Middle Season #36 - 2025

100 Things That Made My Year - 2025

Here's Last year's list.  On 12/29 blog about "new life hacks"; on 12/30 publish major events summary of the year

(doing this in April 2026)

1 - people/teacher; 2. Places; 3. Things; 4. Books; 5. New Practices/Ideas

6. habits and hacks 7. old and continued things 8. 9. monthly highlights 10. best blogs per month

1-10 - People/ Teachers - Teachers: (from X, I learned Y)

1. Jan.   Jenny Odell.  Slightly shocked that I had 13 blog entries from her book, Saving Time.

1. Without the sensation of having lived it - link - Odell tells fairy tale of boy who has ability to make time go faster, but runs out of thread 0125;

2. When we say we are moved - link - Odell in Saving Time about ‘side effects’ of perception when we have moments of true deep self  - also “to be human is to be directed to something other than oneself” 0225

3. Time is Beans - link - Odell in Saving Time about thinking beyond the transactional; explores metaphor of time as seed exchange 0225

4. Something New is always coming in on the tide - link - Jenny Odell writing about Sara Hendren’s explanation of Crip Time & a kind of living that is not about being productive 0125

5. I’m alive to the extent that I can be moved - link- Jenny Odell’s closest definition of what a life not focused on production might feel like.  She uses a couple metaphors which are related to Rosa…. In re-reading it, I see it’s also about being “pushed back” on/ reciprocated - by the look of another human or a deer. 0125

6. Hartmut Rosa’s Resonance - link- Jenny Odell’s quotation of Rosa’s idea of resonance (the lighting up) which happens in relationships. I also ask Claude to expand on the idea. 0125

7. A vertical axis of time - link - Odell on Josef Pieper and thinking of leisure NOT as a way to restore ourselves to be more productive at work 0125

8. A glimpse of something different than what we normally see - link - Odell on Pieper again; slowness, related to leisure, related to digital/analog 0125

9. Revealing details I’d never noticed - link - Odell on how pandemic put us into a different mode of model – related to leisure and psychedelics 0125

10. Unfreezing something in time - link - Odell talks about how to begin seeing things in time as unspooling - talks about a buck-eye branch she watches thru seasons 0225

11. The Infraordinary - link - Odell telling story of George Perec writing down “what happens when nothing happens” at a cafe 0125

12. When do events start? Link Jenny Odell in Saving Time; references John McPhee and landsclides; questions when does the landslide start - with a fire that made the land unstable or with the sliding of the land?  Not sure that this should be filed in “being mindful”...  0125

13. Do other people like carrots? Link Jenny Odell about how to build empathy by wondering if homeless people have individual likes and dislikes 0225

2. March: Anne Marie Bonneau - Zero Waste Chef - 

1. Fermentation is an Act of Defiance - link - quotation from Zero-Waste Chef (Bonneau) that suggests that fermentation puts us more in touch with the natural world 0425

2. Shop the freezer link
3. Tell me how I'm missing out link
4. 8 life philosophies (from ChatGPT) link
3. April: Robin Walls Kimmerer, 
1. Turning sun into sugar link RWK on the poetic magic of photosynthesis 0425
2. Biologists are seldom bored link RWK on being entranced by microscopic moss and goose shit 0425
3. Discover the gift within us and learn to use it well link key part of RKW worldview - we are created with a specific gift; also a part about myriad synchronicities that bring about relation 0425
4. The Honorable Harvest* link key part of RKW philosophy of being grateful to the world and giving back 0425

5. With words at your disposal you can see more clearly - link - RWK selections from Moss about how having a specific vocabulary helps us see more clearly – intricate names of mosses 0425

6. Attentiveness alone can rival best microscopes - link RWK quote about the power of attention 0425

7. What draws me to the pond at night? Link RWK quote about the mystery of what makes the frogs come to the pond? What makes me go to listen 0425 

8. We are showered every day with gifts, but they are not ours to keep link a series of quotations from Braiding Sweetgrass by RWK - gifts, reciprocity, loneliness. Several about ethics.  The system doesn’t fit my current organization of the index. 0525

