A Mile an Hour

Paul Capewell posted this in the comments, but it bears the stronger light of a bona fide post: A Mile an Hour is a film by and about Beau Miles:

A different kind of marathon; running one lap an hour for 24hrs around my perfectly mile long block. The rest of the time I do as much as possible; making things, odd jobs, fixing stuff. It’s about running, doing, and thinking- the potentials of single day.

It’s an inspiring film on many levels (I love the indoor-outdoor workshop/fire/kitchen), and one that prompts me to think, at the very least, that I should set out to walk at least a mile every day, and to accomplish at least one thing every day. Because one mile leads to two, and one accomplishment leads to another. 

Indeed, counting up today’s accomplishments, I found myself unusually accomplished. I only walked a couple of kilometres, but I accomplished a lot:

• Got my hair cut.
• Patronized The Bookmark and picked up some very nice writing paper from Japan, and a Christmas gift for Oliver.
• Bought some stamps (very nice Maud Lewis ones) at the post office.
• Sent a fan letter to the makers of 1Password in the mail.
• Learned how to license a photo from The Guardian for publication in a book.
• Accidentally made the acquaintance of an artist/dancer in the UK, and someone from “a community of singing bowl, tingsa bells and gong makers” via the comments here.
• Sent 48 email messages to friends, family, colleagues and strangers.
• Made a number of edits to OpenStreetMap for Cochrane, Ontario, for the area around the water plant (following up from yesterday).
• Continued to proofread a book I’m in the final stages of production on.
• Made four blog posts here (soon to be five, when I press Save).
• Started to plan for holiday meals, following the over-eager lead of Oliver.
• Ordered a print of a photo of Catherine for her mother.
• Received a photo of my great-great-great-great-grandfather, Nathaniel Caswell, in the email.

That doesn’t include my day-job-work; while it continues to be fulfilling, and involves accomplishments, its mandatory quality exempts those from consideration, at least measured against the Beau Miles yardstick.