Lately

I can’t help wanting us
to be like other people.
For example, if I were a smoker,

you’d lift a match to the cigarette
just as I put it between my lips.
It’s never been like that

between us: none of that
easy chemistry, no quick, half automatic
flares. Everything between us

had to be learned.
Saturday finds me brooding
behind my book, all my fantasies

of seduction run up
against the rocks.
Tell me again

why you don’t like
sex in the afternoon?
No, don’t tell me–

I’ll never understand you
never understand us, America’s strangest
loving couple: they never

drink a bottle of wine together
and rarely look at each other.
Into each other’s eyes, I mean.

Deborah Garrison A Working Girl Can’t Win

Notes:

How hard is it to put down the gadgets, pull your lover close, eye to eye, heart to heart, open a bottle of wine, chill?!?

CultFit Embrace


Short but Funky

Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is-

10 “things” that I learned in the 90’s that still resonate, painfully this morning on the mat:

The price is wrong!

There’s no crying in baseball.

In Paris, it’s a Royale with cheese.

You can’t handle the truth.

We are all connected in the Great Circle of life.

The bums lost.

Life finds a way.

Life is like a box of chocolates.

You can’t triple stamp a double stamp.

You need more flair.

Notes:

First response that can correctly name the movie the quotes appear in, wins something. There is consideration for style points and what these quotes are in reference to (Hint: I was the only dude in yoga class). Time to get creative peeps …

CultFit Pooh


(I’m) Reckless

In this world of numbness and information overload, the ability to feel, my boy, is a rare gift indeed-

You scowl at your running partner(s) for running with headphones in. You can faintly hear ‘1901’ blasting from their ears. They are insistently checking their GPS watch, every ten steps, although 10 miles later during a quick stop to refuel? Out comes a magenta hued insta-message to let the world know you just slammed a gel pack. Don’t they realize how much it annoys you? The anger on your face is plain as day …

Remember when placing an emergency call meant stepping into a phone booth? Today’s electronic do-dad’s and wireless communications gadgets have made it possible for us to handle emergencies in near real-time, help us to find and reconnect with long-lost friends and the best part: Fantasy Sports. Although all of this “convenience” we have at our finger tips comes at a steep price. The incursion of technology into our lives both at home and while out for an evening run, means less down time and we become ungrounded from our true spirit (tomorrows post).  FaceTube and iThings rip into and tear apart relationships and thwart leisure pursuits. I often lament about leisure/life balance, oddly the term “Balance” seems to be a thing of the past.

What in the world is the meaning of balance anymore?

Steeping back from the running story, we as families are feeling this pain at home as well. Social experiment for the day: Engage a teenager in an eye to eye conversation. Let me know how that works out for you. Today’s teens have booth feet, wading chest deep in a technology sinkhole, sad.

Notes:

Know what? It’s rather easy to blame social media and technology, I should know, I am rather adept at it. Over the past fortnight I have been thinking about this issue ad nauseam, what “balance” truly means, the mixed blessing and danger of technology and many other things (NHL Playoffs).  Even though social media and technology have placed the world at our feet, the 24/7 access impedes our spiritual health and quality of life.

Ask yourself today: Has the convenience been worth it?

CultFit Grounded


I’m Above

Happiness is only real when shared

Today’s blog post is all about you and your Top Secret. Your personal Top Secret may never have been told to another person before. It may be too personal or deeply haunting, digging up old thoughts and feelings. Feel free to share your Top Secret in the comments below.

Notes:

You may be surprised that your closely guarded secret is shared with many other people around the world!

I’ll start: Yoga and meditation are brilliant and if more dudes would surrender to their, inner bad ass self? Well, this would not be much of a secret then would it?

CultFit Hot Air


Prosa before Plantear

The young student sits with his head bent over his books, and his mind straying in youth’s dreamland; where prose is prowling on the desk and poetry hiding in the heart-

Never in a million years would I have envisioned that poetry and prose would be at the forefront of helping me heal: Knee surgery, back surgery, fractured neck, shattered orbital bone and too many other injuries to bore you with before the weekend begins. Although, injuries and rehabilitation are places where the human spirit is most vulnerable. It’s within these planes of vulnerability that literature and the arts have the greatest resonance.

Everyone reading today, is at some point touched ever so gently by an injury, either personally or through the experiences of a close friend or family member. None of us, NONE of us, are immune to the frailties and limitations of the human body. The burgeoning of the Inter-Webz, FaceTube and YouBook has shoved down our throat a wealth of information. However, the excessive amounts of “facts” at our disposal do not necessarily make it easier to cope with the fears and unknowns of illness, injury and loss. This, I believe, is where the Arts and Humanities fit in. *Long time readers have noticed the changes around here.*

When I started this blog over two years ago, I had no idea that my life would veer toward literature and the healing arts. Poetry, prose, the arts have reminded me that healing is a multi-dimensional process, being spiritually healthy is far more important to me now.

Notes:

The arts and the humanities are critical elements in our life, and I am truly grateful that they have a home here at CultFit, with you, and our friends. One last thing before you download another running-app … Click on over to the Poetry Foundation and consider downloading their Poetry App. Immerse yourself in new poetry after a cool down run or workout, maybe?

Pie in Omaha?!? Did someone say “Pie in Omaha?!?” Take care and have a beautiful weekend!

CultFit Bear Shark