Day 3,367

Growth:

Throughout the past year I’ve made a much more concerted effort to collect all the nuggets of wisdom and insightful quotes I happen to come across. As I worked my way through my photos from 2024 today (more on that in a bit) I was reminded of so many quotes I screenshotted or took pictures of. Each brought back a memory as well as got my gears turning again. No one steps in the same river twice, these quotes all had a new perspective thanks to the life experiences I’ve had since capturing them.

“You can go to hell without moving an inch, just focus on what you lack.  You can taste heaven without leaving earth, just rejoice in what you have.”

James Clear

Appreciation:

Once again I am reminded of the return on investment of taking photos while experiencing life. As Bill Perkins writes about in Die with Zero we should focus most of our energy on creating experiences we will remember forever. Those experiences pay off in the form of “memory dividends,” the ongoing joy created through remembering those experiences. The more pictures we take during those experiences the easier it is for us to go back to those moments and reap the returns of those memory dividends.

In going through all of the photos I took in 2024 my mind was blown by all of the memories we created this year! Over and over again it was a nonstop sound track of “oh my goodness, we did that THIS year too???”

Today I’m grateful for all the photos I took this past year. Even though I deleted many and have many more to clean out, the total mass of joy created from my memory dividends was priceless!

Presence:

Our afternoon hike on a trail we don’t do often was enhanced by the thick fog floating throughout the valley. The hike felt surreal in so many ways – warmer than usual for mid December, the scent of fall, restricted views due to the thick fog, and throw in some slippery and icy trails. All in all each element played so well with the others, it was an almost constant state of presence as we enjoyed another hike in the Driftless.

Thanks!!!