Cultivate your garden

Welcome to my new blog, Dashing Through DC! To answer the question some of you have already asked, this is not necessarily a "sequel" to my other blog, the Meatless Marathoner, though I am now training for triathlons; rather, it will be a blog about living and working in DC, recipes, quotes, books, politics- you get the idea.  I included my "running" nickname, Dash, in the title because I will also include training and fitness tips of the week! The theme of the blog, in effect, is "cultivate your garden," after a quote from Candide by Voltaire (cultivez votre jardin).  The phrase can be interpreted a number of ways, but one way is thus: that each of us must make our own path in life, not leaving it up to fate or just going along with the current and never making waves.  We can each make our lives as well-rounded and full in all aspects as we want.  Just as you wouldn't want only one kind of vegetable in your garden, you wouldn't want to develop just one area of your life to excess, would you? Instead of just having nutritious and practical carrots (which, of course, are useful in their own right), you might want some herbs to add spice, some sweet fruit as a treat, and maybe even a flower or two.  Similarly, I realized last summer that at some point my life revolved too much around my marathon training, which was a very rewarding experience, but left a lot of other parts of my life lacking. Voltaire essentially was telling us to live our lives to the fullest and not to place limits on ourselves, whether they be physical, mental or emotional.

So I hope you enjoy my fresh start as much as I will. I'll start us off with another of my favorite quotes: "Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards." (Kierkegaard)