We will both be traveling many hundreds of miles in the eastern United States, going south to north through many states...and we will not come anywhere near one another.
Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Fellow Adventurer
I'm not the only one in the family heading out on an adventure this spring. My son started hiking the Appalachian Trail at Springer Mountain in Georgia a few days ago--and he's blogging about it. Way to go, Arlen!
We will both be traveling many hundreds of miles in the eastern United States, going south to north through many states...and we will not come anywhere near one another.
We will both be traveling many hundreds of miles in the eastern United States, going south to north through many states...and we will not come anywhere near one another.
Friday, February 21, 2014
Jackson Homestead
This week, I visited the Jackson Homestead in Newton, Massachusetts, with my sister and niece. The house is now a small museum but was once a "station" on the Underground Railroad. While there are many homes that are officially on the National Historic Register for once being stops on the Underground Railroad, most of them are privately owned and not open to the public.
We learned about the slave trade in New England.
Frida demonstrated how little space each captured person had in the hold of a slave ship. When I got in it, my shoulders didn't even fit.
We learned about one man's escape from slavery; he shipped himself to a free state in a box.
Frida crawled in a box of the same shape and size to demonstrate how cramped Henry "Box" Brown must have been during transit. After arriving in Philadelphia, Brown was sent on to New York and then to Francis Jackson in Boston. Francis Jackson was the brother of William Jackson, a former owner of the Jackson home we were visiting.
The museum does a good job of explaining some of the complexity of slavery and abolition. The map (below) of Newton shows that slaveholders and enslaved people lived next door to antislavery activists and free blacks. Sometimes the same house represents both. The Jackson Homestead was originally owned by Edward Jackson, who was a slaveholder. When his grandson William owned the home, it was used to provide safe haven to those escaping slavery.
After we left the Jackson Homestead, we drove to Beacon Hill to find two other sites related to the Underground Railroad. We found the African Meeting House on Joy Street (formerly used to host meetings of abolitionists), and the former home of Lewis Hayden on Phillips Street. Lewis Hayden escaped slavery and went on to be a prominent abolitionist; he provided shelter to others escaping slavery as well.
In the photo below, Frida has jumped out of the car and is snapping a photo of the plaque hanging on the outside of the former Hayden residence--now privately owned and not open to the public.
We learned about the slave trade in New England.
Frida demonstrated how little space each captured person had in the hold of a slave ship. When I got in it, my shoulders didn't even fit.
We learned about one man's escape from slavery; he shipped himself to a free state in a box.
Frida crawled in a box of the same shape and size to demonstrate how cramped Henry "Box" Brown must have been during transit. After arriving in Philadelphia, Brown was sent on to New York and then to Francis Jackson in Boston. Francis Jackson was the brother of William Jackson, a former owner of the Jackson home we were visiting.
In the photo below, the red and blue blocks illustrate how many blacks (compared to whites) there were in Boston (blue) and Newton (red) during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The dramatic dip shows the effect that the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 had on the black population. Before the law was passed, escaped slaves were safely free once they were in a free state. After the law was passed, escaped slaves could be re-captured and returned to slavery--even from a "free" state--so many former slaves fled to Canada in order to ensure their freedom.
The museum does a good job of explaining some of the complexity of slavery and abolition. The map (below) of Newton shows that slaveholders and enslaved people lived next door to antislavery activists and free blacks. Sometimes the same house represents both. The Jackson Homestead was originally owned by Edward Jackson, who was a slaveholder. When his grandson William owned the home, it was used to provide safe haven to those escaping slavery.
Most homes used as stations on the Underground Railroad didn't actually hide escaped slaves in tiny cupboards and crawl spaces. Usually they were simply sheltered and fed and then taken to another shelter. Jackson family folklore has it that this dried-up well in the basement was occasionally used to hide escaped slaves.
After we left the Jackson Homestead, we drove to Beacon Hill to find two other sites related to the Underground Railroad. We found the African Meeting House on Joy Street (formerly used to host meetings of abolitionists), and the former home of Lewis Hayden on Phillips Street. Lewis Hayden escaped slavery and went on to be a prominent abolitionist; he provided shelter to others escaping slavery as well.
In the photo below, Frida has jumped out of the car and is snapping a photo of the plaque hanging on the outside of the former Hayden residence--now privately owned and not open to the public.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Willpower
As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been reading about habits. [The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg] I am enjoying this book! That's a surprise because I usually get impatient with books like this--start skimming and skipping sections, and then give up before finishing it. Not so this time. I'm finding both the information and the case studies fascinating.
