DAH is me, David Anthony Hance. 
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First up this week: Variety … 
"Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavour," wrote English poet William Cowper in The Task (1785). I have favorite things. Some of those things I identify as "warm bath" choices. I find "warm bath" choices soothing in this noisy life. But I'm often tempted by variety. Indeed, I'm tempted often each day. There's so much that is so intriguing. Too much variety may seem like too many choices to some. I've never felt that way. Although I won't (I can't) seize every new thing, I like that I might. Something new and different is always calling, always coming. I find that envigorating. 

Second up this week, Vitality … 
I'm thinking about élan vital, that French term for the fundamental force and impulse of life. I long to live with vitality, and believe I usually do so. Something vital is something essentially needed. You and me and vitality. Allying with vitality in all things, and with others who live vitally. That's the way to be. Not particularly relaxing, perhaps. If we're all busy being vital all the time. "Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over," according to F. Scott Fitzgerald. So, if you're feeling devitalized, pick yourself up and begin again, please. 

Third up this week, Vivacity … 
Joining variety with vitality yields vivacity, in my opinion. Merriam-Webster unhelpfully defines vivacity as "the quality or state of being vivacious." What's vivacious? "Lively in temper, conduct, or spirit … appealingly full of life." An obsolete definition suggests that vivacity is natural vigor, a vital force. With vivacity I can think myself the life of my own party. Even if I'm a party of one (which I often am). I do hope you enjoy my vivacity if and when you experience it. I'm trying to be a quieter creature, but hope to be rich in natural vigor even when not noisy. 

A slim volume of poetry …
Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry, by Jim Harrison and Ted Kooser
Thank you, Beth, for sharing these short poems. 
"This book is superb ... Simple in its language, spare in its style, Braided Creek presents dozens of short poems that resonate with truth, pain and radiance. Grudgingly acknowledging aging and illness, the verses here also clutch tightly to moments of good cheer, of life lived with spirit and grit and determination." (Kansas City Star) This was a refreshing read. Two author friends, Ted Kooser and Jim Harrison, shared a correspondence that included new very short poems. Their exchange began after Kooser was diagnosed with cancer, but their verse here isn't depressing or distressing. The poems don't identify each's author, which adds to their charm, I think. A lovely gift from two fine writers.

And a bit more … 

"Invictus" by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
      Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
      For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
      I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
      My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
      Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
      Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
      How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
      I am the captain of my soul.


And that's all for this week.
From Mary Oliver's "Sometimes"