Meaningful Mud's Monthly Mu - April 2025

"have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, i have measured out my life with coffee spoons"

Hey there,

And welcome to Meaningful Mud’s Monthly Mu April edition.

It is with thanks to running, which many lifetimes ago was as an ingrained part of my routine as my current frozen date and peanut butter binge eating afternoon expeditions (thanks for the safe space), that I experienced a profound reframing of my relationship to all that is considered whole and partial, full and incomplete, solid and broken, tide and ripple, ember and flame - a reorientation that still accompanies me today.

I can vividly recall the jolting moments when confronting the cold truth that for a while all my running was but a focused and fixated meditation on the measurements and the metrics: completing the 5 km under 5:00 minutes a km, reaching the 21 km and nothing short of it, convincing myself that these are the yardsticks for a good run, the benchmarks of a worthy workout.

The more distance I covered, the greater the distance grew between what I was doing and the initial magic of running that drew me close in the first place: the unadulterated bliss of being outside, the contemplative listening to breath, the humbling life-reaffirming awareness of the ground beneath your feet; the coming “into contact with the significance of insignificant things,” as Dacher Keltner poetically puts it.

This realization, which was nothing short of existential, coupled with the desire to return to pre-Garmin watch-wearing Tyler, when I knew oh so little about heart rate, VO2 max and calories burnt, resulted in a lengthy chapter of protest runs - leaving the house without a watch and returning when feeling compelled; and when leaving with a watch, rebelliously running betwixt and between distances - 5.12 km here, 9.34 km and 17:66 km there - desperately trying to unlearn and rewire myself and my own conceptions and understandings of what is okay and all that makes a run soul-steadying and spirit-bolstering.

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

Perhaps I had to run through this mess and confusion to arrive where I am now: recognizing that there is value in the metrics and there is value in recognizing the limits of the metrics; that there is whole in the partial and partial in the whole; fullness in the incomplete and incomplete in the fullness. As our boy Albert Einstein masterfully expressed, “not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts”.

So why am I telling you all of this, you may ask or have just asked your dog, or if he/she is unlucky, your coworker?

Well… this April edition marks Meaningful Mud’s Monthly Mu’s 1st year birthday - a nice, neat, easy on the eye number! So, while I do do a tiny little dance after sending out each edition into the big bad world, it would be remiss to not acknowledge Meaningful Mud’s first year of life.

In the space of a year we have grown from 4 subscribers (Mom, Dad, Zach and Jonah - thanks for always being in my corner) to a whopping 10,000 readers and 5,000 paid subscribers!

Jokes jokes - everyone calm down!

A man can dream.

But we shall get there!

And if we don’t that is also okay.

Quality not quantity; “connection not collection,” as Rav Yair says.

But truly - a heartfelt and heart-full thank you to you my readers - some I know and some I don’t - for keeping me creatively consistent, for holding me accountable, for making it to this line in the newsletter, for letting me share and for sharing this humble offering with others and your thoughts and meanderings with me.

I hope in the months ahead we can transform this space into more of a conversation and a communal exploration.

So wherever you may be and whatever you may be drinking - please raise your cold brew, cup of tea, shot of arak, cortado, pint, monster, canned water - L’chaim, Santé, Salud, Salute, Zum Wohl, Proost, Fi sihtak - to another year of small, big and medium things, to going out and going in, to 12 more editions and to collectively flying and building our planes, sometimes at the same time.

I so appreciate your beings here.

Take good care out there and inside.

And lastly, may we always be stuck in Meaningful Mud!

Tyler

---

“The day you stop racing, is the day you win the race.”

―Bob Marley

---

For a year that has seen far too much loss; though anything more than no loss is far too much.

For Grief

By John O’Donohue

…Gradually, you will learn acquaintance
With the invisible form of your departed;
And, when the work of grief is done,
The wound of loss will heal
And you will have learned
To wean your eyes
From that gap in the air
And be able to enter the hearth
In your soul where your loved one
Has awaited your return
All the time.

…

When you love deeply, you grieve deeply.

Whilst Substack’s newsletter limit length does not allow for even the most superficial acknowledgement of the breadth and scope of all the sore and pain and hurt, of lives cut prematurely, please stay with me for a moment:

Thabiso - when I hear the sound of meat sizzling on the braai I will always think of you, your smile, your zest for life, your animated hellos, your cheery goodbyes. I hope up on high they have good speakers so you can blast your music and dance away.

Themba - I hope you are at peace. May you know no more struggle.

Malones - like Lazer said, you used up all your energy in too short a time. Thanks for reminding us what it means to live boldly, passionately and tenderly, all at once.

And ultimately, how we are to be with each other is left up to us - the living. May we never cheapen life, may we want for our others what we want for ourselves and may we find a way to love and cherish all we hold dear when we are holding it.

Photo by Alex Dukhanov on Unsplash

---

“I urge you to please notice when you are happy and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘if this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is’.”

-Kurt Vonnegut

---

The menu ain’t the meal but give it a bash anyway

With the sun starting to shine more unapologetically here in the Levant, sharing with you all a recipe for a super simple light and fresh Moroccan cumin carrot salad. BOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!

What you’ll need

For the salad:

• 4 carrots - ribboned with peeler

• 1 zucchini - ribboned with peeler

• 1 cucumber - you guessed it - ribboned with peeler

• Fresh parsley chopped (I know this is controversial)

• Generous handful of roasted almonds

• 1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds

• Handful (can be be generous too) of golden raisins

For the vinaigrette:

• 1 tablespoon cumin

• 1/4 cup avocado oil

• 2 teaspoons sesame oil

• 2 heaped tablespoons Dijon mustard

• 3 tablespoons date honey/honey (if you don’t care about the bees - jokes, jokes, jokes)

• 1 lime zested and juiced

• 1 teaspoon minced garlic

Instructions

1. In a large bowl whisk together all the vinaigrette ingredients.

2. Add in all your salad ingredients into the bowl and mix.

3. Thank your divine and enjoy.

Photo by Tamara Gak on Unsplash

---

Sonic Suggestions

“I'm a man on fire walking down your street
With one guitar and two dancing feet
Only one desire that's left in me
I want the whole damn world
To come dance with me”

Gidon, I promise you this is a first time appearance on Meaningful Mud. And don’t worry - it is not some crazy Middle Eastern jazz!

I hope you all enjoy the tunes!

---

“…These autumn days will shorten and grow cold. The leaves will shake loose from the trees and fall. Christmas will come, then the snows of winter. You will live to enjoy the beauty of the frozen world, for you mean a great deal to Zuckerman and he will not harm you, ever. Winter will pass, the days will lengthen, the ice will melt in the pasture pond. The song sparrow will return and sing, the frogs will awake, the warm wind will blow again. All these sights and sounds and smells will be yours to enjoy, Wilbur — this lovely world, these precious days …”

-Charlotte’s Web, E.B White

To another spring, summer, autumn and winter with you all!

Photo by Sylvester Sabo on Unsplash

---

Thank you once again for stopping on by. It is not taken for granted!

Please also consider forwarding this little offering to a loved one, friend or stranger and feel free to reach out should you wish to share any comments, critiques or suggestions. I would love to hear from you all.

Wishing you all an affectionate April!