The Horse is Eating the Holy Potato - notes from December 2015

Before we left Turkey, in June, I had a daily habit of typing for 10 minutes, once or twice a day. We went for the summer to China, intended to return in September: we left many things in boxes - toys, clothes, books - and I also left that daily habit.

Today, New Year's Eve, I have browsing those files and I found this:

I’m a bit late this morning because I ended up talking to Mehmet in the office about Duolingo and learning English. A thing also came up about motivation, and how that is a bad goal, a bad way of getting things done. Yes, I like Duolingo, and am feeling very happy today about the state of my trees. I am not getting overwhelmed, as I was a few weeks ago with huge numbers of daily French reviews. Slowly, and surely. There could well be a crash in optimism after this high, so keep aware and keep going. Also, sitting down here, I see the words “I am a poet”, and wonder what that actually means for me today.

I have already refound my Duolingo habit, and here is a wonderful example of what I consider one of Duolingo's strongpoints: absurd sentences. I love them, and when I find one in my daily sessions, I feel as if my day has been blessed. You can find more here https://mobile.twitter.com/shitduosays - Linguistic gold provided by Duolingo.

Of course, not everybody feels the same way about these sentences - Why would I learn a sentence ... etc etc - but for me, I get many more miles from my horse when it gets to eat a holy potato.

This is a little stone pyramid that my son build when day when he came to my school. I think the teacher at his kindergarten might have been ill. The school was outside the city, Gaziantep, and it was easy to step out through the gate and sit in peace for a few minutes each day. The trees are mainly olive, but with some figs and a few walnuts as well. A flock of sheep and goats also passed by each day. In the sky there was a pair of black kites.

The second thing I notice in my writing from a year ago is I am a poet. At that time I was not writing poetry - I don't think there is anything in the files or the notebooks. That has changed.

Thank you Steemit for providing me with a reason to be writing poems again.

As a vague sort of New Year promise to myself, I think I will try to be writing those Daily Pages again, but I will also keep writing poems.

Happy New Year to one and all. Thank you for reading @richardjuckes