PAX of 9 rolled out into the early morning gloom at 445 sharp (excluding the time for Goat to run back to the truck for something, for Spaulding to tie his shoes, for waiting the standard 2 minute grace period for Eeyore, and for YHC to remember what the workout plan was to be)
Standard warmup fare with *bonus* arm circles, which everyone loved
Mosey towards cinder blocks…griping ensues
Block exercises IC: curls, shoulder press, lawn mower (thanks to 9 Lives for helping me figure out what 10 reps IC worked out to be), Muhammed Alis. Somewhere in there Jazzhands demonstrated several Fortnite dances (I think) and some of the crowd wanted more (while some of the crowd wanted less)
Lunge walk allllllllll the way around the parking lot island
Repeato, then put blocks back
Mosey to fountain for a set of 12 reps of: Merkins, step ups (thanks Code Blue for your integrity, speed and accuracy), dips, incline merkins, jump squats. At this point, Dingo was confident that the theme of “12” would carry over to the coffee discussion, eg we’d be talking about the 12 disciples…
Run a lap and repeato, decreasing reps by two. At this point, Dingo was determined that our coffee discussion would be about x number of disciples (8 disciples? 6 disciples?)
We were up against the clock, the PAX complained, so YHC tried to cut the last set short to appease, the PAX complained about that too, so on and so forth until 0530
Pax of 10 for Discussion (Galatians I: 10-18): Paul’s 3 year stint in Arabia, shortly after his conversion but before his return to Jerusalem to spread the word of Christianity. Although there is little documentation of his time there, we suspected his time had several purposes: reconciling his past with God (since seeing the truth in Jesus would cause him to reflect heavily on his past), learning what the message of Christianity is directly from Christ (and not through consultation with others), and mental/spiritual readying for his new life (as he likely knew what to expect when he returned to the world radically different than before to start “rescuin’ the gentiles”). A lot of insight was shared, including the reminder that a relationship with God is an individual, 1:1 experience, as well as the importance of slowing down, being quiet, and listening. Code Blue reminded us of a great quote applicable from “Alice in Wonderland”: “Don’t just do something, stand there.” In other words, we all can fill our days and lives with tasks, responsibilities, and problems to fix (not necessarily bad things). BUT, solitude has the potential to clear space in our heads (just as we can clear space for someone by simply listening and being there).
We covered a lot of ground today…grateful for everyone who made it out. Especially Earl Gray joining us via Interwebs all the way from -3 degree Michigan!