The Art of Manliness

The blog, The Art of Manliness, has been online since 2008.  Semper Virilis covers topics such as relationships and family, dress and grooming, health and sports, money, lifestyle, and psychology. 

Seven Letters to Write Before You Die

Warrior Mace Training

Creating a Positive Family Culture

Smoothing Away the Edges

"Case: 
Jui-yen asked Yen-t'ou, "What is the fundamental constant principle?"
Yen-t'ou said, "Moving."
Jui-yen said, "When moving, what then?"
Yen-t'ou said, "You don't see the fundamental constant principle?"
Jui-yen stood there thinking.
Yen-t'ou said, "If you agree, you are not yet free of sense and matter; if you don't agree, you'll be forever sunk in birth-and-death."

Verse:
The round pearl has no hollows,
The great raw gem isn't polished.
What is esteemed by people of the Way is having no edges.
Removing the road of agreement, sense and matter are empty:
The free body, resting on nothing, stands out unique and alive."
-  Jui-yen (Zuigan, Song Am) was a Chinese Zen Master who lived from 800-900 CE. 
   Found in The Roaring Stream: A New Zen Reader, Edited by Nelson Foster and Jack Shoemaker, p. 182

"In life, when you encounter mean and hurtful people, treat them like sandpaper. No matter how rough they may scrub you, you end up polished and smooth."
-  Nishan Panwar

Magic Pearl Qigong

Activities That Might Help Your Liver

"Aerobic exercise differs from other types of physical activity in that it is typically of longer duration, yet of relatively low intensity. It generally involves rhythmically using the same large muscle group for at least 15 to 20 minutes. Examples of aerobic activities are walking, biking, jogging, rowing, swimming and cross-country skiing. As a rule, you should be able to carry on a short conversation while doing aerobic exercise without gasping for breath.
Besides benefitting the 25 percent of American adults with a fatty liver, there are many more reasons to engage in regular aerobic exercise. Six reasons to get aerobic exercise daily are:
1.    Aerobic exercise activates the immune system, reducing susceptibility to colds and flus.
2.    Aerobic exercise helps keep arteries clear and strengthens the heart.
3.    Aerobic exercise can ease depression, reduce anxiety and promote relaxation.
4.    Aerobic exercise keeps muscles strong, which helps maintain mobility with advancing age.
5.    Aerobic exercise reduces cognitive decline in older adults.
6.    Aerobic exercise enhances stamina and reduces fatigue.
Although running a marathon may not be everybody’s preference, just about anyone can find a way to include aerobic exercise into their lifestyle. By partaking in this kind of physical activity, fatty liver disease can be prevented, steatosis reversed and steatohepatitis progression halted. As demonstrated by the Cleveland Clinic researchers, long and steady physical activity officially wins the race toward a leaner, healthier liver."
-  Nicole Cutler, Aerobic Exercise - A Smart Route for Battling a Fatty Liver

Walking: Quotes, Sayings, Poetry, Lore, Information.  Compiled by Mike Garofalo.

In the Eight Section Brocade Chi Kung Exercise set, the movement "Punching with an Angry Gaze" is claimed to benefit the liver.  Look at three Qigong liver exercises explained by Harold Sconiers, and four from Ashley Miller.  Liver functions are purportedly at a peak from 1 am to 3 am.  Qigong emphasizes reducing anger to improve liver functioning. 


A diet that is low in fat and high in fiber and lower in calories might help you become leaner. Having less fat around your abdomen, a trim waistline, might benefit your liver.  

Among the Six Daoist Healing Sounds, it is claimed that the sound "Shhhhh " as in "Shush," with the lips pursed, is supposedly beneficial to one's liver.  

Five Yoga poses supposedly helpful in improving liver function are Kapalbhati Pranayama, Ardha Matsyendrasana, Dhanurasana, Gomukh Asana, and Nauksana.  Here are 21 Ways a yoga teacher recommends to help your liver health. 

Kapalbhati Pranayama

Kapalbhati Pranayama

General medical information about fatty liver disease:

The Everett Clinic

Better Health Channel

WebMD

Be Careful

Know Yourself and Act Accordingly

Some Taijiquan, Qigong and Yoga exercises are not appropriate for people who are out of
shape, in poor physical condition, suffering from chronic or life threatening illnesses,
elderly, infirm, recovering from illness, etc..  For example, bending over and touching
your toes is probably not a good idea for people with high blood pressure, obesity,
suffering from back pain or arithitis, fail bones, or for folks who are totally out of shape. 
Specific exercises are counterindicated depending upon your physical condition, and
if you're in poor or failing health, consult with your personal physician for advice.

