Will You Hold My Hand? (Stronghold / Gumby)

Thirteen Pax, took the Daily Red Pill (DRP) this morning and got better.

The Gumby Pax: Napalm, Damn Yankee, Flying tomato, Mandela, Meatsweats and (Q: Squirrel)

The Stronghold Pax: Snake, Samsonite, FroYo, Fine Print, Aruba and Josey and (Q: Quattro)

The Scene: 64 and cloudy.  Missed the rain though

The Thang:

Gumby’s stretching is listed below.  Apparently Mike Tyson went 10 rounds with the Stronghold Pax.  Great work for all those who took on Iron Mike in the Gloom. 

 

And on the gentler side of life….

MOBILITY ROUTINE

• Seated trunk rotations
• Cobra to active back bend
• Low Lunge – Move to runners lunge
• Hip rotations
• Good morning Squat x20

BACK

• Tai Chi waist twisters
• Seated Twist
• Standing Spinal Twist

LATS – Childs Pose Cross body

CALVES – Down dog

HAMSTRINGS –

• Hamstring Stretch on a Pole
• Standing Hamstring stretch

STRENGTH / CORE

• Mountain Tops
• Crunches > Iso hold for ten count
• Table crunch > Iso hold hold for ten count
• Legs straight up – toe touches > Iso Hold
• V-legs up & crunch between  > Iso Hold
• Start in table top, heel taps (10 ea foot)
• Heel taps faster…10 ea foot
• Both heels, same time tap
• 6″ hold ground
• Flutter kicks for 10       > Iso Hold
• Toe touches for 10      > Iso Hold
• 6″ hold for 10

 

Announcements: 

1. 9 April, that’s this Saturday – ClownCar to Carpex. Meet at SPUMC parking lot at 0520.

 

Prayer request: Poacher lifted up two.  One who’s lost hope/given up after a stroke and Deborah who’s cancer is taking its toll.  God bless both of them and surround them with the peace that is beyond anything we can understand.

 

 Meatsweats lead us out in prayer

 

MOLESKINE:  Will You Hold My Hand?

 

Would you hold my hand?
If I saw you in heaven
Would you help me stand?
If I saw you in heaven

Time can bring you down
Time can bend your knees
Time can break your heart
Have you begging please
Begging please

Beyond the door
There’s peace, I’m sure
And I know there’ll be no more
Tears in heaven

Would you know my name?
If I saw you in heaven
Would you be the same?
If I saw you in heaven

I must be strong
And carry on
‘Cause I know I don’t belong
Here in heaven

~Eric Clapton

 

Eric Clapton’s 1992 hit Tears In Heaven was borne out of unbearably sad circumstances. The song is a tribute to love’s lasting powers and a lament for the death of Clapton’s four-year-old son, Conor, who died on 20 March 1991.  If you don’t recall how he died that’s ok…it doesn’t matter how he died.  It matters he did….it matters more that he lived!

 

This time of year I sometimes find myself a bit melancholy.  Most of you know the story or have read it in Freed To Lead v2.  Easter morning 2014 I went to wake my son for breakfast before going to church.  Lucas had passed away that night. 

 

Now’s the time you may ask, “what did he die from?”  Do yourself and the grieving parent a favor….DON’T ASK!  The reason of a child’s death doesn’t matter, not then – not now – not ever.  The fact he lived matters.

 

Here we are almost eight years later.  My M and I decided to spread our sons ashes next week, on Easter. Dust-dust….   As I was going to work one recent morning Eric Clapton’s song came on the radio.  Slow down – pull over – sob.  

 

Gathering myself for the day ahead, “I must be strong and carry on” and so it goes. 

 

The song kept ringing in my head throughout the day.  “Time can bring you down, Time can bend your knees, Time can break your heart, Have you begging please.”  We lived those lines; brought down onto our knees with broken hearts and begging, begging please.  The time between grief events like this are fewer and fewer and when they do come I let them.  I let the tears flow and I always thank God at the end of them.  For if it weren’t for my faith on my knees I could not have made it to now.

By now I’ve made it to work, “I must be strong and carry on” and so it goes. 

 

“Beyond the door there’s peace, I’m sure and I know there’ll be no more –
Tears in heaven.”  I stop working and take a walk around the block.  As I strolled the streets of Southern Pines I wondered how Lucas is today?  Yes, I’m sure there is peace and no more tears and I pray there aren’t.  For if Lucas saw my M and I he would surely shed tears.  I don’t want that for him.  We have shed enough for him…he doesn’t need to cry. 

 

My ex-wife and I divorced when Lucas was 10.  I left Ft. Bragg and a dream job most every Army guy would want to move to DC where she moved with the kids.  Every night the kids came over I kissed my son and daughter goodnight and told them I loved them.   My last ruffle of his hair, kiss goodnight and saying, “I love ya buddy” was eight years ago. 

 

The song’s lyrics beg for my attention again, “Would you know my name if I saw you in heaven? Would you be the same if I saw you in heaven?”  God I hope so.  I pray Lucas will hold my hand when I see him in heaven and when I do I hope he helps me stand…for my knees will buckle and my speech will have left me.  Oh what a day that will be, when Lucas holds my hand!

 

I have had tears upon tears, pain upon pain, been covered in sadness, pain and anger.  For now, “I must be strong and carry on” and I know I DO belong
there in heaven, but it’s not my time yet…not just yet.  It is through the grace of our Lord and His sacrifice of his only son Jesus Christ that my place will be in heaven. 

 

Don’t pity me.  Don’t coddle me.  Don’t do anything but love me for whom you have come to know.  Laugh with me, cuss me, sweat and bleed with me…

 

My faith, my wife and daughter and F3 have been, and continue to be, the tools that strengthen my soul.  Because I keep showing up, and when you keep showing up it keeps me strong and carrying on.

 

Aye!