THE SCENE: Partly cloudy, cool but not cold, mid 40s
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER Check. Still not a professional.
WARM-O-RAMA:
Motivators (7 reps/level)
– Yoga stretches: legs spread, hang straight down, reach to right and left ankle, touch the ground and reach one arm up twisting torso, reverse hands. There was much inappropriate mumblechatter about bending over and grabbing ankles at this point.
– 10 Baby Arm Circles Forward/ Backward (4-ct, IC), making them wide arm circles half way through.
– 10 Tempo Merkins
THA-THANG:
Mosey to Chapel parking log, stopping to do a WELSH DRAGON along the way.
In parking lot, cones will be laid out in a rectangle, short/medium/long distance on each side. Pair up. One partner will get to the cone using various means, does 3 burpees, and returns while partner performs maintenance exercises. Switch. Do each cone for two minutes. Cones are, counter-clockwise order:
-
- Cone 1 (Long): Bear Crawl, partner does Bobby Hurleys
- Cone 2 (Medium): Broad Jumps, partner does Iron Mikes
- Cone 3 (Short): Crab Walk, partner does Burpees
- Cone 4 (Long): Bear Crawl, partner does BBS
- Cone 5 (Medium): Broad Jump, partner does American Hammers
- Cone 6 (Short): Crab Walk, partner does Gas Pumps
Mosey to playground, do 7s with dips and bench jumps
Mosey to Baby Cardiac: Bernie to the top.
Mosey to the monument, do a few minutes of BOAT/CANOE.
Mosey back to AO.
MARY:
Out of time.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
11 strong.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
My November Guest by Robert Frost is a poem that on its surface is about a person embracing the melancholy feeling that comes with the passing of summer and the beginning of the long winter, with “Sorrow” personified as a woman. For some, the onset of winter is ominous and unsettling, but there is a different kind of beauty in these shortening days. But there is more to this poem… it’s about more than just natural beauty the author is referring to. It’s about opening yourself up and embracing your own personal grief and sorrow, and accepting it as an important and enriching facet of the human condition.
My Sorrow, when she’s here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walks the sodden pasture lane.
Her pleasure will not let me stay.
She talks and I am fain to list:
She’s glad the birds are gone away,
She’s glad her simple worsted grey
Is silver now with clinging mist.
The desolate, deserted trees,
The faded earth, the heavy sky,
The beauties she so truly sees,
She thinks I have no eye for these,
And vexes me for reason why.
Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow,
But it were vain to tell her so,
And they are better for her praise.
Many times we feel ashamed of our grief and sadness, we try to bury it, and pretend it doesn’t exist. The author is encouraging us to look at that part of us not with shame or trepidation, but to embrace it as part of our humanity, and to appreciate that part of our emotional spectrum. For me, this time of year brings back memories of my mother’s illness and passing, and for years I dreaded the onset of November. But I read this poem and it encourages me to use this time as a period of reflecting on her love and the wonderful times we had while she was on this earth. “Not yesterday I learned to know the love of bare November days”. Try to learn to know the value of your own sources of sadness and grief. And know that there’s a God in your life that will never be far from your heart, and seek comfort and refuge in the love of our Almighty Father.
PSALM 34:18: The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
MOLESKIN:
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Third F December 7, with Convergence at the Truck Stop!