Adiós 2022

January 1st has arrived and with it begins the year 2023 in the Gregorian calendar. It is traditionally the time when, like the month's namesake Janus, we take a look both backward at the old year and forward into the future. Who am I to go against long standing traditions?

It's been part of my philosophy to view person-hood has having three aspects; much like the Christian Trinity-Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the Hindu Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Of course, we have the three gunas of yoga - tamas,rajas and sattva as well. In my philosophy, the three aspects would be body, mind and spirit. 

It is those three aspects which I try to improve upon regularly.

How well have I done over the past twelve months?
 

 Readers of my blogs know I've been keeping books lists for several years. In 2022 I managed to read 102 e books; two short of a 2 book a week average. The majority of these books have been fiction with a few covering religion, politics, science or history. An English teacher once told me that he believed reading any book helps to improve the mind. In any case, I'd say the overwhelming majority of the books I read last year were worth reading.

I'm providing links to the monthly reading lists of 2022 for anyone interested in reviewing what I've read.
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

As for the physical - I have to say that I've tried to take care of my body fairly well over the past 30 years. In 2022, my primary physical exercise came from bicycle riding. Looking at blog posts from January of last year, I see that, at that time, I considered my daily bicycle ride of 8 to 10 kilometers as a pretty good accomplishment for an old man. Now, my minimum daily ride is 10 miles (16 kilometers) with the occasional 11 to 13 mile ride.

In all honesty, I don't know that my progress spiritually has matched my progress in the other two areas. Perhaps, working on that could be a proper New Year's resolution.