9. To be a bay RWK 07/1 link

10. Ennumerating the gifts we've received creates a sense of abundance link (notes from the Serviceberry) 9/25

4. June: Robert Macfarlane, 
1. interview in emergence link
2. hybridized by the situation link 
3. I see spirals form everywhere link
4. Some sentences from Robert Macfarlane link
5. Not knowing widens the world link
6. Incendence link
7. Would their songs be bardic or historic? link
8. What is your daemon? link
9. Listen, pay attention, and learn from link
10. Humble wonder link
5. Joan Halifax, 
1. How is your heart doing at this very moment? 0525 link
2. The Six Perfections - 06/06/25 link
3. Helping, fixing, serving - 6/7/25 link
4. Book Notes on Standing at the Edge - 6/x/25 link
6. Craig Mod; 
1. Boredom, the great engine of creativity 6/17 link
2. Craig Mod's rules for walking 6/x link
3. The audacity to have rules/ what these rules enabled link 12/9/25
4. Listening to Jazz in Japan link (12/2/25)
7. Mary Oliver
1. The Palace of Discovery - link - Mary Oliver in Upstream - reflections on a spider - the Palace of Knowledge (in books) v. The Palace of Discovery 0225
2. My great ones link Mary Oliver lists the people who ideas is her inheritance. Similar to “my people” by hornby  0325
3. More at home here than anywhere else -link- Mary Oliver on being in the forest… the sense of being at home 0325

4. How can we ever stop looking? Link Mary Oliver excitedly talks about the beauty of the nature world’s fineness and says the title and “how can we turn away”? 0325

5. Boundless affirmation -link- Mary Oliver reflecting on Walt Whitman noticing his incantatory prose and his boundless affirmation 0325

6. Re-dignify the worst-stung heart -link- Mary Oliver on how nature and literature became her refuges when she was young 0325

7. #Just attention, sympathy, empathy -link- Mary Oliver’s eloquent praise of Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass.  His desire to change the reader. 0325

