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Our household is pretty excited about the first snow of the year – October 14, 2022

Opinion | A Lost Manuscript Shows the Fire Barack Obama Couldn’t Reveal on the Campaign Trail – The New York Times:

That’s a shame, because reading “Transformative Politics” today is a bracing experience.

This is a great article – well worth reading.

Next Step Focus – Farnam Street:

Where you focus can hold you back.

Focusing on the outcome makes the gap between now and the finish line seem larger than it is.

Yesterday I wanted to go for a long run. That little voice in my head said “Imagine running for 90 minutes. Dude, you didn’t sleep well, and that’s a lot of effort. Let’s save our energy and check Twitter instead.”

Taking the first step seems impossible when the gap between now and your desired outcome seems large.

Changing your focus changes the size of the gap between now and achievement. When you shrink the gap, doing what you know you want to do becomes easier. I was focused on the gap between now and 90 minutes from now. The gap I needed to focus on was between me putting my shoes on and running to the end of the block.

This happens with my kids all the time too. They often come home with a boatload of homework that takes them hours. When they focus on the gap between getting home and being done, getting started is hard. “I’ll never get all this homework done.” When they focus on doing the first exercise, action becomes inevitable.

Don’t focus on writing a book. Focus on writing a good sentence.

Don’t focus on getting healthy. Focus on cooking a healthy meal tonight.

Focus on the next step.

I should read this advice from Shane Parrish at the Farnam Street Brain Food newsletter every day. And share it with my kids and students.

If you’re not already subscribed to their blog/newsletter/podcast – I highly recommend it.

I just completed a 5 minute sewing fix on my favorite sweatshirt. I find it to be such a satisfying accomplishment to bring a piece of clothing back from the brink of being thrown away or recycled.

It is possible that given experience in 7th grade home-ec, when my teacher looked upon my misshapen football pillow final project with judgmental eyes, that I’ve been hesitant to let my sewing skills shine out in the real world, all these years later.

But today, I’ve been able to push through that, and now my sweatshirt lives on to see another day.

We were in Park Rapids this weekend for a family event and took a side trip Sunday for a scenic bike ride from the Itasca State Park Visitors Center to the headwaters of the Mississippi river.

The route winds through the mature forest in the park. The colors of fall were everywhere. The leaves were just about at the peak of color, as far as I could tell. The weather cooperated nicely, providing some cool weather, a light breeze, the sun popping out here and there, and a quick shower to top it all off.

There were actually surprisingly few people at the actual headwaters, so we were able to snap some photos of the kids crossing the mouth of the river.

Honestly, to stand there and think of the mighty Mississippi starting from this six-inch deep river was quite a moving experience. The drive back to Minneapolis crosses and parallels the river multiple times, and it’s no more than 60 miles away and the river has widened many times its original size.

We biked back to the Douglas lodge and enjoyed lunch on the last day of the season. The walleye sandwich was a ridiculously large filet – highly recommended!

All in all, quite fun to visit another one of Minnesota’s state parks. I recommend the trip to anyone if you haven’t been there yet!