#TheGoodLife

Jan 1
2 min

LIVE Book Illustration - Going Alone - For Evelyn in New York City

Join me while I personalize a copy of Going Alone before sending it to a reader in New York City. Evelyn seems an upbeat, optimistic person, and I’ll therefore infuse her copy of Going Alone with lively colors and a bright and cheery sundown in anticipation of tomorrow’s daylight to come. And sand… I will literally add sand to the book—direct from lifeguard tower 18 here in Huntington Beach California, as Evelyn did tell me that sand is rarely seen in New York City. You can g

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Kurt Bell

Jan 1
2 min

The Good Life - 01/01/2023 - New years resolve *

My resolve for the new year is to be more attentive to the discipline of my thoughts, to lay out an agenda and quota for my day’s work, which, when met, may then be put aside in favor of more pleasant and edifying pursuits, such as light exercise, reading, and the pleasant moments of being at home with my wife and our dogs. I will also be more attentive to the control of my thoughts, reigning these in from reckless abandon, tasking them with worthwhile aims, and mitigat

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Kurt Bell

Dec 31, 2022
2 min

LIVE book reading - Going Alone - The Path of Wildness

It’s time for a cold and rainy morning live book reading of Going Alone, from the wet sands in front of tower 18 in Huntington Beach, California. Let’s see how far I can get before the weather sends me home. Today, I’ll read from the chapter titled The Path of Wildness, which is the first chapter I wrote, composed in Japan, and before I even knew I was writing a book. #GoingAlone #TheGoodLife #Adventure The Good Life Meditation is my daily recitation and reminder of personal

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Kurt Bell

Dec 31, 2022
2 min

The Good Life - 12/31/2022 - Swim in the rain, or swim in the clear

I am excited for 2023 like I have not been excited for any new year before. It’s because I’m living now less year to year as on a life roller-coaster, like a man on rails rising, turning and plummeting from one year to the next, attendant more to necessity than will; and it’s because the days of necessity are coming more to an end with our empty nest, as well as our recognized fatigue and readiness to adopt a simpler, humbler, way of life in a more out of the way place,

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Kurt Bell

Dec 31, 2022
2 min

The Senior Hike - With Parker Bell

I sure enjoyed my hike yesterday with my nephew, Parker. I hope he will come explore with me together in Japan one day. Oh, the places we will go! #GoingAlone #TheGoodLife #Adventure The Good Life Meditation is my daily recitation and reminder of personal objectives and principles used in pursuit of a purposeful life in spite of a universe of seeming indifference. Learn more about The Good Life at my website GoingAlone.org or by reading my book Going Alone. And visit our Di

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Kurt Bell

Dec 31, 2022
2 min

Day 37 ocean swim

One day left in 2022. Bring it on. I’m ready to splash through to the other side and sprint hard into whatever comes of 2023. Let’s get this new year going! #GoingAlone #TheGoodLife #AlwaysReadyToDie The Good Life Meditation is my daily recitation and reminder of personal objectives and principles used in pursuit of a purposeful life in spite of a universe of seeming indifference. Learn more about The Good Life at my website GoingAlone.org or by reading my book Going Alone. A

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Kurt Bell

Dec 31, 2022
2 min

Day 36 ocean swim

Going back to Japan, huh? What’s that feel like? Like an adventure! A great big and huge, adventure. It feels exactly like the first time I went when I was twenty years old. A great big huge Great Life Adventure, all over again. #GoingAlone #TheGoodLife #Adventure The Good Life Meditation is my daily recitation and reminder of personal objectives and principles used in pursuit of a purposeful life in spite of a universe of seeming indifference. Learn more about The Good Li

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Kurt Bell

Dec 28, 2022
3 min

The Good Life - 12/28/2022 - Boys playing soccer in the rain *

Another rainy swim yesterday. On the way to the beach I readied my mind for a cold walk across the wide Huntington sands, and a colder run and plunge into grey, tumbling waves. The idea thrilled! Though I was also naturally reluctant to go. And then I saw a young woman jogging for exercise in the rain, wearing shorts and a thin running top, exposed, wet and smiling. She’d already made her plunge, outside and cold, into the dark rainy day. And look at that smile on her f

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Kurt Bell

Dec 28, 2022
2 min

Day 35 ocean swim

The very best thing about going alone is the being alone, and the more alone the better. It’s a cold and rainy evening, and I’ve Huntington Beach seemingly all to myself. Be safe… But not too safe. #GoingAlone #TheGoodLife #Adventure The Good Life Meditation is my daily recitation and reminder of personal objectives and principles used in pursuit of a purposeful life in spite of a universe of seeming indifference. Learn more about The Good Life at my website GoingAlone.org

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Kurt Bell

Dec 27, 2022
3 min

The Good Life - 12/27/2022 - Alone for donuts

I built a sandcastle at the beach yesterday. It was a silly thing to do at my age, but I was very cold after my swim, and I wasn’t ready to leave the beach or to put on a shirt. So I ran for a bit up and down the sand, which warmed me a little, and then I made a sandcastle, which helped even more. I worried the efforts of running and digging sand might flare my arthritis, but it gladly hasn’t; in fact, my joints feel good—and better still, my body feels healthy, youthfu

