Float

(This picture is scanned from a postcard I bought at the MOMA in New York in 2005.  It is a work by Christopher Wool called “Untitled, 1988.”)

Many people are currently writing about what Muhammad Ali meant to them.  To me, he was a touchstone for survival.

I don’t get boxing.  I try to avoid hitting people.  I try to avoid getting hit.  I deeply respect the athletic requirements of the sport, the essential strength, endurance, and grace needed to compete.  I somewhat understand the idea of athletic endeavor as battle.  I just don’t see that the battle needs to involve actual beating of other people.

Metaphorically, however, Ali gave me what I needed to make it through some of the worst parts of my depression journey.  I played Rope-a-Dope with the Depression Monster.  My goal was to take whatever it dished out for as many rounds as it took to get the monster to wear out and then smash that sucker.

Beyond pure survival, Ali provided an example of what one might want to survive for.  He was a man of principle, a fighter who would not fight for something he did not believe in and who would fight like crazy to advance causes he loved.

I am grateful for his life and example.

Friday Exercise: Push Press

Compound exercises increase the efficiency of a workout, and the Amazing Stickie is all about efficiency.  She has more to do than just work out, you know.  Because of this, she likes the push press because it works her whole body at once.

She begins the exercise in a squat position with dumbbells at her shoulders.  A barbell would also work.  On an exhale, she stands up tall and raises the weights above her head without raising her shoulders toward her ears.  Then she inhales back to the starting position.

Done quickly, this is an aerobic move.  Slower performance builds muscle endurance.  Using heavier weights for fewer repetitions will build maximum strength, but light weights and many repetitions add tone.  Choose according to your goals!

Thursday Book Report: Dirt

“Just as lifestyle influences a person’s life expectancy within the constraints of the human life span, the way societies treat their soil influences their longevity,” David R. Montgomery writes in Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations.  We cannot be fit without food and we cannot have food without soil, so Montgomery’s fascinating investigation of our relationship with the dirt in which we grow our food provides a bigger context for how we choose to live our lives.

Historically, humans have had some pretty unfortunate effects on the planet.  Erosion of topsoil, because it is usually a gradual process, tends to go unnoticed until there is a drastic event like the Dust Bowl.  However, many of our farming processes encourage erosion at a rate faster than soil can be replenished.

There is good news.  Research suggests that there are many avenues available to reverse the erosion trend and maintain the crucial and mostly invisible resource under our feet.  Many are already dear to the heart of environmentally minded folks:  local culture, organic farming, cover crops, fallowing, small, worker-owned farms.  Others involve shifting process from plowing to discing.  Still others require the kind of long-term thinking that comes hard when there are mouths to feed right now.

In any case, the book was interesting, often wryly funny, and informative.  All of us who like to eat could profit from this reading experience.

No more pencils...

So maybe school has been out for us for a while.  Like years.  But there is still something about summer that feels like a release.  It might be the flip flops, setting our toes free from inside boots and shoes.  It might be the light and warmth, lasting into the evenings.  Whatever it is, here at the beginning of June we are free!

Free for what?  Ah, yes.  That’s the catch.  How can we make summer into a time of healthy renewal?

Move outside!  It’s beautiful out there!  Enjoy the breeze and the sun and the water and the trees!  Mess about in boats!  Get dirty!  Get clean again!

Read for fun!  Give the brain something to play with. 

Eat summer fruit!  Because it is awesome and will make you feel refreshed and good.

Store up all the good times!

Things to love

Over the weekend, I did my first hill ride in a long time.  I was worried.  I wasn’t sure I could still do it.  I was afraid my hands and forearms would fail.  I wondered if the hills would have me back.

I lived.  It was not my easiest ride ever and I was even slower than usual.  I got sore and tired.  But I remembered some things I had forgotten.

One was the joy.  Sometimes it was about glorious downhill speed.  At my favorite view spot, it was the joy of coming home to a place of my heart.  And then there was the deer browsing at the edge of the road who let me come within six feet before retreating just a little farther away.

Another was flow.  There were plenty of hot and sweaty moments with inner swearing (outer swearing takes too much breath sometimes), but there were the times that I found the place of just enough effort to do the job with none wasted. 

May we all find joy and flow in what we do.

Things to remember

Happy Memorial Day.  We give thanks for our freedoms and take time to remember those who came before us and their work to ensure our civil rights and domestic tranquility. 

As we celebrate, let’s also ensure that we remain in good health.

Imbibe in moderation, and never in conjunction with driving.  We cannot be healthy and dead at the same time.  We cannot risk other people’s lives because we knocked back a few too many in remembrance of anyone or anything.

Step away from the brownies.  Let’s celebrate with carrot sticks and dancing, hikes and yodeling, or anything else that moves us away from the dessert table.

Go outside.  We have a beautiful country.  Let’s look at it!

Hug people.  It is good for the soul.  If we don’t get enough hugs, our faces will fall off.  Well, maybe not, but why take chances?  Also, making connections contributes to general wellbeing and resistance to disease.

Enjoy!

I think...

Mindfulness does not have to involve sitting in a lotus position in a white room decorated with a single flower in a bowl of clear water.  It can, of course.  But for those of us meditationally challenged, I offer some other ideas for stilling the monkey mind.

Repetitive cardio.  The rhythmic motion of swimming, biking, running can have the same effect as a rocking chair on a baby.  We settle.  We breathe.  We relax.

Coloring.  There is a reason this has become trendy.  We give our brains just enough to do that the monkey mind slows down and rests in the moment.  Drawing, knitting, and some kinds of writing also fit into this space.

Singing.  Mindfulness has an intimate relationship with breath.  It is challenging to sing without breathing deeply.  Bonus points for doing it in the shower.  Extra bonus points for crazy dancing, falsetto, or costumes.

Cleaning.  Creating beauty and space outside ourselves can often create the same inside.  Clutter in our heads keeps us from focusing on the essentials.  Clutter on our desks can do the same.  Also, life is better with less dog hair.

Cooking.  Tactile practices like cooking bring us into the body.  The colors and scents and textures of cooking feed us before we even eat a bite.  Best results in cooking come from paying attention to the details, which is another way of saying focus.

Do what works.