On January 1, 2019 I snapped a picture with my phone and wrote a 17 syllable sentence to accompany it. (Haiku is 5-7-5, but I disregarded the expectations of Haiku, except the syllable count) I posted the 17 beats + picture here and then I did it again the next day. And the next. And the next. On and on and on. Every single day of this year. Until I have come to the very last day.
Annie Dillard talks about schedule (habit/routine) serving as a net to catch our days. Boy – oh. Yes.
Austin Kleon says Building a body of work (or a life) is all about the slow accumulation of a day’s worth of effort over time.
My 17 Beat Project evolved over time – my rules and expectations for myself changed a bit. Early on I wrote a couple blog posts exploring my thinking and purpose for the project. I debated pushing the project out on social media and building some sort of thing. But I chose not to, rather I simply settled into a steady daily relationship with the work. As I look back now, I am so very glad I did.
My family has been a fantastic cheerleading squad. I couldn’t have/wouldn’t have done it without their care and encouragement. (more than once David insisted : You can’t quit now.) Now they ask – what are you going do next year? Whatever it is…..it is not this.
Some of these are exactly right. Others….not so much. Most are somewhere in between. And this. is how I build a life.
17 Beats Project | 2-11-19
Building A Life One American Sentence At A Time | 2-3-19
American Sentences: Holding Joy and Patience | 1-14-19
January 1: First Day Promise
January 2: Someday
January 3: Terms of Endearment
January 4: How We Live
January 5: On my walk through the neighborhood tonight…..
January 6: Four degrees and a hard packed trail
January 7: The dog and I
January 8: My boy, this first week of January
January 9: How I got hooked
January 10: The dark will not last forever
January 11: Zero degrees farenheit
January 12: Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin
January 13: Some days it comes easy
January 14: Branches
January 15: Prayer for the people who stayed at the emergency cold weather shelter last night
January 16: Innocent until proven guilty
January 17: Poetry mustn’t be fancy Mary Oliver said
January 18: Sunshine on a gloomy day
January 19: Winter colors
January 20: Awesome wonder
January 21: Not too late
January 22: Thinking about this day 17 syllables at a time
January 23: Story as truth
January 24: Life’s questions
January 25: I like snow blankets better
January 26: A soft cozy gift for the pup
January 27: Things that are saving my life right now
January 28: January shift
January 29: Things we talked about at the pediatrician’s office today
January 30: January nights
January 31: These mountains, they call me
February 1: The way through
February 2: Saturday afternoon sidewalk skate
February 3: Little wonders anywhere
February 4: For good reason
February 5: Changes afoot
February 6: Thinking about the ways we cope
February 7: Crossing the finish line
February 8: Heads up
February 9: Love that dog
February 10: Marking time
February 11: Sweet love and warm light
February 12: Evening walk
February 13: Window view
February 14: This Alaska life
February 15: Scratch-off Art Show
February 16: Right here, just now
February 17: Both/And
February 18: Headline news
February 19: SuperMoon 2019#2
February 20: Finding the way through
February 21: Puzzling path
February 22: Story unfolds outside the frame
February 23: Keep showing up
February 24: Soul care (or – how can i keep from singing?)
February 25: Celebrating MomMom’s birthday early
February 26: Too beat to beat
February 27: winter street cleaning
February 28: My first ANGRY moose encounter
March 1: straight and true
March 2: Iditarod!
March 3: colors of hope
March 4: grateful mom moment
March 5: In moments like these….
March 6: Blacktop! And so begins the icy, melty mess that is Spring
March 7: Losing patience
March 8: to love and be loved
March 9: fire does burn
March 10: seasons in transition
March 11: Perspective
March 12: Psalm 121
March 13: rough going
March 14: Let’s get up and go!
March 15: Today we have roof gutters!
March 16: finding the path through
March 17: On this St. Patrick’s Day
March 18:Both/And at the surgery center today
March 19: Magnificent Moments in the stuff of my every day
March 20: until my hands call quits
March 21: SuperMoon 2019#3
March 22: Tiny green shoots and small orange balls
March 23: Rainy Day Road Running
March 24: Lagoon in Transition
March 25: walking to the long view
March 26: there will be beauty
March 27: Breaking Winter, Breaking Records
March 28: Moving In
March 29: placing this moment in a bigger frame
March 30: Nope. I am not going in there.
