The Gate – F3 Knoxville

THE SCENE: Cloudy and hot
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Side Straddle Hops, 10 Burpees, 10 Windmills, 25 Squats, 10 Cherry Pickers
THA-THANG:
Mosey to big tree by stop sign at northeast corner of admin bldg. We will do 20 American Hammers.

Mosey to park perimeter trail where it intersects with roadway that heads to admin bldg. We will do 25 Squats.

Run on perimeter trail as it heads west and north and curves toward the bottom of Mt. Everest. We will stop at every fifth light to do 10 merkins, then continue. At bottom of Mt. Everest we will do 25 Squats then run around big tree in middle of Mt. Everest, then come back to perimeter trail. We will then do 20 Bicycle Kicks (four count).

Run to every fifth light and stop to do 10 Big Boy Situps. Continue this until we get to roadway that comes in from Northshore gate. Stop to do 20 Hello Dollies.

Run across roadway, staying on perimeter trail. Run to every fifth light and stop to do 10 Shoulder taps (ten taps each shoulder). We will run until we reach soccer fields. Stop to do 20 Box Cutters.

We will next go across soccer field. We will lunge to first line, run to next line, lunge to next, run to next in alternate fashion until we reach the end of the soccer field. We will stop to do 25 Squats.

Mosey to stop sign at southeastern corner of Admin Bldg. Stop to do 20 pickle pounders (four count).

Run to Boulder Pile. Pick up appropriate size boulder. We will do 25 overhead presses, 25 Curls, 25 Rows and 25 Triceps.

MARY:
Plank Stretches.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Seven men present, one FNG, Josh, a good friend and coworker of Hooker. We named Josh “Hotspur.”
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
This is a poem written by Marie Howe. It is about her brother who died. He was sick and knew he would die when the moments this poem describes takes place. In this poem he points out to the poet the importance of life’s everyday moments – like eating a cheese and mustard sandwich. Maybe it is these moments that we are really waiting for, not the big successes, the big job, the big whatever. For what do the big successes gain us? Only the opportunities to have special moments with others.

THE GATE BY MARIE HOWE

I had no idea that the gate I would step through

to finally enter this world

would be the space my brother’s body made. He was

a little taller than me: a young man

but grown, himself by then,

done at twenty-eight, having folded every sheet,

rinsed every glass he would ever rinse under the cold

and running water.

This is what you have been waiting for, he used to say to me.

And I’d say, What?

And he’d say, This—holding up my cheese and mustard sandwich.

And I’d say, What?

And he’d say, This, sort of looking around.

We spend much of our loves working towards something, trying to achieve whatever version of success we or others have implanted in our minds. We often fail to take notice of the simple events of daily life, the simple things around us, such as the folding of sheets after laundry, the walls and pictures in the residences we live in, the simple conversations with loved ones and friends, the beauty around us, whether it be the mountains in the distance or a simple weed growing on the ground in front of us. Marie Howe’s brother points out that these are the moments and things we are waiting for.

Let us savior these days, these things, these moments that God has given us. Van Morrison speaks of this in his song, These Are The Days. He says in the poem that we must savor these days as if there is no past, no future, only now. He goes on to say:

These are the days by the sparkling river
And His timely grace and the treasured find
This is the love of the one great magician
Turned the water into wine

These are the days now that we must savor
And we must enjoy as we can
These are the days that will last forever
You’ve got to hold them in your heart.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Beer run to Union Jacks directly after this workout.