Monthly Archives: January 2024

Paying $3.38 for a simple black coffee already feels steep. Then, I’m nudged to donate spare change to charity, followed by a prompt for a 15%, 20%, or 25% tip. Here’s the thing…

I’m not against tipping. What’s tiring is the constant barrage of requests for tips or charitable donations for the most basic transactions. Now, if I order my favorite mocha with an extra shot, extra hot, breve, no foam, no whip, and it’s made with evident care and skill, that’s a different story. That’s when I tip. The craft and love earn my gratitude, not the routine. My tipping rule is simple: to earn a tip, delight me. Anything less, especially for a standard cup of coffee, doesn’t make the cut.

If not resolutions, what then? I prefer making PLANS. And I’ll tell you one thing I plan to do MORE of in 2024… It’s WALKING. Yep. It might sound trivial, but I’m not kidding.

“He who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatest vagrant of all, but the saunterer, in the good sense, is no more vagrant than the meandering river, which is all the while sedulously seeking the shortest course to the sea.”
-Henry David Thoreau

More “sauntering” and less sitting.

No one has made a more compelling case for the physical and mental value of walking than Thoreau. In his 1861 treatise “Walking,” Thoreau reminds us of how that primal act of mobility “connects us with our essential wildness,” which today can serve as a refreshing antidote to our staring at small rectangular screens all day.

You can download “Walking” by Thoreau for free on Kindle