March 31: Anticipation Builds
April 1: Just Wondering
April 2: and so how will you live?
April 3: BallSeason!
April 4: seems like magic to me
April 5: this is how I live
April 6: Calling Spring!
April 7: what is needed
April 8: free-range bunny
April 9: watching the way of things
April 10: Make Way For Ducklings
April 11: Sourdough
April 12: backyard work and play
April 13: Boots at the Back Door
April 14: For the beauty…..
April 15: growing conditions
April 16: give us this day….
April 17: walking with eyes to see
April 18: Spring Snow
April 19: oregon girl fights back
April 20: colored eggs to bring us home
April 21: what does it mean: now and not yet
April 22: Funny Farm Street
April 23: the path goes through
April 24: steady on
April 25: Like joy in the morning
April 26: what you can’t know by looking
April 27: Here come our groceries!
April 28: this. I pray.
April 29: April Showers
April 30: things hoped for
May 1: (but that’s not a birch tree)
May 2: waiting
May 3: The last of our snow is gone!
May 4: Water Is Life
May 5: on this day so grey
May 6: Sign says….
May 7: Ginger’s Garden #2
May 8: rainy day bright side
May 9: tern at the table
May 10: for these long grey days
May 11: whatcha thinking?
May 12: to fill my heart
May 13: #traumaticbraininjury
May 14: rooting in the unknown
May 15: Both/And (v.spring)
May 16: after the storm
May 17: Spring! she is the resurrection
May 18: tricky time tracker
May 19: First Fruits
May 20: nutrigold to the rescue
May 21: blue sky sunshine
May 22: structure and meaning
May 23: fighting back
May 24: fullness of time
May 25: log splitting in a rainstorm
May 26: traveling beats
May 27: full shelves stocked with choices
May 28: memory making
May 29: no picture
May 30: so many stories untold
May 31: waiting for the light
June 1: the color green + the sun is WARM
June 2: Smoky Mountains: Grotto Falls
June 3: point of view
June 4: Celebrating a 50th wedding anniversary in the Smoky Mountains
June 5: Coffee, fresh pressed
June 6: That’s A Wrap #tn2019
June 7: anchorage
June 8: Surprise!
June 9: honoring the gifts
June 10: it never really gets dark
June 11: linear living in a cyclical world
June 12: The Dandelion
June 13: flowers #alaskastyle
June 14: Mood.
June 15: walking together
June 16: even in the wild places
June 17: turn! turn! turn!
June 18: Ginger Plays Ball
June 19: promises
June 20: eyes to see
June 21: Solstice
June 22: (also it was 11:30pm)
June 23: scrappy spots of color
June 24: Gardening Delights
June 25: complexities
June 26: Ginger is eight!
June 27: 14 years
June 28: signs of the season
June 29: living right here. now.
June 30: saying goodbye to the cousins
July 1: tracing a path through the seasons
July 2: Sweet Flavor Bombs
July 3: (I like it)
July 4: Neighborhood Watch
July 5: Uncle Stanley’s peanut butter stirrer
July 6: Air Conditioning #alaskastyle
July 7: Alaska Summer Pup
July 8: beauty come and gone
July 9: so many questions
July 10: Raise a Gardener FTW
July 11: Raise a Baker FTW
July 12: walking on the wild side
July 13: anchorage // or – smoke break
July 14: one bag down, two bags back
July 15: like coming home
July 16: right now
July 17: dahlia wall
July 18: just one life to hold it all
July 19: the way of things
July 20: stuff I know
July 21: hummingbirds
July 22: wayfinding
July 23: thread in a tapestry
July 24: welcome home
July 25: circling back
July 26: Delight
July 27: layers of texture and color
July 28: How shall I measure time?
