Can You Hear Me Now

Note: The underlying article can be found at https://ajprokop.com/2026/07/13/july-meditations-reflections-travelogue-and-scrapbook/

Pip: July — the month where some of us turn another year older, and at least one of us turns it into an entire philosophy of living.

Mara: That’s the territory Andrew Prokop covers in his latest post — birthday inventory, a long-running Lake Superior tradition, and what it means to measure your life in seasons. Let’s start with July itself, and what it holds.

July as a Season of Life

Pip: The post opens with a Rick Bass epigraph that frames the whole thing — July as a metaphor for a life in its middle, neither the fresh start of June nor the winding-down of August. The question the post keeps circling is: what do you do with the season you’re actually in?

Mara: The framing comes through early and directly. The post opens: “My life, I realize suddenly, is July. Childhood is June, and old age is August, but here it is, July, and my life, this year, is July inside of July.”

Pip: So the birthday isn’t just a date — it’s an annual audit. What changed, what didn’t, what’s still on the character to-do list. That’s a more demanding use of a birthday than most of us manage.

Mara: And he’s specific about the ledger. The list of things still in progress includes reacting without thinking, shying away from hard news, talking too much, and listening too little. The post notes, “Come back next year to see how many of those I have eased out of my life and don’t be surprised if the answer is ‘not many.’”

Pip: Self-awareness with a realistic warranty. Respect.

Mara: The post also marks July 15, 2018 as a personal turning point — the day a decision was made to make significant changes rather than keep going it alone. The post is deliberately spare on details, but names it as the best thing that ever happened, and frames it as progress over perfection, not arrival.

Pip: And then there’s the Lake Superior anchor — 29 years, same cabin outside Tofte, Minnesota, same resort community. The post calls it feeding the soul, not settling for routine.

Mara: The Tofte Trek 10k is part of that same trip — 29 consecutive years on a wilderness course of rocks, roots, and a long climb up the Sawtooth Mountains. Five years ago the knees asked for a change, and the post describes the shift to race walking plainly: “This is an adjustment and not a shortcut.”

Pip: First place in the walker category, earned on a genuinely grueling course. That’s not a consolation prize — that’s the whole point of the post in miniature.

Mara: It closes on gratitude — for love, pain, joy, sore legs, and the surprises that knock you down. The image is someone who likes familiar places but isn’t complacent about them.

Pip: July inside July — curious, moving, still climbing.

Mara: The throughline here is measuring a life not against some finished ideal, but against where you were a year ago.

Pip: Progress and not perfection — which, honestly, is a more sustainable metric than most of us use. Same time next July.