You need to be realistic about your state of health and general physical condition.
If your are just beginning any exercise program - proceed slowly and cautiously.  Modify
the degree of difficulty, the number of repetitions, or the duration of any exercise set to
your own comfort and safety level.  Do not try to do what others can do or will do, if it is
inapproprate for you to do.  Don't compare yourself to others and don't be critical of oneself.  Be realistic and safe!

If you need to rest during a class, then just sit quietly and attentively observe.  Drink fluids as needed.  

The best Taijiquan and Chi Kung and Yoga teachers always advise you to be aware of your body,  be sensitive to your body, be "in tune" with your body, and listen to your body.  They  encourage beginners to be gentle on themselves, proceed slowly, and modify the
exercise to suit the student's state of health, level of fitness, age, and body type.  They
view their internal art as a life long regimen, something that evolves and progresses
over long periods of time, and not a "Quick Fix 10 Minutes to Super Health, Rock Hard
Abs, and Super Sex Dynamic Program."   They advocate regular daily exercise,
relaxation, deep breathing, a peaceful and positive attitude, proper eating, adequate rest, and gentle self care - not magic.  

Success in Your Tai Chi Chuan Training Program

How Can You Be Successful in Your Taijiquan Training

By Michael P. Garofalo, Valley Spirit Taijiquan, Red Bluff, California

June of 2014

1.  Get stronger in your legs and waist.  I recommend walking for 1.5 hours four days a week at a brisk pace to condition the legs and waist.   Taijiquan requires you to stand and move for 60 to 90 minutes during a typical Taijiquan practice session or class.  "Tai Chi" (Taijiquan) could also be called "Thigh Chi" because of the demands it makes on the legs and waist.  You need some cardio-vascular (aerobic) training, like long walks, to condition the heart and lungs and legs to better prepare for the demands of Taijiquan training.

2.  Practice, Learn, Practice, Learn, Practice, Learn, Practice, Learn ....  The daily practice of the Taijiquan Forms and Sets is required for "success" (i.e., achievement, skill, adeptness, facility, superior performance, excellence, advancement, fluency, etc.) in Taijiquan training.  You must challenge yourself to learn more each month.  Hard work and dedication (Kung Fu) are necessary for integrating the practice of Taijiquan in your life.  

3.  Listen, observe, imitate, and learn from your Taijiquan teachers.  Use the many fine instructional DVDs now available to learn more about the Taijiquan forms you are practicing.  Read books and magazine articles and web pages, and study UTube demonstrations, to learn more about the Taijiquan forms you are practicing.  Learn more about the history and styles of Taijiquan.  If you are among the few persons fortunate enough to learn directly from a Taijiquan master or grandmaster, then treasure this unique learning opportunity, and advance accordingly under their tutelage.  Give respect to teachers who have earned and deserve respect.  Be humble and open-minded so as to properly absorb new information, ideas, and techniques.  Don't be overly judgmental of others, but don't be a fawning fool or credulous.  

4.  Taijiquan has "Principles" that should be embodied and exemplified in your mind-body practice of this ancient Chinese art.  Some time must be spent learning these key ideas, concepts and principles so as to integrate them into your practice.  For examples, concepts like relaxed, sinking, centering, weighted, balanced, energized, focused, intentions, opponent, forms, styles, heart-mind, spirit, etc., must be learned.  Some understanding and appreciation for the Taoist outlook is valuable and useful for advancement in Taijiquan.   

5.  Find the Taijiquan style suitable to your physique, age, temperament, attitude, limitations, and physical condition.  Select an intensity of practice suitable to your energy level for the day or week, and any physical limitations of a temporary or permanent nature.  Be flexible, explore, adapt, and experiment to find appropriate solutions to your specific individual circumstances.  Cultivate good self-awareness and realistic views of your personal skill sets.  Avoid too many comparisons with other more advanced Taijiquan players.   

6.  Be detailed orientated.  Be precise in your movements, postures, and sequences.  Appreciate the beauty and function of the movements in the tradition of Taijiquan that you practice.  Learn the sequence and names (English and Chinese) for all the parts and postures of the Taijiquan forms you are studying. 

