Good Boy: A Journal
May 2026
14 Thursday
Power naps
Your barber
The attitude adjustment that comes from a mid-afternoon workout
The thoughtful researchers who have studied suburban shopping malls
Milk + banana = bedtime
13 Wednesday
The rabbit that looks in on you
“The Power of Goodbye” (Madonna)
Your history
Your intensity
12 Tuesday
Not knowing what time it is
Nighttime energy
Morning motivation
Body language — the self-talk version
11 Monday
Fresh ginger
Old memories
Early morning squint-worthy sunshine on your face
10 Sunday
A dream during which you play in a game with Nikita Kucherov
Dried lavender
Hourlong walks
The older lady whose black dog trotted alongside her, looking up, looking up, looking up, until she reached into her jacket and pulled out a treat
Your Mom
9 Saturday
When the line between the work week and the weekend is a nap
Late-night walks
Later-night self-study
A fresh pass at a recent dream
The movies your psyche shows
Crunchy peanut butter on sourdough toast
8 Friday
Dreams on different nights that comment on each other
Being awake before there is light
Being on the edge of something
Wolverines
7 Thursday
The female cardinal who greets you when it’s time to relate to your feminine side
The rabbit whose ears perk up when you to talk to it
The hawk that perches on the lamp post during your evening walk
Amplification
Grapes on sale — the red ones, of course
6 Wednesday
Early mornings
Morning sun
Anthony Edwards
5 Tuesday
Victories unexpected
Challenges repeated
The daily grind
The mute button
Your belly button
3 Sunday
Hourlong walks
Historical newspapers
Photographs that illuminate your experience
The sleep that follows a day with a lot of exercise
2 Saturday
Free time
Recovery time
Roast-beef sandwiches
Incline walks
Synchronous symbols of support
One Nation Under Goods by James J. Farrell
1 Friday
The flashback of a challenging feeling
The feeling when your NHL team plays in an overtime game in the playoffs
The feeling when you NHL wins an overtime game in the playoffs
The feeling that fills the void vacated by grief1
April 2026
30 Thursday
Desire
Satisfaction
The life of wanting and the death of having
28 Tuesday
“The Odd Couple” (original TV show)
The competing voices in your head
Rabbits that let you get close
When energy flows steadily (but not wildly) in one direciton
26 Sunday
Hourlong walks
Comeback victories
“The Comeback Kid” by The Midnight
Reading commitments
The power of literature to show you half-lived lives
Dubliners by James Joyce
25 Saturday
Your breath
Your heart
Your angst
Your attention
Your resilience
Your voice
Your capacity to be comfortable with being uncomfortable
23 Thursday
Birds song when it’s dark outside
Restlessness
Late walks with shorts on
Uncomfortable moments
The chance to access all the emotional tools
Fage lactose-free plan Greek yogurt
22 Wednesday
When there is no one single meaning and yet it all matters and matters a lot
Noise-cancelling headphones
Dancing alone in the living room
The power of push-ups
A Nikita Kucherov wrap-around, go-shove-it-critics, playoff game-tying goal
20 Monday
Your decades-long duel with your Super Ego
Signs that you’re winning
Your afternoon wrestling with James Joyce
Signs that you’re learning
Giving yourself something to look forward to
18 Saturday
Unexpected challenges
Mid-day rabbit appearances
The NHL playoffs
Treadmill time
17 Friday
The eEdition of the newspaper
When it gets dark during the day
Craniosacral therapy
Creepy nights
Cod
16 Thursday
The word “guile”
Running for 33 minutes
Sweat such that you have to change your shirt
The Sweathogs
History
Clarity
Knowing you are right and not having to say so
15 Wednesday
Taxes
Surreal sunsets
Seeing scheduled NHL playoff games appear on your calendar
The chance to talk to a Hungarian friend about this week’s Hungarian election
14 Tuesday
Your values
Your words
Your restraint
Your courage
Cacao
13 Monday
Walking to dinner at a diner
Walking home after
Navigating a new-to-you emotional space
Compost days
Flowering mornings
12 Sunday
Intense ambivalence
Over-interpretation
Stimulating conversation
Extra sleep
11 Saturday
Sweat
Small sips of coffee
Stoner
10 Friday
Inner-knowingness
Inner conflict
Those moments — in meditation, in every-day life — when you notice yourself lose your focus, for this is when the learning occurs
The authority to decide what is morally right to you, for you
A cardinal with impeccable timing
9 Thursday
One of those days when everything falls into place
A rabbit that waits for you
A place that calls to you
A golden sky
8 Wednesday
The good that revision does you — if you not your writing
The way reading about history changes your present experience
Being on friendly terms with more of your fragments