While each habit is composed of common elements (a cue that sets it in motion, the behavioral routine at the heart of the habit, and the reward/payoff), each one is unique to an individual person. Once formed and ingrained, habits stay in us permanently--even if they go unused for a very long time. This helps explain how I could set foot in the gym after a decade off and pick up right where I left off. It took a lot of research and work all those years ago for me to establish a workout routine. This time around, it was automatic. This also explains how we can easily fall back into long-unused habits that we hoped we'd left far behind.
Much as I have found the information about habit formation and transformation fascinating, I have been even more gripped by the information about willpower. Call it grit, self-discipline, self-regulation, self-control--or willpower. Did you know that we have a limited supply of it? According to this book, "willpower isn't just a skill. It's a muscle...and it gets tired as it works harder, so there's less power left over for other things...If you want to do something that requires willpower...you have to conserve your willpower muscle during the day...If you use it up too early on tedious tasks...all the strength will be gone..." [Duhigg, p. 137] I had been thinking that the reason I lost my life these last few years was due to using all my energy and time at work. Now I realize that it was more than that. I was using enormous amounts of willpower at work every day as well. No wonder I had none left for me.
While each habit is composed of common elements (a cue that sets it in motion, the behavioral routine at the heart of the habit, and the reward/payoff), each one is unique to an individual person. Once formed and ingrained, habits stay in us permanently--even if they go unused for a very long time. This helps explain how I could set foot in the gym after a decade off and pick up right where I left off. It took a lot of research and work all those years ago for me to establish a workout routine. This time around, it was automatic. This also explains how we can easily fall back into long-unused habits that we hoped we'd left far behind.
Much as I have found the information about habit formation and transformation fascinating, I have been even more gripped by the information about willpower. Call it grit, self-discipline, self-regulation, self-control--or willpower. Did you know that we have a limited supply of it? According to this book, "willpower isn't just a skill. It's a muscle...and it gets tired as it works harder, so there's less power left over for other things...If you want to do something that requires willpower...you have to conserve your willpower muscle during the day...If you use it up too early on tedious tasks...all the strength will be gone..." [Duhigg, p. 137] I had been thinking that the reason I lost my life these last few years was due to using all my energy and time at work. Now I realize that it was more than that. I was using enormous amounts of willpower at work every day as well. No wonder I had none left for me.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
This Will NOT Be Me
This incredible video by Foxwood Films illustrates why I have not tried mountain biking before now. This is so not me. But, if I had a dog like Kaia, I might be motivated to try, just to keep her happy.
Monday, January 20, 2014
More Inspirational Bits
I am in the middle of reading Long Distance: Testing the Limits of Body and Spirit in a Year of Living Strenuously by Bill McKibben. Originally published in 2000, I received a reprinted edition as a Christmas gift last month. The book documents the year that McKibben devoted to training as a competitive cross-country skier. When I read in the first chapter McKibben saying that "by year's end I hoped I'd have more sense of what life lived through the body felt like," I thought "Me too!" I may not be training as strenuously for a year, and I don't intend to race competitively, but I do want to shift the one-sided way I've been living (all mental work) significantly in the other direction. I am mostly reading the book for inspiration and entertainment, but I am paying attention to what he shares about appropriate heart rates and exertion levels for maximum endurance benefit. [Weird side note: Did you know that "in the brain of a committed cross-country skier, wax occupies the amount of space allotted to sex in a normal mind. Perhaps sex and money both." Admittedly, McKibben is funny, and when he says "normal mind" he should probably say "normal man's mind." Even so, I have found my mind coming back to and pondering this notion a number of times.]
I re-read an article in Outside magazine today about the historic 1963 American expedition to summit Everest. The article describes how Willi Unsoeld, famous mountaineer and professor of philosophy at Evergreen State College in Washington (until he was killed in an avalanche on Mount Rainier in 1979) "embraced risk as essential for growth." He said: "It has to be real enough that it can kill you." I agree with the part about risk being essential for growth. I disagree, though, with the notion that the risk needs to have the potential to kill you in order for it to produce growth. While for a very small number of people this may be true, I think there is so much variability in our minds, personalities, and psyches that most of us simply need to find a level of risk that means we have stepped out of our comfort zones, out of our ingrained habits. I don't think we have to literally risk our very lives in order to make significant change, discover new aspects of ourselves, or embrace life with more gusto.
I am also reading The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg. I think if I understand how habits work and how they may be changed, I will be more successful at transforming my exercise and eating habits and, ultimately, my life.
