track+field: a February 2025 recap
It's late but February is a couple days too short
This newsletter incorporates movement and activity (hikes, walks, etc) into my work. I’m a productive and self-disciplined person except when it comes to tasks related to taking care of myself (like exercise, diet, and rest). This log blends the two areas of my life (health + work) and it tracks my time in the field.
The 2024 paid newsletter, Grapevine, that was a bulleted list of offline things I was exploring, is now collapsed into this monthly dispatch.
During an “easy” hike in the fog last month, my old hip injury did not agree with the inclines so I shifted to doing regular sessions of home yoga and meditation. I was cooking at home (shrimp and “cauliflower grits” is a new favorite) and ordering in less often. BUT THEN, with the start of the first February series - which included cakes and celebrations of my sister’s birthday and mine - and then reeling from a visit to the South, I fell back into de-prioritizing my health and pouring all my energy into production and mental processes. TLDR: I was in my head a lot last month and I’m trying to come back to the routine that had started to take hold in January.
As far as 2025 goes, we’re not off to a great start but that’s okay. I keep reminding myself that the point is persistence, not perfection.
Luckily, my hopeful return coincides with the beginning of Ramadan, a good month to reassess habits, blessings, and indulgences. Fasting or not, March is also the beginning of spring so this environmental shift could lead to an improvement in the arena of my body and my care for it.
Anyway, this t+f February recap will be short since most of my movement happened in the last week of the month.
I went on three separate, long walks through three different neighborhoods and they were reminders that this is the kind of exercise I prefer, the kind where working out is not the point of the action but a side-effect of the quest. That, and I love the thrill I get from discovery in places that are supposed to be extremely familiar to me. Beirut, a city I think I know better than anywhere else, is still a live organism that is shedding skins.