8. Storage by Mary Oliver link 0125

9. This Morning by Mary Oliver link 0125

10. Praying by Mary Oliver link 0725

8.  Margaret Renkl
1. For a few minutes, it was enough link 11/26
2. Comfort of Crows book notes link
9. Jane Hirshfield
1. What do these words want from me? link
2. We are less lonely in this world when one thing touches another link
10. My corest teacher - Carl Rogers
1. 10 Things I learned from Carl Rogers link
2. Therapist's view of the good life link
3. Being himself doesn't solve problems link
4. The concept of cure is totally inappropriate link
5. Characteristics of a helping relationship link
6. What it means to become a person link
7. The concept of congruence link
8. Process conception of change link
9. The basic goods of life link
10. The conditions for learning link
11. In contact with problems link
12. 7 stages of becoming link
13. Facilitation of personal growth link
14. Releasing potent forces of change link
15. Appreciate the basic goods of life link
16. Learning that makes a difference link
17. Towards a theory of creativity link
18. More varied and creatively adaptive link
11. Some other teachers
1. Jeff Tweedy - the conformity machine (9/24) 
2. Nick Cave - Keeping the Devil in its hole (5/23)
3. Sara Hendren - Whole New Vistas (12/23)
4. Charlotte Wood - "Not Denounced, Not Forgiven" (12/17)
5. Amor Towles - Humans Deserve our reconsideration
6. Ruth Asawa - Take ordinary things and make them special... 11/23 Power of art to allow us to begin again. 
7. Jenny Erpenbeck - Kairos book - book notes here. 11/
8. JKZ - Doing the medicine of the world every day whenever we're not focused on the I-me-mine 11/13 apprehending the full dimensionality of  experience 10/02 Healing Defined July Optimizing for beauty july
9. Shinzen Young - mental screen meditation notes (from IT)
10. Krech - Naikan practice revealed - (I wrote about this last year... but this is the whole thing) 11/12; Midyear questions link July Turning Points Vacations July Thank Your Support Team July
11. Kasdan - thing about your purpose and take even a small step towards fulfiling it today
12. T Bone Burnett - about John and Paul - inspiring, challenging, learning from each other
13. Tamara Shopsin - the ASG
14. Thomas Berry - book notes from The Dream of the Earth
15. Terry Riley - in C, keep yourself loose, invite ideas in 9/20
16. Brian Eno - in interview - boredom, make something with what you have, link
12. Places
13.  Madison
1. Memorial Day - 10 Things - link
2. Favorite sections of the Ice Age trail - link
3. Ten Things from Birthday Trip to Madison link
14.  Door County no top ten but here is one of my bike hikes and Inland pizza
15.  Upper Penninsula of Michigan. UP Vibes
16.  New Buffalo 
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20.  
21.  We cancel our October (10/11) Madison trip, partly because Ulcerative colitis 
22. 21-30 - Things
23.  Wayne Thiebaud
1. Art comes from art video - link
2. 6/2 crucial to his art practice - 
24.  Playful bookcase in Door County swedish shop 6/25?
25.  Mostly AI sucks.  Reading back a year later, it's boring and stale.  
1. Here's one place that it's not so bad:  learning the fretboard exercises.  Nothing surprising, but ok. 
26.   Health ideas
1. Single best advice: move all day
27.  Index as Portrait of its maker link artist makes an index of his interests, which “point to” pages in an imaginary book - see other notes I took in April about the book Index.  0425
28. Health blogs
29.  Ruskin’s Educational Series link Ruskin created a catalog of “models” to teach from - a physical cabinet containing the works. 0225 and A simple reminder of the sky at that moment link more description of one Ruskin drawing from the catalog which was meant to be a kind of quick colored sketch of the sky. 0225
30.  He has  brought an ugliness into the world - link - Andreas Schiff commenting on Donald Trump 0225
31.  Bob Graham’s Notebooks - link - should this be in “noticing” section? It recounts Senator Bob Graham’s notebook obsession, recording in 5 (?!) minute intervals what’s happening.  An aide de memory. 0225
32.  Grass feed hamburger on Dec 31 at Mason Jar
33. Tidy Wood Bin system link
34. 31-40- Books Books - Here's Table View of all Books I read in 2025.  favorite fiction, NF, Buddhist books, books for fun, Stephen King; also best poems
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43.  Most Impactful Book: 
44.  New Practices and Ideas - sometimes abandoned; 
45.  (3x/day blog) in June, inspired by Craig Mod, I begin writing blog posts that have three items per day.  It took me a bit of time to get started (in fact the first couple have titles, but no "content."  If I was not on vacation (like in early July) it seemed like I was stretching a bit -- not finding three topics that were worth going back to (meaning: when I re-read the post in December, is there any spark? any frisson?) But by mid July, I was really cooking.  (Also, when I reread them, I KIND OF remember writing them... but not totally... and the concepts are fresh!). Some new things that came about by increasing my content: weekly (?) garden reports, increased attention/spotlight on interesting ideas (from AMB, Rob Walker, JKZ), short blurbs and ideas that caught my attention (that maybe would have made it into Scrapbooks in earlier blog posts?), reflections on small things like music I'm listening to.
46.  "But afterwards, I was the boy who'd written a book of poetry"
47.  For some moments, I was feeling authentically grateful for the "opportunity to listen to music, run, guitar"
48.  In May and June many of my blogs become some sort of summary from Claude.  Looking back, I don't have any inclination to read them.  I find them facile and not very interesting.  
49.  In Notes App: began collecting daily notes under titles like "Week 27"
50.  In Oct, I began collecting quotations in an old Moleskine that I turned into a 5-year collection
51.  New things in the blog: I began doing "reports" - garden reports, project reports, 
52.  Staring October 11, I began writing a haiku per day; I made some from old Apple notes; then I began increasing my daily note taking to feed the haiku.  I did these right after completing my journal at 5 am.  By the end of the year, I had 78 of them complete.
53.  In the spirit of "life is a journey," listed 10 things every day, expand 3 of them on the blog (circle the best); (DNF) date for this? link?
1. DNF - had a list of daily journal questions: 7 different ones for the week - what's happening in the world, who are my teachers, etc..... I did this sporadically thru the year; 
54.  51-60- Projects and accomplishents
55.  In October I began the basement project; dad comes 11/9 to help cut 2x4s into 2x2s so I can add these to the ceiling as nailers; 
56.  Over spring break I fixed the electric out to the garage, which had stopped in winter; thought that I'd need to dig a new trench; I ended up forcing the wire puller through the old buried conduit that goes under the patio; I had jerry-rigged an electircal power cord through the garage window for the garage door opener.
57.  10x10 watercolor link


