The Mission

So.... winter time, a time to be wrapped up inside where its warm and welcoming. Hibernation. Other mammals are hidden in the earth their slumbering frames awaiting spring time like the seeds within the ground. Birds fly to warmer climates, to escape the chill. As people, our days continue as they do each day. Get up, work, eat, sleep and find time in between for our pursuits. The grey of the dark quarter gets into our bones, it covers our skin and wets our hair. We do not hide beneath the trees and sleep, our social demands prevent it. We do not fly south with the birds unless it is for a brief holiday respite. We carry on, each day much as the one before, unextraordinary. Well, no more. I'm tired of allowing time to influence my mood, my desires, sapping my will. Where is the man who would walk for 3 hours in the snow to get a burger, and then walk back again? Is he sleeping, hibernating, or flown south?

Time to wake him up.

The mission: to find the resolve, the drive and will to conquer the winter, to embrace the coming of spring. To each and every day do something that I have not done or something purely for the sake of doing. Crazy, different, unexpected and challenging. To make time to enjoy the the time I have. So, for today, as the first of what will be many days of adventure and exploration I set myself three tasks:

1. Today it is -16, with a windchill to take it to -28. Today I will go for a run, around lake banook and back again.
2. I'm playing darts tonight, my form has been poor of late, especially in the later games. Tonight I will score 2 100s. (This may not sound like much, but as I've only scored 1 so far in 7 games, it is a challenge).
3. I've been reading the book "Love on the Dole", while I am enjoying it, it has so far taken me 6 months to finish (and at 250 odd pages, thats pretty poor reading). Today I will finish that book and then start on another.

Small missions, challenges to begin with. Among others to come will be to quit smoking, run a marathon, climb a mountain. Perhaps a new motto, philosophy.

“I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, To put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die discover that I had not lived.”