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Kurt Bell

Dec 27, 2022
2 min

Day 35 ocean swim

Yumiko sent me to the beach today. It was after lunch, with some shopping yet to do, and she said ”Don’t you want to go for a swim?” So here I am: The water is cold, and the sky is a little overcast with just enough shady clouds to remind me it’s winter. But the water is bracing—like it is every day now—though my body doesn’t shake quite as much as before; and I usually go back into the sea again after the first dip, and after I can warm up a little, wrapped in my towel

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Kurt Bell

Dec 26, 2022
3 min

The Good Life - 12/26/2022 - An evening to remember

Yesterday was very nice. A lovely Christmas Day. In the evening, before dinner, Yumiko and I walked to the end of the pier to watch the sun go down where we enjoyed a very Southern California scene: There were happy, festive people crowding Main Street like Disneyland, and musicians playing on nearly every corner. A red glow of winter sunset lit and reflected off everything and everyone with a cold, natural warmth, promising night. There were barefoot surfers carrying the

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Kurt Bell

Dec 25, 2022
1 min

Day 33 ocean swim

Merry Christmas! I received today the good fortune of another day of life. I promise I won’t waste it. #GoingAlone #TheGoodLife #Purpose The Good Life Meditation is my daily recitation and reminder of personal objectives and principles used in pursuit of a purposeful life in spite of a universe of seeming indifference. Learn more about The Good Life at my website GoingAlone.org or by reading my book Going Alone. And visit our Discord at: https://lnkd.in/gFgfGmY6 OBJECTIVES: 1

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Kurt Bell

Dec 25, 2022
2 min

LIVE Book Illustration - Going Alone - For Jan S. in Germany

Join me while I personalize a copy of Going Alone before sending it along on its way to a customer in Germany. #GoingAlone #TheGoodLife #Mission The Good Life Meditation is my daily recitation and reminder of personal objectives and principles used in pursuit of a purposeful life in spite of a universe of seeming indifference. Learn more about The Good Life at my website GoingAlone.org or by reading my book Going Alone. And visit our Discord at: https://lnkd.in/gFgfGmY6 OBJEC

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Kurt Bell

Dec 25, 2022
2 min

The Good Life - 12/25/2022 - Merry Christmas

The old body is being a bit of a grump now on Christmas Day. The doctor confirmed my growing joint pain is arthritis, which feels more real and permanent with a doctor’s formal diagnosis. But my mind is good, mostly—just tired. But that’ll pass, and I’ll just ignore the arthritis while I still can. It’s good to get old though, and experience another holiday season passing. For with age comes a softening peace, borne of the now routine passage of time; it being another h

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Kurt Bell

Dec 25, 2022
2 min

LIVE book reading - Going Alone - The Anxiety Hike

It’s seven AM here on the Pacific Coast and time for another live reading of my book Going Alone. Today, it’s chapter five, The Anxiety Hike, which was a real hike and the beginning point of my consolidation of five decades of adventure into a clear abd concise worldview and epistemology; the end of my wandering, and the beginning of my journey home. There’s a thick fog bank now and I can hear big waves thundering off shore. I wonder if the clouds might clear before I

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Kurt Bell

Dec 23, 2022
3 min

Day 32 ocean swim

This count up of days is more accurately a count down of remaining good days. But time has nearly always been important to me. That interest began when I met Richard Black back in, oh it must have been 1986 or 87, when I was working as a nurse’s aid in a convalescent home in Eureka, California. It was a part time, weekend job while I was still in university. Richard was there when I began, though it was months before I met him, as he was housed all alone in an enormous

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Kurt Bell

Dec 23, 2022
2 min

The Good Life - 12/23/2022 - Running down

The coffee was slow to kick in this morning, which is no big deal as it’s Friday and get to start work a half hour later than usual. That’s enough time for a longer, brisker walk in the dark with the dogs. That’ll wake me. And during the walk I’ll sort what work needs to be done today and prepare for action. But I’ll also prepare my emotions for the points I know will be hard: like writing that status report which needs details I don’t yet have; or the difficult email t

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Kurt Bell

Dec 22, 2022
2 min

The Good Life - 12/22/2022 - Working from work *

Moving quick this morning, I’ve got somewhere to go—working from the office in fact, a real treat these days. No, I’m not one for working from home. You can have it. Not for me. Give me my small, simple cubicle, please—the one by the office kitchen, with all the noise and the foot traffic and where I’m square in the middle of the human action. That’s a funny thing to want from a guy who wrote a book about going alone—but that’s the risk of judging a book by its cover or

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Kurt Bell

Dec 22, 2022
2 min

Day 31 ocean swim

It’s the first day of winter and today’s swim was a very cold and dark one. My last meeting of the afternoon finished late, and after it was done I told Yumiko that it was too dark out for me to swim—honestly, I was a little intimidated and scared of the cold night and the darkening sea. She challenged “There’s still light out!”—to which I asked if she was calling me a wuss while simultaneously putting on my swim trunks. Stepping out the door, I said “Bye” and heard a p

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