7.  Fight against your real opponents: inactivity, laziness, inflexibility, weakness, inertia, fear, worry, depression, confusion, and sloth.  You are training to become stronger, more agile, more balanced, more enlightened, more conditioned.  You serious efforts in your Taijiquan training will help to ward of disease, improve your immunity, strengthen you muscles, improve your cardio-vascular functioning, ameliorate existing health problems, brighten your attitude, uplift your spirits, calm your emotions, and boost your confidence.  Taijiquan is a self-defense system against poor health habits and sloppy living.  Your final opponents are illness and dying.  Fight on, brothers and sisters!!  

8.  Be patient.  Think and act in terms of months, seasons, and years.  Persevere through the inevitable stale, boring, plateau periods when progress seems stuck.  Consistent practice cultivates will power.  Don't give up.  Have confidence that your self-discipline will bear fruit in due season, and create the seeds leading to a new and rewarding self-appreciation and self-respect. 

Other Ideas About How to Achieve Success in Taijiquan Training

With Beauty Before Me I Walk

"Happily the spell is taken off for me
Happily I walk, impervious to pain I walk,
Light within I walk, joyous I walk
... In beauty I walk
With beauty before me I walk
With beauty after me I walk
With beauty above me I walk
With beauty above and about me I walk
It is finished in beauty
It is finished in beauty."
-  The Night Chant, Navajo Native American Chant  

"We live in a fast-paced society.  Walking slows us down." 
-  Robert Sweetgall  

“I firmly believe that everyone deserves to live within walking distance of either beauty or convenience, if not both."
-  Victoria Moran, Lit From Within: Tending Your Soul For Lifelong Beauty  

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive at where we started
And know the place for the first time."  
-  T. S. Eliot,  Little Gidding 

Walking: Quotes, Poems, Sayings, Lore.  Compiled by Mike Garofalo.

 

Swinging Arms Exercises

I am developing a webpage on Bai Bi Yun Dong (Swinging Arms Exercises).  It it includes lessons on various forms of this popular exercise, an extensive bibliography and links, and a brief introduction. Here is my description of the Swinging Arms Form One.

