Prologue

Over the years, I’ve worked harder and harder to find meaning in life. But the more I've looked, the more I’ve wondered if I was going about my search the wrong way.

I've been looking for meaning through experience, but I think now that I've always had it backwards. Life will never be defined by extravagant experience, but about finding extravagance in common experience. So for 2009, I'm going to focus less on living large, and focus more on living well. Each month I'll start a new month-long project (like trying to run 3 miles faster than George Bush), to find uncommon results from common experience. Each project will involve daily activity, so every day of 2009 you can check my progress on the monthly projects and see what I discover.

None of these projects will cost much—in fact, I think most will be free. So if you're looking for a year uncommonly rich, you can join me. There's no membership required, just participate and comment if you want. Either way, get ready for a year I hope is unlike any other.

 
 

It's March, and March is a …

A Month of Accomplishment (about)

 

~ or ~

 

Forcing myself to finish something (about)

 

06
03

Day start

Written by Nathan on June 3, 2009 at 11:50 pm from A Month of Serving.

Sometime early this morning my wife nudged me and asked me to help with something. I dutifully took our newborn, put her on my chest and went back to sleep. Great husband, right? Unfortunately, she actually asked me to help with our other daughter who was at the time standing at the foot of our bed. Once our infant was draped over my chest, my wife was more or less obliged to be the parent who took the 2-year-old back to her bed.

I tried to make amends by leaving for work a few minutes late so that she could take a shower, get dressed and not have to worry to much about the kids. I even fixed their breakfast, presuming that pouring cereal counts as “fixed”. I’m not sure that made up for compelling her to sleep on a cheap child’s mattress for 90 minutes in the early AM, but this is about baby steps, right?

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