Monday Candid

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Today’s daily prompt word for writing is candid. And what a lovely word it is.

candid: adjective

1. frank; outspoken; open and sincere
2. free from reservation, disguise, or subterfuge; straightforward

Since candid is as candid does, I could not help but be anything except candid with my readers…and of course…myself, as I write this morning’s post. If you noticed the picture of the messed-tressed pouch above, then you’ll take that as a sign of how I’m looking out at the world at o’dark thirty this Monday morning. I feel a bit out of sync, and I am completely sincere when I say that as I write these words, I am attempting to divert my body from its appointment with the treadmill.

I am openly spinning the wheels of my mind instead of the wheels of my feet on the mill; I am enjoying the work of carelessly composing words on the screen instead of burning calories running to nowhere. Perhaps my unusual state of being is the result of not enough or too much of something from the weekend just past…perhaps!

Or rather, to be completely frank, I simply could not pass up the chance to freely and without disguise, let all who read this blog once and for all time realize: that a Monday like today only makes sense…when it is over. But since it’s early, I’ll give Monday a chance. I’ll not tarry with thoughts dreary nor take them to task. I’ll just let them fly by with a candid, knowing smile, because all things in life, oh Monday, like you shall pass.

Candid

My Horizon

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This morning’s sunrise was another beauty; the cloud structures made for such interesting texture and offered themselves a canvas for the morning light to refract; the whole rising sky seemed to open wide to the reflecting warm rainbow colors cast upon its airy canvas: yellow, gold, pink, violet, misty gray mixed with hints of orange and tangerine. And then, in a few minutes, this image was transformed…one brilliant morning moment sharing its glory and its brilliance with the next. Why this fascination with the morning horizon?

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Horizons delight…do they not?
Horizons tempt, horizons tease,
Horizons tantalize, imaginations to please.
Horizons far away, always will be,
Horizons far away, too far for eyes to see.
Horizons unfold towards the vanishing of sight;
Horizons propel, induce HOPE to take flight.

Horizon

Challenge = Change = Improvement

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Two weeks old! We are two weeks into the New Year 2018 and I am needing a challenge. My race calendar is empty this winter and I need something to motivate myself to improve my fitness…so…I am going to challenge myself!

How about you? Will you take the next two weeks, until the end of January to challenge yourself to do some physical activity or exercise every day? Because I want to improve my fast twitch muscle fibers, I will be doing a burpees and jump rope challenge. I make up the rules for my challenge. And you may make up the rules for your challenge too.

Challenge yourself to do better and be better. Growth starts with a decision to move beyond your present circumstances. ~Anonymous

Starting today I will do 10 burpees every day (consecutively) and add one burpee each day thereafter. Additionally, I want to improve my stamina and coordination so today I also began my jump rope challenge. I jumped for 30 seconds without stopping or tripping on my rope. Each day hereafter I will add 10 seconds to my jump rope routine. If needed, I will take an active recovery day from my challenge every fourth day, which means I will only do 10 burpees and 30 seconds of jump rope on those days.

So what do you think? Is there something you want to challenge yourself to do? This is the perfect time of year to begin a new fitness routine. There are many ways to challenge yourself, whether you strive for a fitness goal or strive to improve your creative abilities. Just give yourself a goal that is measurable in seconds; minutes; repetitions; steps walked or run; pounds lost (fat) or gained (muscle); etc.

The sky is the limit so be creative and have fun with your new year challenge. You’ll find  some links to exercise/fitness challenges below this post. Let me know how you are doing as we go through these next fifteen days together!

Two week fitness challenges

Silver Sneakers January Fitness Challenge

 

 

Everything New

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One week into 2018 and I am still thinking about the New Year and what I may accomplish in it and through it. And the idea of transformation and hope has persisted and continues to appear before my eyes in the things I’m reading and in the thoughts I’m thinking.

The hardest part is what to leave behind, … It’s time to let go!
– A. A. Milne (Winnie-The-Pooh)

To be transformed is to be made new, to be changed, to experience a metamorphosis; to become a new creation. Is this not the wonder and delight of crossing over into the New Year? This hope that the old things and old ways of doing things which don’t work will pass away, and the life and light of newness will attend us in the unfolding days of the new year.

