Digesting the Chaos….Indigestion

Eight Pax, took the Daily Red Pill (DRP) this morning and got better for doing it.

The Pax: CPT D, Schlitz, Meatsweats, McFly, Moneyball and Neo.  (Q’s: Beano & Squirrel)

The Scene: Really, not too bad for a week before Christmas.  Foggy.

WarmUp:  SSH, Grass Getters, some misc. stretching

The Thang:    We began by a saunter to the wall

• 20 Incline Merkins In Cadence (IC)
• 30 mountain climbers IC
• 20 Merkins IC
• 30 mountain climbers IC
• 20 Derkins
• 30 Slow mountain climber cross-overs (left knee to right elbow, right knee to left elbow) In Cadence

Beano Enters from Stage Right >>

We moseyed down Pennsylvania to the Fire Department & then through different modes of transportation moved slowly back up toward the AO.

Squirrel comes in from Stage Left <<.  Choosing to do some Bruce Lee

• 25 American Hammers
• 25 Reverse Crunch
• 25 Heels to heaven
• 25 Toe Taps
• 25 WWII Situps

Beano takes us home

• YHC doesn’t actually recall all the methods of pain Beano brought to this point.  I think I may have blacked out.  What I do recall are:
• Pull ups & chin-ups…which appears to be my/our absolute worst exercise 
• Abs, to include working on our love handles
• All the pax joining arm-in-arm, side-side and doing 20 WWII situps
• Finishing up with miserable 4-man Merkins (all 4 have their feet on another pax shoulders and pushing up in unison).  

Announcements:  

1. 5 January is a group gathering to discuss your next year and you one word.  
2. Mid-Feb starts Men’s Fraternity
3. Scout and his M are in Mexico celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary

Prayer Requests:  

1. We pray for traveling mercies for all those who are leaving the AO
2. We send up a special plea for the O’Conner family as they have Triston M. O’Conner’s (17) service today.  May he find God’s peace in heaven.  

• Men there are no words to comfort the O’Conner’s right now.  What I would ask, is if you know them to go be with them.  There will be moments of long, uncomfortable silence and that’s ok.  Just to have someone with you during something like that will be something that carries them through this place of utter, guttural, groaning and grief.  If you do go over….don’t say anything stupid like, “he’s in a better place” or “God knows what he’s doing”. Keep that sh*t to yourself.

Schlitz lead us out in prayer

A great reminder from one of the Pax – “while the workouts are great (funny — no one told YHC mine were) the fellowship and spiritual fitness are greater!  Seeing another Pax member in and about town and stopping to have a conversation is what makes this group tick.  We care for one another and it shows!

 

MOLESKINE:

For those of you who don’t my M, she is amazing.  I’m blessed and know it and…I like her too! ;-).  Among many of her gifts she has given me during our wedded bliss is reminding YHC (us really) to look to nature for what we are supposed to be doing.  Winter is the cold and dark season, a perfect time of inward reflection, rest and restoration. The earth outside lies fallow; nature appears frozen and dead. In this deep stillness of nature, winter calls us to look into our own depths.  Notice I underlined that nature appears to be frozen and dead…it’s not.  The seeds are beginning their metamorphosis and starting to manifest into whatever they will be; a bean or tree or whatever.  Sometimes the inward journey is hard hidden work.

This depth—our core—is the place where I am at times hesitant to journey.  I have, in this season of darkness, filled it with what appears to be light. Celebrations, eating (crap), drinking heartily, socializing, etc.  All to avoid aloneness and quietness which winter calls us to. 

That’s a long preface to get us to this Moleskine….guess you could say I went around my ass to get to my elbow. 

I sat down to write but nothing specific came to mind.  I let my mind skip from one thing to another, Monkey Brain.  Don’t worry that’s not an exercise you’ll see at any of my Q’s.  What I found was a thread that was woven through my mental landscape – a relatively dour tapestry of the past 18 months.  It became obvious that I hadn’t slowed down in this COVID season of Winter to spend the time digesting the chaos that has happened.  So many changes, so many routines flipped on their head to be replaced by new ones, so many adjustments to daily life.  Sound familiar? 

“Live moment by moment, day by day, because who knows what tomorrow is going to bring?” –F*cking platitude–  Still, I say we all have been living that day-to-day, moment-to-moment existence for at least the past 18 months and we are worn out. Tired. Lacking enough energy and time to accomplish everything that needs to be completed by the end of each day.  I’ve helped so many people, done good things and yet, in doing so I’ve allowed myself to get pulled in multiple directions. Worn myself down to the point of lacking the energy and time to accomplish everything which “needs to be completed” by the end of each day.  This permeates nearly every aspect of my life. Work. Home. Faith.

You name it, I feel behind.

Let’s pause here.  CLOSE YOUR EYES AND TAKE A DEEP CLEANSING BREATH (OR TEN).  When you’re ready open them up and continue reading. 

 

Some of you know I’ve been pondering (wintering) what’s next in YHC’s coming years.  OK, I’ve not sat down a long time and thought about it.  I have put thought to it, but I’m just now getting to the point where I can venture deeper, to really think and consider what my second half or second mountain might be.

I had the joy of finding the following recently.  It was a story of Viktor Frankl.  A Jewish man, psychotherapist by trade, during WWII.  Living in Germany he was taken to a concentration camp and it was there that he figured out we humans who are looking to answer the big questions like, “what do I want from life?” or “what do I need to do to make myself happy?” was the wrong way to look at it.  I loved what he did.  In the midst of the chaos he came to see the real question, “what is life really asking of me?” 

Rather than bouncing from one self-help book or podcast or fill-in-the-blank to another I realized that the answer isn’t in talk and meditation but in right action and right conduct.  Simply living, with gentle strength, into who I am. 

So, with what remains of this Winter I’ll be inwardly reflecting and refilling my tank ‘cause climbing mountains can be hard, rewarding work.

How about you?

 

Aye!