It's a new day

My last dog, a few years ago, was a delightful Airedale Terrier who woke up each and every morning happy, with her tongue hanging out and an expression on her face saying, "It's a new day! Isn't it wonderful!" I'm reminded of her sometimes when I shave and realize that even if I no longer am actively experimenting with as many different razors or soaps or aftershaves as in times past, each new day's shave is still a unique experience. While I am using exactly the same equipment and products that I used a few weeks ago in my rotation, life's river has flowed on and I am a different person each morning. My posture is different, my heartbeat and breathing are different, the brush and blade feel different on my skin - and most importantly, my attitude and awareness and consciousness are different. Even more today than yesterday or last week or last month, I appreciate fully my good fortune in being alive and healthy and with most of my little gray cells still functioning, and I'm able to experience fully the sameness/newness of each brush stroke and razor glide. I've had this same experience of truly being "in the moment" at other times, but I think that at this point in my life my daily shave provides it more than anything else I do.

Lovely post, John!

We are indeed lucky in that we get to enjoy some of the finer things in life.

Lovely post, John!

Thanks, C. I certainly don't see the world or my life through rose-tinted glasses, but I really appreciate the peace and tranquility of each daily shave.

John, I was newly assigned to Tillamook Bay Lifeboat Station when we received a report of a capsized boat out past the bar just before dawn. We got underway, rode a 14 footer and by miracle quickly spotted what was in fact a orange kayak with an exausted occupant. We got him aboard and after a mug of coffee he told me about getting into heavy seas and having to face one huge wave just to collect himself for the next one since yesterday afternoon. The dawn broke in vivid colours and we could just smell fir trees and wet earth carried on the rain. I found myself reciting this poem to him as he felt that joy of being alive. Your post made me think of it immediatly.

I think over again my small adventures,
my fears,
those small ones that seemed so big,
For alll the vital things
I had to get and to reach;
And yet there is only one great thing;
the only thing,
to live to see the great day that dawns
And the light that fills the world.

Inuit poem, unknown 19th century

My last dog, a few years ago, was a delightful Airedale Terrier who woke up each and every morning happy, with her tongue hanging out and an expression on her face saying, "It's a new day! Isn't it wonderful!"  I'm reminded of her sometimes when I shave and realize that even if I no longer am actively experimenting with as many different razors or soaps or aftershaves as in times past, each new day's shave is still a unique experience.  While I am using exactly the same equipment and products that I used a few weeks ago in my rotation, life's river has flowed on and I am a different person each morning.  My posture is different, my heartbeat and breathing are different, the brush and blade feel different on my skin - and most importantly, my attitude and awareness and consciousness are different.  Even more today than yesterday or last week or last month, I appreciate fully my good fortune in being alive and healthy and with most of my little gray cells still functioning, and I'm able to experience fully the sameness/newness of each brush stroke and razor glide.  I've had this same experience of truly being "in the moment" at other times, but I think that at this point in my life my daily shave provides it more than anything else I do.

That was uplifting John, thank you.

Beautiful post, John. Reminds me of that quote attributed to Heraclitus: "No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man."

Thanks!