brook. This is where I was standing at the opening of the episode. Isn’t it beautiful? And such a simple pleasure.  Thanks! Have a great day!

What are some of your favorite places to go? Today I took my dogs on a little romp in the snow at Knox Farm State Park. As usual, I have to stop and have a sip of coffee from time to time. I thoroughly enjoy my coffee on my walks. This is the press I use for my coffee that I mentioned. We talked a bit about Knox Park and I thought you’d enjoy some history about the farm, Seymour Knox, and links. Places mentioned: Knox Farm State Park Facebook Page Elm Street Bakery

Have you ever struggled trying to develop a new habit? About 6 years ago I set out to develop a new habit of early morning walks. It was just a test, and when I try something new or test something out that I think I might want to turn into a habit, I commit myself to 30 days. I figure, if it’s something I’m thinking so strongly about that I might want to incorporate it into my life long-term, then a 30 test period is something I shouldn’t have a problem committing to. So I started walking, Like with developing any new habit, you have to try and make doing it as friction free starting out as you can. So I set out my walking clothes the night before, got my headphones ready, and any inclement weather gear I might need, based on the forecast. And I set my alarm on my iPhone. No snoozing allowed. The alarm was labeled “Get Up, Get Out.” I knew if I got up and got out as fast as I could, I wouldn’t have time to make any excuses. Or at least I’d be less likely to. I think I went almost 8 months before I missed a day. Most weeks, I get between 5 and 7 good walks in. Now, these walks are great for keeping me active, but honestly I do them more for my mental wellbeing than I do for my physical well being. And I realized that while I’m out walking, I have some really healthy contemplation time. I guess it’s like when you have good ideas in the shower…because your mind is kind of in neutral and the contemplative and creative juices start flowing. So I started making a few voice memos on my phone occasionally. And even less occasionally I’d go back and listen to them. Deliberately anyways. But eventually I’d stumble across them and I realized that those voice memos would have been really helpful if I was more deliberate about going back and listening to them. This happened again just the other day. I was going through my phone deleting things, and I saw all these old voice memos. And I listened through them. And again, I thought I need to do this more deliberately. So I decided to do another test. I’m going to record my walks. And I’m going to post them…as some public accountability I guess. I decided that I’d just hit record while I’m walking and talk like I was talking to a friend. I guess that’s you. So welcome to Episode 1 of Thoughts on Walks. The audio will be a bit raw, so if you’re willing to listen in, just know that you’ll probably hear traffic, dogs barking, me saying hello as I pass people, me sniffling, or the snow crunching under my feet as I walk…like it is now. It’s about 30 degrees fahrenheit and there are big puffy snowflakes falling. But it’s a beautiful day in my little village. It almost always is, and I love my walks. I almost always walk with coffee, so from time to time I’ll stop and take a sip. So you may hear some slurping, too. But for the most part I’ll just speak what comes to my mind… Typically, I won’t post long show notes, but since this is the first episode I thought I’d at least post these and the disclaimer that the audio recorded a little “hot.” I’ll dial it back next time. Also, here are the books I mentioned in today’s walk: Charles Duhigg’s Power of Habit James Clear’s Atomic Habits Finally, when discussing Cazenovia Creek I got it’s namesake’s first name wrong. I said Adolfus Cazenove and it should have been Theophilus Cazenove. My bad, Theo… Cheers!