I’m In Charge Here (Outpost Bricks)
Ten Pax, took the Daily Red Pill (DRP) this morning and got better.
The Pax: Mandela, Felix, Bullseye, T-bone, Aruba, FroYo, CPT D, Napalm and wearing the F3 Nairobi shirt…Schlitz (Q: Squirrel)
The Scene: Mmmmmoist. Cloudy and cooler and a great morning to post in the Gloom
Warm-o-rama: As CPT D yammered on and on the Pax did Arm circles
The Thang:
- 45 sec Single-leg lunge & overhead press w/ brick
- 45 sec Bent over row > Curl > Extend out & down w/ brick
- 45 sec Imperial Hillbillies (Left elbow to Left knee, Left Elbow to right knee)
<< Repeato above other leg >>
- 45 sec Squat, Right leg lift & Left Shoulder Raise w/ brick
- 45 sec Peter Parker w/ Merkins IC
- 45 sec American Hammers w/ brick
<< Repeato above other leg/shoulder >>
- 45 sec Lateral shoulder raise to toe touch w/ brick
- 45 sec Merkin, Get up, WWII Sit up, Get up, Merkin, etc.
- 45 sec Bent over row > Curl > Extend out & down w/ brick
<< Repeato above other leg/shoulder >>
- 45 sec Alternating front shoulder raise
- 45 sec Rear shoulder raises
- 45 sec Up-Down-In-Out Merkins…followed by
- 45 sec Up-Down-In-Out Merkins
Finish off with some ab work. 10 reps of each, followed by a 10-second isometric hold
- Crunches > Crunch and hold for ten count
- Table crunch > Crunch and hold for ten count
- Legs straight up – toe touches > Iso Hold
- V-legs up & crunch between > Iso Hold
- Right knee in, left leg 6″ hold & crunch > Iso Hold
- Right knee in, left leg 6″ hold & cross-body crunch
- Left knee in, right leg 6″ hold & crunch
- Left knee in, right leg 6″ hold & cross-body crunch
- Start in table top, heel taps (10 ea foot)
- Heel taps faster…10 ea foot
- Both heels, same time tap
- 6″ Hold
- Reverse crunch > Iso Hold
- Flutter kicks > Iso 6” Hold
- Heels to heaven
- Lower legs to a CPT D 10 count
- Raise both legs to a Napalm 10 count
Announcements/Prayer requests:
- For Poacher and his Family as they tour France and Omaha Beach (D-Day landing site)
- We surround Winchester with prayers of strength and courage as he enters the Army in the next week or so.
- Prayers for Felix and his family. Give this bold family confidence that You are in control. We ask that you give them a deep-settled peace that they are not alone, even when others don’t know the specifics or depth of the need. Let them rest in the wisdom of God and the work of the Holy Spirit to transform our deepest, unspoken prayers
Squirrel lead us out in prayer
MOLESKINE: Final Gear layout and checks…I’m in Control Here
This Moleskine isn’t just about the M & my trip, so bear with me a bit. I’m sorry, I realize I’ve been writing about it a lot lately.
We live as if we are fully in control of our life. It’s a normal thing to do until something like a pandemic shows up or we get T-Boned, or an illness strikes out of nowhere. These events remind us that we’re not in control as much as we might like to believe.
We’ve spent months preparing. I can draw you a map of our route from memory. I can recite the cities we plan to visit in each state. We’ve inspected our camper multiple times, made tweaks to best organize it and talked over every aspect of camper living ad nauseam.
The checklists:
- Prep of home for departure checklist
- Packing clothes checklist
- Gear checklist
- Food checklist
- Dog stuff checklist
- Maps checklist
- Primary-Alternate-Contingency-Emergency (PACE) plan for where we will stay checklist
- Check the checklist checklist (UGH….)
I was going to make sure we were prepared. I tought, “hey I’m in control here!”
Anyone recall those famous words?
When President Ronald Reagan was shot on March 30, 1981, chaos ensued behind the scenes at the White House. With no real protocol in place for such a situation (Ummm…there was and has been for a very, very long time), everyone involved had to improvise and hope that everything would turn out right. In an attempt to keep everyone calm, Al Haig, Reagan’s Secretary of State, committed a PR faux pas — and showed a glaring lapse in basic knowledge of the Constitution — by telling the press that he was in control while the President was in surgery.
By all accounts we are prepared to hit the road. Why then are my M and I exhausting ourselves running last minute errands to leave? I just said we were prepared, yet we feel a bit unprepared.
We are in uncharted waters.
I have that feeling deep inside, the same one you feel when you’re pulling into the airport parking lot about to go on a business trip. Did you remember deodorant? Did you lock your doors? Where did you leave your keys?
Then I laugh. Like a deep belly laugh, when I realized how ridiculous I was being.
I had let my mind control me. I had locked myself in the a dark room with no windows and was searching for the light switch. I had allowed my mind to chew on all these “problems” or things of getting ready and had lost where the light switch was to free my mind when I wanted to.
It’s a neat little exercise you may want to try. Stop thinking altogether.
Likely you can for a few seconds. Experienced meditators or people tuned in can do it longer. But, odds are that the mind is using you. You are unconsciously identified with it, so you don’t even know that you are its slave. The moment you start watching that monkey brain (the thinker), you hit a higher level of consciousness. For me, when I find the light switch again is when I see all the things that truly matter – beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace or inner peas. I remember that it is when I incessantly think is when I lose control.
None of us know what will happen tomorrow, nor do we know how today will end. As much as we train, prepare, think – we are NOT in control. I cannot control whether we actually leave on 2 July as planned or if I get T-Boned again.
Maybe that’s why we wonder if we truly are prepared. In F3 we exercise for lots of reasons…one of them is to prepare ourselves physically for the unknown. Like, I’m hiking and the M twists her ankle. I could leave her there and get help or I could sling her across my (broad?) shoulders and carry her to safety.
The highly effective forces, be they military or corporate, do the same thing. They prepare, they train, they exercise the scenarios so when the actionable task occurs you have some muscle memory to move from. It will probably not be perfectly a step-by-step recreation of what you practiced and prepared for AND your training will kick in and you’ll adapt much easier and quicker than if you are caught flat-footed.
The M and I are as prepared as we are going to be for this journey. It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start. Well, we aren’t waiting to start…we are starting.
Most all of us prepare and plan. It’s what we do. We want to take control and make our lives easier, more familiar, more action instead of reaction. Paul wrote in Romans 8:7 that “the mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.” Coming to this place (again) is terrifying and freeing and just the beginning. We move forward with a chuckle and a reminder we aren’t in control.
When I remember that God is in control (I don’t take this as meaning pre-destination) it reminds me that it’s safe to swim into the uncharted waters because we are under the shadow of God’s protection.
Aye!