July 29: ways to spend time
July 30: watering our babies and thinking
July 31: summer of birds
August 1: one day at a time
August 2: still summer
August 3: when we are the sites to see
August 4: walking in the morning light
August 5: airbnb: Fireweed and Snow
August 6: Backyard Show
August 7: reunion
August 8: Chamomile Heads
August 9: all bloomed out
August 10: Remembering
August 11: watching for the beauty
August 12: uninspired
August 13: on we go
August 14: Behold
August 15: small details
August 16: both
August 17: Ginger in Alaska
August 18: it’s a neighborly day in this beauty wood
August 19: mixing the metaphors in prayer
August 20: links on a chain
August 21: over and through
August 22: conversations in a changing climate
August 23: Scrumping Season
August 24: familiar faces
August 25: thinking about anchors
August 26: celebrating Dog Day
August 27: thinking about anchors some more
August 28: Airbnb Alaska
August 29: August without Rain
August 30: celebrating a 5 year old friendship
August 31: August 31
September 1: never mind the meaning making
September 2: Drink to that!
September 3: along the way
September 4: Backyard Beauty
September 5: sliding down maximum slope
September 6: still scrumping
September 7: 9:30pm
September 8: bring the light
September 9: wayfinding
September 10: here we are still. together.
September 11: Tomorrow WE are moving downstairs
September 12: Like Father, Like Sons #cakeschematic (and I win)
September 13: putting away sheets and pillows and towels and stars
September 14: it never gets old
September 15: so too, life
September 16: lights on the trail
September 17: Off to the races!
September 18: If you need me – I’m just gonna be right here
September 19: Field Trip
September 20: it’s a 6 beat word on a gloomy day
September 21: Termination Dust
September 22: 5-7-5 (or – a pattern for the way of things)
September 23: they say the apple doesn’t fall far
September 24: life lived full
September 25: time out
September 26: Fall Day
September 27: one day at a time
September 28: things hoped for
September 29: fall nights
September 30: working the puzzle
October 1: fall nights -2
October 2: bright and beautiful
October 3: October Backyard Bouquet
October 4: design for good
October 5: making stuff, fireside
October 6: night walks
October 7: still putting away the airbnb
October 8: May I ever have eyes to see.
October 9: a time to every purpose
October 10: weary traveler
October 11: new job. new routines.
October 12: light breaks in
October 13: transition best paired with sunshine
October 14: burned out
October 15: new orange hat FTW
October 16: First Snow Day
October 17: routines for the keep on keeping on
October 18: for the beauty
October 19: love that dog
October 20: watch where you step
October 21: taking time to get it right
October 22: Tuesday Night Races
October 23: ways we make it through
October 24: going deeper
October 25: the road. it twists and it turns.
October 26: the sun still shines
October 27: setting anchor
October 28: anchorage
October 29: intersections and alleyways
October 30: wacky jack happy jack.
October 31: frosty windshield in morning street light
November 1: winter woe
November 2: Gingerific
November 3: treasured gifts
November 4: Star VII
November 5: joke’s on me
November 6: keeping distance
November 7: Ubiquitous Gray
November 8: MomMom and Pa are here!
November 9: the makings of something good
November 10: November flowers
November 11: brotherly love
November 12: happy birth day
November 13: doing the work
November 14: low hanging sun in the southern sky
November 15: tidy possibilities
November 16: ready or not
November 17: surprising myself
November 18: Late Start (not complaining)
November 19: frosty
November 20: sad story
November 21: climate change
November 22: finding the way through
November 23: birthday moon
November 24: the stuff of memories
November 25: tracking low in the southern sky
November 26: loft, layers, and lights (+spikes)
November 27: Sundays and Paydays don’t care
November 28: 8am Soggy Thanksgiving Photo
November 29: throughline
November 30: out of season
December 1: 1st Sunday of Advent
December 2: turning the lights up
December 3: upside down kingdom
December 4: winter joys
December 5: thin places
December 6: Have a seat and relax?!?
December 7: Joy to the world
December 8: dewdrops of mercy
December 9: another melt out – too many to count
December 10: grateful
December 11: nailed it
December 12: nighttime sky watch with my boy
December 13: It holds!
December 14: #alaskamagic
December 15: Christmas Tree Walk #alaskamagicfail
December 16: not winning
December 17: no lack of story material here
December 18: #aklife
December 19: Gold Star Elf
December 20: throughline
December 21: firestorm
December 22: weary traveler
December 23: winter games
December 24: light in the dark
December 25: the hope of peace
December 26: Bon Hiver
December 27: Friday Night Feast
December 28: watching for the light
December 29: playing outside
December 30: the gift of a friendship
December 31: promise kept