June 2025 Recap!

Your monthly reminder that I'm still alive

Sweet, sweet reader,

May is my favorite month, but June is nipping at May’s heels. I adore this time of year. Our neighborhood is fully in bloom. Looking out across my front lawn, all I see is green: in the hedges along our fence, the magnolia sapling, the high leaves of the tall-tall oaks out front. The lilacs, peonies, and hostas are fat and full. The humidity has been a boon for my monsteras and philodendron.

Happy Fathers Day/Pride Month/Gun Violence Awareness Month/Cancer Survivors Month/Immigrant Heritage Month/Great Outdoors Month/Juneteenth and World Oceans Day to all who celebrate. Also, happy happy birthday to my nephew Alexander and my sister Lara, and happy anniversary to my mom and dad, who celebrated 56 years on June 21.

Bingo at the Legion!

My eldest nephew Jackson graduated from Navy Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, IL in June…only a couple of days short of my 25th anniversary of swearing my own oath “to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic.” I’m excited to hear how his journey in the military progresses.

I started this month by creating an audio version of my recent essay on empathy “I Melt With You”. It was super fun to record the narration, track some new music for the score, and create all the sound design. It’s on Substack as well as Spotify and Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

June was my ten-year anniversary of graduating from Yoga Teacher Training. It has also been ten years since I attended a ten-day-long silent meditation retreat (Vipassana Pecatonica) and became vegetarian, so I wanted to mark those occasions with a post. I wrote a fun hermit crab essay, in the style of one of the yoga texts that I studied back in those days, called “Lite on Yoga”. So far, it has gotten a better-than-expected reception. Some of the comments: “perhaps your best yet,” “another fantastic read,” “thanks for doing the hard work of finding words in such unrelenting darkness,” and my personal favorite, (and perhaps the best complement I have ever received) “I can’t tell if [‘Lite on Yoga’] is channeling David Lynch or David Sedaris…” To be compared to two of my four favorite Davids?! I can now die happy.

Leah and I have been training for a trail race coming up on July 4th weekend in Afton State Park, so we’ve had a few long runs on the various trails around the Twin Cities. It’s been fun to introduce her to some of those spots.

Leah surfing the Murph

I drove up to Fargo for the weekend of Fathers Day, where I played bingo with Mom and Dad at the Moorhead American Legion, ran a trail race, cruised on the lake with Lacey, Adam, Fischer and Selah, and played golf with everyone on Sunday. All this against the backdrop of a horrific political assassination which was occurring only a few blocks from where Leah was staying with her dad. It’s been a dark month for Minnesota.

June 28th was also the one-year anniversary of releasing my one and only solo album: “An Echo in the Dark”. It’s hard to believe it’s already been a year since the album was released. I have a lot of mixed emotions about it. I recorded it as a tribute to the various musicians and bands I have played with and been inspired by in my 30 years of making music. I also miss playing music with others and recording/mixing music, so it helped in that regard as well. I never labored under the delusion that there would be any “serious” interest in it, but nonetheless, I was super bummed at the lack of interest/engagement in it. I totally understand that taste in music is subjective. I also get that I am not a great musician—not even a good musician, really—and I certainly cannot sing, so I’m not really sure what I was expecting in terms of recognition, or why I kept working on this project, but work I did, and for months. I’ll just say the amped excitement I felt the day before the album release was a far far cry from how I felt in the days, weeks, and months following. For a taste of my mood, here’s a sample from my journal on 7/26/24:

“I feel worthless and mean. Why bother doing anything creative — ever? What a MASSIVE waste of time and resources. Read/watch TV and eat yourself into an early grave. You’re on your way, tough guy. Cool cool cool.”

I guess one benefit was it helped hasten my exit from social media. So yeah, mixed emotions. Anyway, I’ve made it this far, and I’m still creating, so you can stuff it, 2024 Josh.

Previously unreleased promotional video for my 2024 album “An Echo in the Dark”

Well, I’ve prattled on enough for one month. I hope you are on a beach or a trail or maybe on a boat with the soft waters of a freshwater lake lapping lightly against the hull as you read this, or even better, that you’ll pocket your device and be present in the moment you're in. Take in all the sights and smells and feels and vibes, because, my dear people, that’s all that matters in this moment. Have a great month and see you round the bend!