When I let go of what I am,
I become what I might be.
– Lao Tzu

Why does the thought of a personal transformation so tickle my senses? Does it tickle you? Perhaps it tickles, perhaps it pings our collective intrigue because this is what we need…to be renewed, refreshed, revitalized!

Let’s touch everything we see
and change it to hope
Our hearts let’s change to flesh
No more stones of apathy for us!
Let’s look at everything that could be
believing it will be
if we dare
to walk on water
scared and hopeful.

Come, walk on the water with me!
Let’s wrap our fears in hope.
Across these waters we must go our lamps of courage high
Scared and hopeful we will go.
– Macrina Wiederkehr, O.S.B.

What needs transforming in my life? What needs changing? What needs to die so I may embrace a new way of being? Perhaps I need to learn a new way of relating? A new way of perceiving? A new way of communicating? A new way of loving?

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs;
ask yourself what makes you come alive.
And then go and do that.
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
– Howard Thurman

It’s time isn’t it? Time to walk into the New Year with every expectation that I will be changed because I am ready. I am ready to be emptied so I may be filled again,  maybe even filled to overflowing with every good and needful thing. How about you? Will you go with me…will you walk out with me onto the waters of hope in 2018?

Story Time

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Endings arrive because they must
For every story, season, or life
Is woven, is cast, is spun from dust
And from dust all things always begin
Unfolding, unwinding, unfurling
Like so much dust upon the wind
From dust, tall tales of glory regale
From dust, a child’s fairy tale
From dust, epic legends are staged
From dust, saints and demons engage
From dust, we run
From dust, we rage
Because we know
From dust, all things will begin
From dust, all things will also end.

Do not despair of endings. Endings are just a place of beginning. As long as you are found breathing, the end, your end, is not yet realized. This is good news, you still have time to finish your story well. A happy ending is within your power to script. –DEBreen

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A New Year’s Conversation

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Today is the first day of 2018; it is New Year’s day, and it seems everyone is eager to ask or know, “What is your New Year’s resolution?”  I have resigned myself (happily) to the fact that I will begin another New Year without a traditional ‘resolution’ in place. Perhaps I make too much ado about nothing, but my resolution resistance results from having carelessly made too many New Year’s resolutions in years past. I just feel over-aged (sensible, experienced) to be conned into making an order for change simply because the calendar page has flipped.

I acknowledge this practice is traditional and often considered a fashionable thing to do…making resolutions. And as such it does provide fodder for water cooler exchanges during the first weeks of the new year with those of whom we are acquainted. But in reality, the ‘new’ wears off most resolutions before month’s end. Surely there is a more effective mechanism for making long-standing change in one’s life which surpasses this conventional, seasonal system.

So what is our fascination with all things NEW? Why do new things beckon such hope in our psyche, as though all things are possible for us, personally and collectively…simply because we enter a New Year? Why do we give so much prestige to the beginning of things? A new relationship; a new material acquisition; a new skill learned; a new experience acquired. A new life born. A new season begun. Why is ‘new’ so appealing?

New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings. Lao Tzu

Lest we forget that ‘new’ has a very limited shelf-life, perhaps we may better understand our attraction to ‘new things’ if we realize that our human nature is strongly wired to crave the rush of change and novel experiences. It is no wonder then, that we enjoy celebrating a New Year, and all new things, because in doing so we acknowledge and embrace NEW as a symbol of HOPE. And hope always expects that change will work in our behalf.

There will come a time when you believe everything is finished; that will be the beginning. Louis L’Amour

We see this cycle in the seasons of nature. One season gives way (dies) to usher in the new of the next season. And again, the dark of night transforms the new of day with the rising of the morning sun. Instinctively we know that ‘new’ equates to vitality and life force. The newborn infant screams this message loudly for all to hear: I am alive! I am viable! I am vital! I am ready to grow and to transform! And yet just minutes before the newborn’s birth, she was forcefully expelled from the womb of her first existence.

Now that I have finished this New Year’s conversation with you all, I feel a certain excitement creeping into my mind, my emotions and my thinking. I feel the desire to embrace this New Year, with all it’s propensity for change and uncertainty, with the lusty cry of a newborn babe! I have arrived! I am fully awakened to this new day in this new year! I am fully alive and equal to the coming challenges…fully prepared to experience this new season with eyes wide open…fully resolved to embrace hope through the months of this coming year…Happy New Year 2018! And Happy New Year to all who read this little blog post!

One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. Henry Miller

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