58.  
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63.  61-70 - Habits and Hacks
64.  Fermentation. I return to sauerkraut making based on Anne-Marie Bonneau. (6/29)
65.  I used Claude to create foot exercises and complete body workout (5/24) that I roughly followed.
66.  
67.  10x10s link
68.   
69.  Role-based task dispensing: the pez dispenser link Claude helps plan an index-card system for GTD 0425
70.   Life Roles link Claude makes series of names for different roles 0425
71.  In Dec I stopped using Threads as a "let's see what's there" (like flipping thru newspapers) and began limiting use (do I set a time, like 10 mins a day?)
72.  In Dec, I turn phone to silence all unknown callers because I was getting tons of spam calls, which jiggled my phone and 
73.  70- 75 - old and continued - guitar, backing, running
74. Guitar
1. breaktrhough moment on the fretboard link
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79.  76-87 - Monthly Highlights (did I do this already?) Yep. Here it is.
80.  Jan - 
81.  Feb
82.  Mar
83.  Apr
84.  May
85.  June - I say that I've done more HW in the past year than... ever?... in at least the last 10 years.  I tried to get ahead with 3 Sunday hours.  I called this practice the Dave Vanderburgh.
86.  July
87.  Aug
88.  Sept.  Ulcerative colitis begins -- this becomes my "daily companion through the whole last 1/3 of 2025
89.  Oct
90.  Nov - after Thanksgiving, after visiting Dr. Gerard, I begin taking Budesemide 1x/day; there is some issue with getting insurance BCBS to cover it;  JG hits 10K on IG; 
91. Dec
92.  Best January blog posts... (etc) Jan. 
1. Did I cause trouble - link - from Todo Institute. 
2. Do you apologize when you know you’re right? 125. Twenty Favorite poems from 2024 link
93. Feb blog posts.  
1. Afterwards, I was a boy who had written a book of poems - link - reflections on setting and achieving seemingly random goals 0225;
2. Nicolson Baker on keeping a notebook link Longer quotation from Baker who herein instructs “write ‘what was the best part of the day’ yesterday” 0225
94. Mar blog posts
1. Interlocking Venn Diagrams - link- reflection on mom and dad’s award ceremony and all the volunteer groups they are a part of 0325 2. With no certainty that they’ll be any good link Oliver Burkeman talks about ‘toxic preconditions’ that we set on ourselves that anything we do will hit certain success criteria… which disinclined us to start 0325
95. April blogs
96. May
97. June
98. July
1. Building Food Security 
2. Dan Pink. -finding your life purpose questions
3. Clear - devise more dreams, make more attempts
99. Aug
1. Tell your spouse you like spending time with them (Clear)
2. 3 daily wins (clear) Each one has three or items  physical - walk, swim, lift, mental: read write learn create; spiritual: meditate gratitude help teach
3. 20 habits to change your life clear
100. Sept
1. I set a time for one hour and try to make some art (Kleon) also "schedule playtime"
2. Inflorescene of the aster family link
3. In no rush link
101. Oct
1. Chain of gratitude exercise
2. Undappled of leaves (reflections of later fall) DRL
3. Tuning in to your partner (Gottman)
4. Welcome my scabrous friend DRL
5. Replace TV with exercise (clear)
6. 10 Things only for me DrL
102. Nov (and incredibly rich moth)
1. Things You never regret doing (clear)
2. Ask a question about their life (?) excited about? working on? hoping for?)
3. When I'm done, I say bam! next!
4. Close your loops -- your half-finished things
5. Allusion between John and Paul and Montaigne; also, T Bone Burnett - about John and Paul - inspiring, challenging, learning from each other
6. Make starting as easy as possible (clear)
103. Dec
1. micro habits that change everything (clear)
2. arrange whatever pieces come your way (woolf)
104. Some things about teaching
1. what brings teens joy? 5/3/25
2. poetry practice Kim Addonzio (5/10?)
3. Certain sign of wisdom is ____ (5/14)
4. Crucial to his art practice (teacher Theibaud) 6/3)
5. Simple first sentences (6/14)
6. What is a Classic? Calvino (6/15)
7. These 3 Things and other techniques (6/20?)
8. Love's other name TNH (11/28?)
9. T Bone Burnett - about John and Paul - inspiring, challenging, learning from each other
10. NYT My 10 assignment
11. If you can do 10 doorway squats... you can (in teaching)
12. On a branch, floating downstream
13. Writing poetry can freeze time 9/19
14. Some sentences from Robert Macfarlane link 9/13
15. We are less lonely in this world when one thing touches another link
16. Two translations of a single poem link
17. Thinking about asking students to do this with poems: second best resource is Periodic Videos, a channel of 118 videos arranged in the form of a periodic table of the elements. 

18. The books that made me

    “I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.” 

    — Ralph Waldo Emerson

19. 
    
105. Things I want to remember
1. Oblique strategies (7/6)
2. Your Mind on Plants notes (6/19) link

Guitaring, Concerts, Being more fit, Vacations, friends, woodworking

Austin Kleon also has this interesting one: #87. New questions that help: “What would it mean to be done for the day?” “Why don’t you try typing?” “What kind of place do you want to be in?” “Does this contribute to the variety of the world?”

Austin's 2024 list starts with a great number of VERBS.... playing, finding, trying...

START HERE