- According to one of my favourite Twitter accounts, we are 83% of the way through the year. This rather alarms me, and it doesn’t make me feel much better that I decided to procrastinate book writing this afternoon by writing this newsletter.
- Thinking of November, and Guy Fawkes’ night, got me thinking of this piece I wrote yonks ago about a disastrous winter run through the mountains of the Lake District.
- Thinking about that got me thinking about why I like to run, and this little film I made on the subject (complete with a gentle challenge to you).
- And thinking about that (can you see how my brain works yet?) I realised that I seem to ponder a lot about why I like to run. One reason is to be thankful for how fortunate my life is.
Captain Charles Hamilton Sorley was a runner and a poet. He was killed during the First World War, at the age of 20. As we approach the centenary of the end of that war, here is his perspective on running, set in my favourite hills. (A quick favour: if you enjoy the films I put on YouTube, would you mind subscribing to my channel? One click is all it takes. Ta!) - What are you doing next? “I hate that question. It’s nothing more than an invitation to disappoint.” An interesting article about the jeopardy of pinning your happiness to the pursuit of what’s next.
- This artist’s work, and the way she shares it online, is delightful.
- The Do Lectures is one of the coolest, most inspiring events I have ever had the good fortune to speak at. I gave a talk this summer about trying to live a little more adventurously every day. You can watch it online now. I spoke about cycling round the world, why I shifted from huge adventures to microadventures, and how my definition of adventure changed so much that I set off to try to busk through Spain without any money. The intellectual part of the talk is when I compare living adventurously to skinny dipping…
- And finally… Nobody is too busy to not be able to squeeze in 3 minutes of Fail Army vs Humans are Awesome.