Horoscopes
7 Tuesday
The payoff that comes when you consider your dreams
The way life gives you a new chance to do right right after you did wrong
A squirrel standing on its hindquarters
The sun
6 Monday
The turkey you saw strutting with a full fan on Easter
When you realize you don’t want something you think you should want
The anticipation of intellectual conversation
5 Sunday
The eagle that flew over your house at dusk
The cardinal you hung out with in the evening
The chance to run again
4 Saturday
Craniosacral therapy
The transition from week to weekend
Seeing your cardinal friend first thing in the morning
When you’re in the mood to research
The Perfect Pass by S.C. Gwynne
3 Friday
Remembrance
Release
Rinse
Repeat
Rain
2 Thursday
Naps
Newspapers
New sensations
1 Wednesday
Resistance bands
Resistance strands
Pushing on through to the other side
March 2026
31 Tuesday
Birds that sing before the sun comes up
Squirrels that chase each other all over your yard
Raccoons that wrestle beneath your maple in the middle of the night
30 Monday
Cheeks
Hands
Your heart
Your gut
29 Sunday
Your first piece of pizza in several months
Your first sip of soda in several years
Morning clarity
28 Saturday
Forward: The Hidden History of Blaine by the Blaine Historical Society (2020)
The big dog you saw roaming free on Friday; may she have her fun, not hurt herself or anyone, and then find her way home again
Saturdays
27 Friday
When the cardinal appears at exactly the right time
When you recover from disappointment faster than you expected
Irondale Knights
26 Thursday
Sadness
Frustration
Death (of the emotional variety)
25 Wednesday
The upper-case V of geese who send you on your walk
The squirrel who stands up to greet you up upon your return
When you’re the weird one and you’re OK with that
24 Tuesday
The power of walking it all out
Biofeedback
Overnight oats
23 Monday
Being fired up
Honoring the let down
The robin who got your attention; walked with you; hung with you
22 Sunday
What a lucky guy that on the same night last night you got to watch two of your favorite artists at work — one live, the other thanks to the magic of television:
Master standup Jerry Seinfeld at the Orpheum Theater
Wizard winger Nikita Kucherov tied, who overtook, and then built on his lead over Connor McDavid for the NHL scoring race — all while playing against Connor McDavid in Connor McDavid’s team’s building
21 Saturday
Katy Waldman’s essay on Adam Phillips (“Listen to Yourselves”)
Adam Phillips’s essay on the super-ego (“Against Self-Criticism”)
The conversation you have with yourself
Stability — if you want it
Spring — if you’re ready or not
20 Friday
A day with all the good things:
Vigorous exercise
Reading that moved you
Creative time that changed you
A nap
A conversation with a person of depth
An evening stroll in the glowing gold setting sun
Observing a hawk observe the world
Watching Nikita Kucherov notch another three-point night
19 Thursday
Cold salmon
Fish fries
When you make yourself laugh — hard
18 Wednesday
Running free
Letting go
Sleeping hard
An indigo star that guides you — and watches over you
17 Tuesday
David Remnick’s The New Yorker essay “Listening to Joe Rogan” (February 16 & 23)
March snows
Morning reading time
The beginning of a new relationship with your feminine side
16 Monday
The good that comes from resistance training
The good that comes when you start all over
The good that comes when you reframe pain
15 Sunday
Your detachment
Your attention
Your imagination
Acceptance
14 Saturday
Anniversaries
The number 9
Clean sheets
A new (old) look
Your home
13 Friday
Your memory
Your heart
Your hunger
Your values
People who spend their time taking care of dogs without homes
12 Thursday
Signs of progress
Signs of survival
Almond butter + frozen blueberries
11 Wednesday
Turmeric
Ginger
Cinnamon
10 Tuesday
Opossums
Raccoons
Alligators
9 Monday
The doctor who listens
The doctor who gives you a plan
The doctor within
8 Sunday
Your struggles
Your triumphs
Your dreams — for they are something to believe in
7 Saturday
American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback by Seth Wickersham
Saturday nights
A book you plow through without trying to
6 Friday
Setbacks
Comebacks
Take-backs
Backsides
5 Thursday
Early bedtimes
Your intuition
4 Wednesday
Arborists
Artists
Fog
3 Tuesday
Being a witness to a Nikita Kucherov goal
Being witnessed: the rabbit present when you left and when you returned
Late nights
2 Monday
The sight of a cardinal in the early evening
The sound of your house in early mornings
The feeling when you finish a long, good book
1 Sunday
Small connections
Depth conversations
Sourdough pasta
M. Somerset Maugham
Which is always accompanied by spontaneous, uncontrollable laughter