100 Things on My 56th Birthday

 100 Things

1. Here are my current categories of my identity: relationships, career, learner, household manager, physical upkeeper, Spritual upkeeper.  
2. More specifically, in relationships, I see myself as a husband, son, friend, dad, "community member"
3. In career, as a teacher, boss, colleague, "networker"
4. In learner, a writer, musician/guitarist, reader, learner of nerd things
5. In household manager, a housekeeper, landscaper, food maker, financial manager, maintainence and repairer
6. in physical upkeep - diet, weights, cardio, yoga
7. In spiritual upkeep - med, time in nature, kalender maker (local phenologist), voyager, 
8. I'd give myself a mixed score in each of these things.  
9. I'm aware that it would be useful to take some time to define more specifically what success in each of these means to me.  I started this, but never finished in my journal
10. x
11. Some things I like to do:
12. bike rather than drive when possible
13. reduce meat, eat more plants, eat from the garden
14. have staples on hand that I make: pickles, granola, bread, beans, sauerkraut
15. DIY
16. Fruitslive - be out in nature
17. x
18. x
19. x
20. x
21. Having daily habits are important -- - like a "5-9" schedule during the school year
22. Limiting time on TV news, social media is helpful... think of it like a diet -- 10 mins/day... no doomscrolling
23. Systems and habits are helpful in keeping the wheels spinning: food, dress, gardening (weeding sections of landscape each day), cleaning, exercise
24. When summer happens, it's important to create some structure.  For me this year, it was doing a variety of verbs each day: clean, garden, make something, med, do HW
25. I used to do a lot of habits 3x week.  It seems far more helpful to do everything DAILY if you want it to stick.  
26. Having ongoing projects, which I keep track of with 3x10s is helpful to break inertial
27. Towards the end of summer, I began to think that there should be ongoing MAINTENANCE and PROJECTS for each of my general areas -- and to try to make progress is both each time do something (back to daily habits above)
28. I have a lot of daily projects going on.  Here's a list: daily journal, daily haiku writing (have completed 285 in a row on 8/1/2026), have 5-year diary of daily quotations, daily meditation, according roughly to a plan of teachers in Insight timer, I keep a daily blog, there is an increased number of days that have "themes" (1s= poems, 10s= middle seasons, 3s=# 3 small items, 9=3x10 reports.  
29. One thing that keeps that all going is creating a list of 10 things I see/experience each day.  The primary purpose is to "be here now" and "recollect."  On good days, one of those things becomes my haiku.  It's also part of a practice of being present.  When I don't get to 10, it's a reminder to get more focused on what's happening.  This year it has also
30. Having breaks each day between events is important.  Towards the end of the 26 school year, I began "taking 3 breaths" before jumping out of the car and into school.  It's a kind of "recollecting" myself.  
31. On my CommonPlace Book.
32. x