Maybe this is a good time to explain why I chose BikeHome as the title of my blog. Although my son did argue passionately that I should bicycle from Niagara Falls to my home in Maine when the UGRR tour ends, I do not intend to bike to my home (over the Green Mountains and White Mountains) after the trip. After all, I have to get home and build a house. (See my blog about the house building.) Even so, I do consider this bike tour to be a vital part of my journey home to myself.
I re-read an article in Outside magazine today about the historic 1963 American expedition to summit Everest. The article describes how Willi Unsoeld, famous mountaineer and professor of philosophy at Evergreen State College in Washington (until he was killed in an avalanche on Mount Rainier in 1979) "embraced risk as essential for growth." He said: "It has to be real enough that it can kill you." I agree with the part about risk being essential for growth. I disagree, though, with the notion that the risk needs to have the potential to kill you in order for it to produce growth. While for a very small number of people this may be true, I think there is so much variability in our minds, personalities, and psyches that most of us simply need to find a level of risk that means we have stepped out of our comfort zones, out of our ingrained habits. I don't think we have to literally risk our very lives in order to make significant change, discover new aspects of ourselves, or embrace life with more gusto.
I am also reading The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg. I think if I understand how habits work and how they may be changed, I will be more successful at transforming my exercise and eating habits and, ultimately, my life.
Maybe this is a good time to explain why I chose BikeHome as the title of my blog. Although my son did argue passionately that I should bicycle from Niagara Falls to my home in Maine when the UGRR tour ends, I do not intend to bike to my home (over the Green Mountains and White Mountains) after the trip. After all, I have to get home and build a house. (See my blog about the house building.) Even so, I do consider this bike tour to be a vital part of my journey home to myself.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Living Large (Day -85)
I was planning to write today about some of the great books I've found about the Underground Railroad. That will have to wait for another time, though, because I feel compelled to write about a different book...
I read well into the wee hours this morning, I just could not put this book down until I finished it. Me Before You, by Jojo Moyes, is hard to categorize. It's a love story in the broadest, deepest sense, and illuminates the complicated loves between all the characters--not a typical romantic novel. I laughed out loud, I cried, I smiled, I ached; when done, I was both wired and wiped. In the book, Louisa Clark is living an ordinary, small life, and she can remember "the exact day [she] stopped being fearless." Through happenstance, Lou becomes a caregiver for Will Traynor--who is now wheelchair-bound but once lived boldly, loudly, extremely. Initially wildly mismatched, Lou and Will irritate each other, and then slowly learn important things about themselves by caring for one another.
What does this have to do with my UGRR bike tour?
I've been thinking a lot about this strong drive I have for adventure. I am basically a homebody who likes to live quietly in a small space (and is trying to downsize her belongings to a small, if not minimal, set). Outwardly, I think my life looks small. Yet inside, my passion for connecting with the natural world and myself through adventure lives large. I don't crave extreme-sports, death-defying excursions, but I cook up little escapades that push my boundaries a bit, push back the fears, and bring life into a little higher relief.
In the book, Will writes Lou a letter in which he says: "...there is a hunger in you...A fearlessness. You just buried it, like most people do...live boldly. Push yourself. Don't settle...Just live well. Just live."
Exactly.
I read well into the wee hours this morning, I just could not put this book down until I finished it. Me Before You, by Jojo Moyes, is hard to categorize. It's a love story in the broadest, deepest sense, and illuminates the complicated loves between all the characters--not a typical romantic novel. I laughed out loud, I cried, I smiled, I ached; when done, I was both wired and wiped. In the book, Louisa Clark is living an ordinary, small life, and she can remember "the exact day [she] stopped being fearless." Through happenstance, Lou becomes a caregiver for Will Traynor--who is now wheelchair-bound but once lived boldly, loudly, extremely. Initially wildly mismatched, Lou and Will irritate each other, and then slowly learn important things about themselves by caring for one another.
What does this have to do with my UGRR bike tour?
I've been thinking a lot about this strong drive I have for adventure. I am basically a homebody who likes to live quietly in a small space (and is trying to downsize her belongings to a small, if not minimal, set). Outwardly, I think my life looks small. Yet inside, my passion for connecting with the natural world and myself through adventure lives large. I don't crave extreme-sports, death-defying excursions, but I cook up little escapades that push my boundaries a bit, push back the fears, and bring life into a little higher relief.
In the book, Will writes Lou a letter in which he says: "...there is a hunger in you...A fearlessness. You just buried it, like most people do...live boldly. Push yourself. Don't settle...Just live well. Just live."
Exactly.
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