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Organized my sock drawer. It’s been a mess for years. Socks mostly just shoved in. In a pile. Hard to find things. A minor daily frustration near the beginning of every day. One does not realize how those little frustrations add up over time and begin to cognitively wear on you. Like a pebble in a shoe.

Took me about 20 minutes to fix it. Dumped them out, found matches, set aside ones I want to give away, tossed ones with holes. Feels great.

20 minutes to solve years of minor frustration. 20 minutes to make me just a little happier every day.

Now, to find 20 minutes more.

While my official GORUCK Tough patch is the one I’m most proud of, and I have several other patches I love, it is this one that is my favorite and who’s spirit and symbolism means the most to me.

It was a gift from a close friend. Vetus bellator means “Old warrior” in Latin. The GRT > 40 reminds me that I did one of the toughest physical challenges of my life well past what many would consider a prime age. The spearhead has long been used as an infantry/calvary symbol — a reminder to me to always jump in to help whomever and however I can.

All of these things speak to me deeply.

Such a lovely way to start the day.

  • Breakfast.
  • Exercise.
  • Slow lonely walks along the beach.
  • Watching hermit crabs skitter in tidal streams.
  • The short cold waves of Atlantic seawater lapping their rhythm against my calves.
  • Meditation on the shore so deep I don’t notice the flies biting nor do I mind it after. The colors of the world so different and alive when I open my eyes.
  • My wife reading and content.
  • My daughter frolicking and joyful.
  • Friends of good nature.

unconsumption:

Adidas just released a new prototype for a sneaker woven entirely out of ocean trash.

The sample shoe was made from illegal gill nets dredged up from the
ocean by the nonprofit Sea Shepherd. “It’s a fishing net that was
spanning the bottom of the sea like a wall, and killing pretty much
every fish passing by,” says Cyrill Gutsch, founder of Parley for the
Oceans, a new Adidas-supported nonprofit that is helping the company
develop a larger strategy for fighting ocean waste. “They confiscated
this net, and we’re bringing it back to life.”

More: Adidas Knit These Sneakers Entirely From Ocean Plastic Trash | Co.Exist | ideas + impact

— rw

Totally adding a pair of these to my wish list.