1.  Swinging Arms Exercise - Form One

Swinging the Arms Forward and Back, Up and Down
Pendulum Swing

1.  Stand with your feet at a hip width distance apart, less than shoulder width, feet pointing straight ahead.  Keep the knees slightly bent.  This standing stance should be comfortable.  Release tension in the body, soften, stay loose, open the chest, keep an open mind - in short, maintain Sung. 
2.  Keep your head over your shoulders, and the head in line with the spine.  Lift the crown of the head and tuck the chin a little.  Shoulders are kept relaxed, but don't slouch.  Maintain central equilibrium.  Keep an upright posture. 
3.  The feet are grounded and rooted into the earth.  Feet remain flat on the floor during the entire exercise.  The feet should point straight ahead.  The knees are over the feet.   
4.  Look forward, soften and widen your visual focus.  Take in the whole practice scene.  Don't try to block sensory feelings, zone out, or escape being fully present in the simple here and now.
5.  Arms should be loose, relaxed, and hanging gently at the sides of your hips.  Hands should remain soft and relaxed. 
6.  Gently raise both arms up in front of the body, palms facing down.  Raise the arms up to about shoulder height or less, depending upon the mobility or comfort range of motion for your shoulder joint.  The arms are fairly straight with only a slight bend in the elbow. 
7.  Allow the arms to gently move down and back to the sides of your hips.  Continue to lift the arms up behind the body, palms facing up, to a height you are comfortable with, depending upon the mobility of your shoulder joint.  Most people draw the hands up behind the back at considerably less than a 30 degree angle up from the hips.  Then bring the arms downward until the hands are along sides of the hips.  The arms are fairly straight with only a slight bend in the elbow. 
8.  Continue moving both arms at the same time from the hips, up to about shoulder height or less in front, down to the sides of the hips, and up the back, then down to the hips.  Be gentle.  Take your time.  Both arms will gradually begin to effortlessly swing up and down, forward and back, up and down.  Relax!  The arms are fairly straight with only a slight bend in the elbow. 
9.  Breathing is natural, comfortable, effortless, unstrained.  Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.  The tongue rests gently on the upper palate.  
10.  The knees will gently begin to bend and straighten slightly as the arms swing forward and back.  A swinging rhythm will establish a bending pattern and movement flow in the knees.  Don't keep the knees stiff, locked, or rigid.  Go with the flow. 
11.  Continue to swing the arms forward and back until you have warmed up your body, loosed the joints, and established a comfortable and flowing motion of swinging your arms.  Slowly increase the pace of your swinging. 
12.  Avoid rapidly snapping the lower arms or hands as you draw you arms downward from the front.   
13.  Enjoy swinging your arms forward and backward for as long as you like.  Start with a swinging practice of two to four minutes, and gradually increase the practice time as your body becomes conditioned to the exercise, your stamina increases, and you find benefits from doing this exercise. 
14.  As you near the end of the exercise period, slow the swinging pace down and reduce the range of motion in the swing.  Gradually slow down and finally stop.  Stand and rest for awhile.   
    This dynamic stretching exercise helps various parts of the body and is an excellent warm up exercise.  It stretches the biceps as you draw the arms back and up.  It stretches the triceps as you swing the arms up and forward.  The relaxed fingers and wrists are stretched on the downward fall of the arms (a nice counter to the flexed and tensed positions of the hands on a keyboard).  The shoulder joint and tendons benefit from the gentle range of motion activity, and the deltoid muscles are exercised.  The pectoral muscles are stretched on the backward movement of the arms.  Strength gains, although very modest, are primarily in the deltoids, latissimus, obliques, quadriceps, and trapesius.  If the swinging arms activity is continued long enough the heartbeat will increase slightly.  This kind of rhythmic activity has a calming effect on the body and reduces stress.  Stephen Sinatra, M.D., claims this exercise will benefit the thoracic duct and help the heart.  Chinese Qigong masters claim that Qi flow is enhanced and the body energized, blood pressure is reduced, and various diseases are prevented or healed. 
    There are alternative versions of this Swinging Arms exercise practiced and recommended by different folks.  Some people like to quietly count the repetitions on the forward up swing as it helps them to focus and maintain a regular breathing pattern.  Some people just swing one arm forward and back, and alternate between the arms.  Guo Lin's Qigong, a Walking Qigong, for cancer patients, alternates the arm swing from side to side, but the elbows are bent more and the waist turns from side to side as the arms swing upward.  Some people enjoy stepping in place or walking forward in a coordinated manner (e.g., Yang Jwing Ming) as they swing their arms forward and backward, up and down.  Swinging the arms or pumping the arms during brisk walking is a popular exercise.  Some swing the arms higher up in the front, up to face level or higher.  Some rise on their heels as they swing the arms up.  Some rock the toes up and down, or the heels up and down as they swing their arms.  Some like to talk with others as they swing their arms, others prefer being quiet.  Some hold very light dumbbells or kettlebells in the hands while doing this exercise for greater strength gains, although repetitions are kept low.   
-  By Michael P. Garofalo, Swinging Arms Exercises: Bai Bi Yun Dong

                                     摆 臂 运 动

Here is an informative video presentation with some creative adaptations of Swinging Hands by Shifu Mike Pekor of Tai Chi Kung Fu of Long Island: Tai Chi Swing Series  UTube, 9:21 minutes.  I also describe this version in my new webpage as Swinging Arms Form Two.

The Homeland of Time's Past

"I saw Master Chang San-feng
Enter the Sidhe, Fairies by his side,
Crossing over the pond at dawn.
Astonished I was!
On the teahouse table by the pond I later found
Some of his neatly printed notes
Folded in a well worn tome 
Of the Tao Te Ching, in Chapter 14. 

He had written:
”Even for an Immortal, the Past is the Key.

The Future
Grasp at it, but you can’t get it,
Colorless as an invisible crystal web,
Unformed, thin, a conundrum of ideas,
The Grand White Cloud Temple of Possibilities,
Flimsy as a maybe, strong as our hopes,
Silent as eternal Space.
When you meet it, you can’t see its face.
You want to stand for it, but cannot find a place. 

The Present
It appears and disappears through the moving ten thousand things,
Quick as a wink, elusive as a hummingbird,
Always Now with no other choice,
Moving ground, unstable Plates,
Real as much as Real gets to Be,
This Day has finally come,
Room for something, for the moment, waits
Gone in a flash, assigned a date,
Gulp, swallowed by the future.
Unceasing, continuous, entering and leaving
The vast empty center of the Elixir Field.

The Past
Becoming obscurer, fading, falling apart,
A mess of memories in the matrix of brains;
Some of it written, fixed in ink, chiseled in stone,
Most of it long lost in graves of pure grey bones.
Following it you cannot see its back,
Only forms of the formless, stories, tales,
Images of imageless, fictions, myths.
A smattering of forever fixed facts,
Scattered about the homes of fading ghosts. 
The twists and turns of millions of tongues
Leaving us languages, our passports to the past.

