I’ve been doing mostly the same things every day,
mainly writing, movement, and stillness.
It’s a lot of repetition,
which forces me to get creative,
otherwise I’ll go crazy.

I find routine takes me through cycles of peace and stagnation.
Mindless repetition,
Doing for the sake of doing because that’s what I’ve always done
Leads down a dead-end path.

Whenever I slow down and rediscover presence,
I find so much peace and novelty within repetition.
It’s no longer old business, but something entirely new.
And the routine helps create constraints to keep growing
Since without repetition, there’s no learning.

It’s like they say, you can’t step into the same river twice.
What seems like same-ness is actually new-ness.
When we step into that same-new river,
Routines turn into heroic journeys.

We must first look for magic to notice it.
We slow down
And the same-ness shifts into alive-ness.

To awaken is to remember we’re awake,
Even when doing the same things every day,
There’s no same-thing-ness about it.

Parking lot drainage at my apartment. Sloshing through a few inches of rainwater to get to my truck. Wet shoes, reminding me of the trail.

Writing Updates

I just sent the first draft of my new book to my editor! It’s an 80k-word manuscript, a healthy-sized book comparable to the size of my other two books. I contracted for a manuscript review. A manuscript review is a high-level, bird’s eye editorial review of the story. It provides an editorial letter and in-manuscript commentary covering plot, character development, themes, and worldbuilding. All of this will be a very important step to bring the story to life.

I’m looking forward to hearing her thoughts. She’s the first person to read it, so it’s simultaneously exciting and nerve-wracking. How much of the book will I have to re-write? Is any of it good or am I totally lost? We will see by the end of May.

After that, I’ll implement her feedback over the next few months (maybe a year?!).

I must admit, I’ve had more fun writing this book than any other. I’ve allowed my imagination to freely explore possibilities in a way that memoirs simply don’t allow for. I wrote the book wanting to dive into the subconscious. I just kept writing… the story took hold and I followed wherever it led.

It’s entertaining to witness how deeply my conditioning influences my actions. As creative as I think I am, no moment in this book is possible without previous experiences, made from the essence of so many stories I’ve previously read or watched.

Here are some of the biggest influences I’ve noticed so far:
– Pablo Coelho’s The Alchemist
– any Haruki Murakami book
– Hesse’s Narcissus and Goldmund
– Avatar: The Last Airbender
– Spirited Away, or any Miyazaki film
– Big Fish
– Carl Jung’s ideas on dreams
– psychology, swords, magic, dreams, spirits, monsters, & Japanese feudalism

I look forward to sharing the book with you one day. I hope it will be entertaining, but also meaningful, connected, and inspiring. Maybe in future emails I’ll share some bits from it (even if those bits don’t make it into the final version). Would that be interesting?

Reading Updates

I just finished another Haruki Murakami book, The City and its Uncertain Walls. Great read, only took me four months, lol. It was a thick book, 700 pages. That thickness was because of the “large print” edition, which made me feel like an old man reading huge text.

My brothers got it for me for Christmas, so thank you to them! 🙂 Murakami continues to inspire me in so many ways, no doubt some of his work has seeped into my latest book.

Crazy how much I resonate with this afterword. I very much feel like I write the same story but change up. This time, the change will be more noticeable, but in the end, it’s rewriting with a limited palette.

Next book on the reading list: The Anatomy of Movement by Blandine Calais-Germain

Movement Updates

Movement practice remains a large part of my life. I’ve been sharing a bit about this on YouTube. A few of my videos have done well there recently and my channel somehow hit 1k subscribers. I’m glad to see people enjoying these videos and I wish I had more time to do everything at once.

My two recent videos:
– How to Unlock any Movement Skill
– This finally helped me unlock the press

I look forward to attending a 3-day movement immersion this weekend. These always challenge my mind and body on many levels, reminiscent of but very different from meditation retreats.

I continue to push myself in this realm. If you’re looking to challenge and transform yourself, too, let me know.

True Nature Audiobook

I also want to remind you about my book True Nature, especially the audiobook. For those of you Audible listeners, I guarantee you it’s bound to entertain. I do a bunch of foreign accents, trying my best to tell the story in an interesting and fun way. While The Trail Provides has ultimately reached a larger audience, I love the message and writing of True Nature and want more people to discover it.

Buy Now

As time passes, I realize the evergreen nature of my books more and more. These books are powerful and inspiring in their message. I hope you check them out if you haven’t already.

Book Bundle?

Finally, do you think it would be a good idea to offer a “book bundle” on my website? I would package my two books together at a very small discount.

Update here, I just did it. “Adventure Book Bundle” now on the shop. Good idea or nah? Let me know what you think!