I finally saved up enough money for a steady cam. It's freaking sweet!! 
Here are some stills I pulled from playing around in the yard with it.

Life is good. Really good, actually. Something interesting happened after work tonight. I drove down the dirt road where a lot of my best ideas come from--window down, puppy alertly sitting shotgun, feeling the sun on my arm as it dangled down the door of my truck, and I was kind of reeling from a busy day. I got to work around 7am, didn't have time for lunch, and finally rolled home into my driveway at 7pm. I was feeling happy, but exhausted, which seems to be the normal half-zombie state in which I navigate life lately. I think about my friends who have babies and really little kids. They have the same look in their eyes. We're all tired. I don't have kids, though. I have a business. A good one, with passion and momentum and hundreds of details. The good stuff in design--what makes something really special--is all in the details. Nothing can go unnoticed. Tonight, I was too tired to ride my bike, so I curled up on my back porch with a dog named Eddy and an author named Ed Abbey.

It was nice. I sat on my porch and looked around. I could see the rocks under a tree where in July, I buried my dog, Scout, who was my absolute best friend and most loyal companion for the last ten years. I joke that I bought him his dream house, and then he died a few months after we moved in. It's like he knew he was finally home. I listened to the running water that flows through my yard, aptly named Scout Creek.  I could hear a frog. I would love to know what it looks like, how big it is, how green it is. I haven't seen a frog in Montana before. My new puppy, Eddy, likes to sit with me here. This is our spot. We like to look and listen and be next to each other. Life is simple in moments like these. Life is shorter than we usually think about. 

In this moment, I decided that I'm reclaiming placidity.

Calmness, like every other state of being, is a mindset, and we all get to choose our mindsets.