GumbyStrong

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

The GumbyStrong Pax: Chitwood, Napalm, T-Bone, Aruba, Meatsweats, Wrangler, Flying tomato, (Q’s: Quatro & Squirrel)

Wait.  GumbyStrong?  Quatro didn’t have any Pax (No Josey, no Captain D) join him for Stronghold.  So we all joined together at Gumby.

The Scene: Wet & not so wild

The Thang:

MOBILITY ROUTINE

• Seated trunk rotations
• Cobra to active back bend 
• Low Lunge – Move to runners lunge 
• Hip rotations (90/90)
• 10 Good morning Squats 

FLOW

• Mountain Pose >> Forward Fold >> halfway lift >> fold forward >> Flow to High Plank >> Low Plank >> Updog >> Down Dog

^^ Rinse and Repeat ^^ (x5)

• Chair Pose – Hold 5 breathes + 5 squats 
• Flow from High Plank >> Low Plank >> Updog >> Down Dog
• Chair Pose (on toes) – Hold 5 breathes + 5 squats 
• Flow from High Plank >> Low Plank >> Updog >> Down Dog
• Chair Pose Hold for 5 breathes + 5 squats
• Flow from High Plank >> Low Plank >> Updog >> Down Dog

• Limp Member (bend at waist and hang) + Box Breathing
• On six, Knees to chest
• Downward Dog
• 6 Carolina Dry Dock Merkins IC
• Downward Dog
• 10 Tempo Merkins IC
• Downward Dog
• Low Lunge right side (repeat left side)
• Cat Cows

BACK: Seated Twist & Standing Spinal Twist 

QUADS:  Standing Quad stretch & Hurdler stretch

Quatro wanted the last 15 minutes, so Squirrel ceded the floor to the gentleman from Southern Pines.

• Bearcrawl the length of the train depot stopping at each pole to do three Burpee’s.  

Mosey back to the basketball courts (or near them) to finish up with an ab routine; Long Slow Flutter, LBC’s and 6” hold

 

Announcements:  

1.  Ruck event with Aruba coming up.  Believe it’s this AND next Saturday.  10 miles.

Prayer request: 

1. Chitwood asked us all to lift up a family from work, the Peterson family.  They are mourning the loss of a father and husband.  This 40-something leaves an 8-year-old boy behind.  God be with them.
2. Pray for T-Bones Aunt (mom’s sister) in Hospice.  God revealed himself through last rights, but not quite last rights. As she came to and knew who the Priest was praying over her.  For those moments of clarity in the midst of the unknown we stand in awe.

Chitwood lead us out in prayer

MOLESKINE:  Pockets 

There’s an old saying, “When a pickpocket meets a saint, he only sees the pockets.”  What we want both distorts and determines what we see.

There are things about being a man that don’t always equate with/to the fairer sex.  Like how to use the back of a comb or vice to squeeze the very last molecule of toothpaste out of the tube, why knowing the stats of basketball players matters or why you need pockets on your pants/shorts. These are basic man-law tenants.  

Back to the pockets…and why men need pockets.  I wasn’t saying that women don’t like pockets but they (almost) never buy pants/shorts that have pockets.

A man would never buy a pair of pants without any pockets. We know we need them.  A man without pockets isn’t much good to himself or anyone else. 

For me, the left front pocket is for my keys – I should change this!  I find myself grabbing coffee cups, binders, etc. with my left hand and then curse myself when I have to reach across and fumble-f*ck in trying to get my dick skinners to my keys.  

The left back pocket is for my wallet and the right front pocket is for change.  

 

Interesting aside….how many of you put the wallet in the back right pocket?  As I said mine is firmly planted in the back left as I’ve been institutionalized by the Army, and there used to be only a back left pocket on the dress uniform.

 

That leaves me with one pocket left, the back right pocket. This just-in-case pocket is for passports or a mask or my dog’s poop bag or my cell phone.  And yes, I have had to sanitize the screen off a few times if I’ve forgotten the poo bag and jammed the phone down into the pocket, thus ripping the bag.

Being a simple man I tend to have a ritual of unloading my pockets.  Come home – wallet, keys, etc. come out of the pockets and into the designated place.  This is for two reasons; (a) KISS and (b) my M designated the spot.  It’s routine now.   If I need my keys, wallet, glasses, phone I go to that place.

My M however, doesn’t have a place or a routine like this.  She doesn’t have pockets she has to download.  Her keys, wallet, glasses, etc. could be anywhere.  My wonderful bride will often ask me, “where are my glasses?” Then the hunt is on.

By now some of you may be thinking, “well my wife has her purse.”  True.  If your wife’s purse is like many women’s that I have seen over the years it’s like Hermione Granger’s beaded handbag. 

They have wallets that are five times the size of a man’s, pens, tissues, phone, lip balm, Perkin’s magical tent, and things that men don’t mention.

 

 

 

Yet…even with the purse there are many times we, as men, are asked to hold our wive’s drivers license, money, lipstick or something so they don’t have to carry the purse. Holding things for the people we love is what a man does.  That’s why a man needs pockets.

I’ll circle back to the beginning here and the quote about the pickpocket, let’s call him Bob, after Bob Arno the world’s most famous pickpocket.  Bob has the opportunity in meeting a Saint.  The Saint could show Bob how to find real happiness…through faith.  He doesn’t recognize the opportunity, but instead Bob is just looking to see if the Saint has any money in his pockets. In Bob’s mind, there are no Saints, only pockets to be pilfered.

What filter(s) do we see the world through and how are we judging the people around us?  Do we see the human behind the label of Democrat/Republican, Straight/Gay, Black/White/Yellow/Red, skinny/fat?  If we see others through filter which are set in stone we will likely only see the pockets…not the saint.

“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.

~Matthew 7:1-5

However, if our hearts are filled with love and compassion, if we are continually looking for God’s light and love in the world, then that is what we are likely to encounter in our daily lives. 

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. 

I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other” doesn’t make any sense.

~Rumi

To the heart, which does not look at the pockets, even the most disheveled and dirty person shines with God’s light.

As you go out today into that world I ask you, “What are you seeing?  Pockets or the a child of God?”

Aye!