HeeHee wanted to know if anyone in the Empower community was as daring in their culinary adventures as she and whether you could match her feat of eating a live baby octopus. Well, as ever, you proved you were up to her challenge in answering what was the strangest thing you ever ate.
Of course there were a lot of exotic foods like ostrich, rattlesnake, crocodile, chicken’s feet, beef tongue and guinea pig. Gymkata and I had both tasted fermented shark. Riot, Shine and I all admitted to having tasted dog treats. Of course Riot and I were kids when we tried them! Jedi’s monkey brain soup definitely ranked up there among the strangest three dishes along with Pepper’s box of match heads. But personally I’d have to give Hard Rock the win for eating dried dog food out of the toilet bowl (hopefully when she was young!) That’s just like Hard Rock to have to out do the rest of us. In this case however I don’t mind giving her the win.
If there is a lesson that I’d like to take away from Christmas 2020 it is that joy is not something outside yourself that is given to you, joy is something that you create. Christmas is a time of joy and the joy for me is not in the receiving but in the giving. Not the obligatory sort of giving but the unexpected variety. Today I dropped a Christmas card and a Breka gift certificate to the guy who lives in the bus across the street from the gym. It wasn’t much, just a small gesture to someone who is spending Christmas alone and might not be expecting any gifts this season at all. Maybe it meant something to him, maybe not, but it meant something to me.
This week I’ve been able to create a little bit of joy by giving just a little bit where it wasn’t expected. I hope these small unexpected acts of kindness bring a little bit of joy into the lives of others and I know they bring a lot of joy into mine. To me that is the spirit of Christmas. I realize me handing our Christmas gifts is cultural appropriation but I’m unrepentant, I believe the spirit of Christmas transcends religion and culture.
Joy isn’t something that you can sit passively and wait for. It is not something that can be swept away by a stroke of misfortune. Joy is something you get to create and re-create everyday. Regardless of circumstance. But only if you choose it. You don’t have to hand out gift cards to randoms on the street, you can find your own way of creating joy. This year we’re celebrating a COVID Christmas, get out there and make your own joy!
Christmas Day WOD
Equipment: Skipping rope, barbell or dumbbell or kettlebell or backpack, pvc pipe
Warm Up
1 min Each
Scap Rock
Scap Rotations
Scap Retractions
Full Body Rock
Air Squat
Shoulder Pass Throughs
Single Arm OHS R/L
Calf Raises
OHS
Cross Crawls
Tech
OHS variations
DU and alternatives
WOD
3 Rounds:
10 OHS
50 DU
Cool Down
Calf Stretch
Shoulder series
Quad Stretch