A friend of mine announced that she would actively seek beauty for a sequence of forty days. Her inspiration lives here in my blog project. I am scanning the world with purpose now. What single image contains worlds, or wonder, or wisdom, or wit?
            What an exquisite luxury, this capture of an image, to grasp it and gaze without hurry, after it’s gone. This scene disappeared seconds after the click of my camera. The light pulsed into dullness; dogs ran in. Our minds leap so quickly to the next thing. Fleeting scenes exit the building. We need help remembering. Embrace the savor of freeze frame moments.
 
Day 4: 106 words = TOTAL 585;  59,415 words remaining

           Kate, in the foreground, is our 13-year-old Sheprador. You see that intent look on her face? That is Kate’s perpetual condition. Along with intense eye contact, she breathes in rapid pants, even when nothing is happening, because maybe something might happen any second now. If you calculated a dog’s lifetime by number of breaths, Kate would be the oldest dog in history. Her back legs teeter and sometimes collapse. She can’t back up any more. I spot her on stairs. Tall grass entangles her. We lift her into the car. She seems okay with it, so far.
            Clara is our 11-year-old mish-mash dog in the background. See that vacant look? That’s pretty much it. She is very dear, and stupid. She also has inexplicable alpha powers over other dogs. She no longer jumps higher than my head, but everything still works.
            Our walks are slower than they were ten years ago, but there is no loss of enthusiasm. I’m happy they’re here to take part in my 60th year.  

169 words = TOTAL 479
​

             Breakfast in bed presented by smiling children is a perfect example - other people’s ideas of how to make you feel good on your birthday are not always on target (crumbs on sheets, toxic morning mouth…but the smiling children are a winner). Years ago I learned to go to the source.
                  Robin – what makes you feel good? That’s what you should do on your birthday (or as many as you can arrange…)

• Don’t rush. Whatever it is, start early so you can take your time.
• Climb a mountain.
• Go for a walk before breakfast. And maybe again in the angled evening light.
• Pick blackberries straight into your cereal bowl.
• Swim a mile.
• Hug dogs.
• Hug people.
• Talk to your children.
• Check things off the to-do list.
• Make the bed (so you get the lift of that made-bed room tonight).
• Make your favorite birthday cake. Or an ice-cream sundae. With peanut butter sauce. And whipped cream.
• Eat well, not too much.
• Laugh.
• Sing.
• Sleep well.

164 words = TOTAL 164 words

Here is where I began. I wonder what made me feel good that day? Clearly something awesome. 

busy bee

​THE CHALLENGE:
            On my 59th birthday – tomorrow, August 28, 2019 – I begin a one-year blog project. I am giving myself 60,000 words to record my 60th year, in 365 posts.
            As a writer who lacks the compulsion to write, I have long envied other writers (there seem to be legions of them) who MUST write EVERY DAY because they are simply incapable of not writing. When it comes to not writing, my abilities are stellar. However, rather than rest on the laurels of my high-achieving not writing performance, I have set myself a daily writing challenge. Here’s a bit of background.
            Not quite ten years ago I launched my first daily writing blog challenge, titled “A Year of Getting Up to Meet the Day.” Another skill I possess is an innate ability to not get up in the morning. Some say they can’t possibly sleep past 8am. Amateurs. Lingering in bed, napping and dozing until the brunch hour, is my delicious. I decided to combine my writing challenge with an early rise challenge, just to see how it would feel. Starting on January 1st, 2010, the year that I turned 50, I was outdoors for sunrise every day for 365 days. Then I wrote and posted a blog, usually with photos. The success of that feat provided me with years of happy complacency.
            Tomorrow is the first day of my 60th year (as my Dad would surely have pointed out if he were still living). I anticipate great things this year – the birth of my first grandchild, preparations for my daughter’s wedding, and working towards the 2021 publication of my first book. Surely there will be other surprises, good and bad. Maybe one of those surprises will be that I write every day.
​            Any year is potentially worth recording, but I’d like to highlight the dynamism that still infuses life for the no longer young. Yes, I embrace the empowering reality of being no longer young. That’s part of the point here.
           
            Now for a couple of ground rules.

• Inspired by the spare writing of Lydia Davis, I am holding myself to 60,000 words total for the year. That’s an average of 164 words a day.
• Titles don’t count in the word count. Also, the daily word count does not count in the word count.
• In keeping with brevity, I am limiting myself to one photograph per day.
• I will aim for morning posts, but commit only to posting each day before the date changes.  

 
            Today’s indulgence is a profusion of words to set the stage. The rules start tomorrow (really!). Please join me either in silence or with comment contributions. I would love to have your company.
 

What a sweet summer it's been. Few things beat standing on a mountaintop on a puffy-cloud day.  I'm enjoying an extended cessation of writing this July and August, but gearing up for the 60th year daily posting challenge, soon to begin. 

Today I'm celebrating 36 years of marriage to the extraordinary guy who took the attached photo. We'll celebrate with a picnic on the grass, cribbage, and take-out sandwiches. Pretty nice to share the same simple joys for all these years. 

 Not quite 10 years ago I started my first blog, a one-year challenge to be outdoors at sunrise every day and write about it (http://ayearofgettingup.blogspot.com/).  That was the year that I turned 50. In honor of my sixtieth year, which begins this month, I am gearing up for another one year challenge.

On August 28th, watch for the first of 365 posts called, "My 60th year in 60,000 words."  
**Robin