Almost one year ago a reader asked me why I was learning Hindi. I wrote an answer here. Since then, lots of things have happened. Just after I wrote that entry back in late 2017, I remember sitting with Sage … Continue reading What Learning Hindi Has Taught Me
I decided to go to the basement where you can find the newspaper reading room. In addition to most of the local papers, there are newspapers in many languages from around the world. I found one with Hindi script to practice my reading and see how much I could understand and started reading.
I looked throughout the front page and understood a handful of very simple words. It was as if I had completely forgotten everything I knew. Continue reading Give Yourself a Break
Though I didn’t let on when it happened, the 500 Kindnesses ride almost never happened. Daegan and I had been on several training rides and the distances were going up nicely. In early June just a couple of weeks before … Continue reading How to be a Guaranteed Failure
I haven’t had a Hindi lesson for a few weeks now. The last time I showed up, I met the other student I go with as I was walking from the subway station. She was heading back. His door was locked. He wasn’t home. A few days later we learned he had had a fall and was in hospital. After that I had to go on my first November trip to Louisiana. When I came back, he was still in hospital but in reasonably good spirits. I made a few visits – sometimes alone, sometimes with another student. Each time … Continue reading One Last Lesson
After I wrote my last entry one reader, Sunil, left a comment. Aap Hindi kiyon sikh rahe hai? “Why are you learning Hindi.” The answer is not so simple as many other westerners I’ve heard. I can’t say “I saw … Continue reading My Journey with Hindi
Back in 2012, Daegan and I rode almost 900 miles together on a bicycle from Toronto to Ottawa, Montreal, and all the way down to NYC to promote kindness. There is nothing like being on the road for almost a month – out in the world for 6-10 hours/day – in addition to getting pretty fit, you also have an opportunity to meet lots of interesting people and learn a lot. One of the most important lessons of the trip came about 2/3 of the way through the trip. We’d already crossed the border, ridden the length of Vermont and … Continue reading Learning an Important Lesson on the Road
It is funny that today’s Daily Post Prompt is “Delivery” as today is the day that my Facebook profile was scheduled for irrecoverable deletion. And yet, the result of this has been a number of things that feel like they’ve been delivered to me. Time: I got a massive delivery of free time from leaving Facebook. It had become a huge time sink for me as I could spend quite some time posting there and then checking back, responding to posts, liking other posts, hoping for likes on mine. And like in the old days before we got rid of TV … Continue reading Facebook Profile Deleted
I’ve talked here and elsewhere about various bike trips I’ve made – a couple of trips to Montreal for the Friends for Life Bike Rally, the second of those taking me all the way to Quebec City, a trip to … Continue reading Engineering the Unexpected #3: When Failure is a Success
As much as I love doing new things and going off the beaten path of my own life, it’s almost paradoxical how much trouble I have with failure – or even trying something new that I might not excel at. … Continue reading Perseverence Through Failure – A Success Story
Go Outside Today 