The future becomes past, the present becomes past,

Every thing lives, subtracting but seconds for Nowness, in the Past. 
The Realms of the Gods, the kingdoms of men,
The Evolutionary Tree with roots a million years long
Intertwined with turtles, dragons, trees, stars and toads;
     crickets, coyotes, grasses, tigers, bears, monkeys and men.  

These profoundest Three of Time
An unraveled red Knot of Mystery,
Evading scrutiny in the darkness of days
Eluding capture in the brightness of nights,
In beginnings and endings are only One, the Tao,
Coming from Nowhere, Returning to Nothing.  

What dimension of Time
Does your mind dwell within?
Future, Present or Past
Where is your homeland?  

The Past holds the accomplishments, the created, the glories, and the Great.
The Present is but a thin coat of ice on the Pond of Fate. 
The Future is an illusion, a guess, a plethora of possible states.

Recreate the Past
By playing within the Present. 
Twisting and reeling one’s silky reality
From the Black Cocoons of the Acts
From which we create our Pasts.
Follow the Ancient Ways. 
The Past is the Key.”   

-  By Michael P. Garofalo, Meetings with Master Chang San-feng

Taoist Master Chang San-feng

Tao Te Ching, Chapter 14

Meetings with Master Chang San-feng

Wudang Taoist Mind-Body Arts


Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

One by One We Must All File On

"Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow it's mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go.
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all.
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life's gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain."

-  Solitude by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 1850-1919

Beauty for the Ears

Thanks to some nice Father's Day gifts from my wife and daughter, I've been listening to some outstanding music.

 The No. 13 String Quartet in A Minor by Franz Schubert (1797-1828) from 1824 is very appealing to me.  I have listened to this composition many times and with great pleasure.  I have been listening to the Guarneri String Quartet version recorded in 2009. Schubert's No. 14 String Quartet, Death and the Maiden, and No. 15 in G Major, along with No. 13, all premiered around 1825, and have been recorded by many fine string quartets and are a concert favorite. 

Another favorite of mine are the three string quartets by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): Opus 51, No. 1 and No. 2, and Opus 67.  These three quartets were composed around 1873.  I am listening to the Emerson String Quartet recording from 2007.  A real bargain in MP3 format for $15.00 ... something to enjoy for years to come. 

One fascinating book I read this week, borrowed from our local public library, was "The Larousse Encyclopedia of Music."  It was edited by Geoffrey Hindley.  Crescent Books, 1990, 576 pages, with extensive black and white illustrations.  This books focuses on regional traditional music and "classical" music.  Modern popular music (e.g., the rock music quartet) is not discussed.  This book is valuable to those interested in the history of ideas. 

I do also listen to 20th century string quartet compositions; however, the Classical and Romantic compositions from Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms are essential listening in this genre. 

Taijiquan Sword Form, 32 Movements

32 Sword Form, Simplified, Yang Style, Taijiquan Jian.

A webpage by Michael P. Garofalo. 

This popular webpage includes a comprehensive bibliography, scores of links to webpages; an extensive listing of the names and name variations for each movement in English, Chinese, French, German, and Spanish; a detailed analysis of each posture and movement sequence with explanations and numbered illustrations and detailed instructions; selected quotations; comments on 20 Taijiquan sword techniques; a comprehensive media bibliography; a chart of performance times; recommendations for starting to learn this form at home one your own with instructional DVDs, books and practice methods; and, a comparison of the 32 and 55 sword forms in the Yang style. 

This is the standard, simplified, orthodox, 1957, 32 Taiji Sword Form, in the Yang Style of T'ai Chi Ch'uan. 

© Michael P. Garofalo, Valley Spirit Taijiquan, Green Way Research, Red Bluff, California, October 2, 2011.  235Kb+. 

32 Taijiquan Simplified Sword Form

20 T'ai Chi Ch'uan Sword Techniques

55 Classical Yang Taiji Sword

Cloud Hands Taijiquan



 

The Wild Horse Jumps Over the Mountain Stream 

Weightlifting Exercises for Older Men

Strength Training for Persons Over 55 Years of Age  by Mike Garofalo

I lift weights 5 days each week at the Tehama Family Fitness Center in Red Bluff, California. 

My current weight training partner, since January, 2014, is Roger Andresen.  Roger is 64 years of age, highly motivated, and competitive.  His legs are very strong.  I've seen him do 12 repetitions on the incline sled leg press machine with 620 pounds.  I am 68 years of age.  I can do incline sled leg presses 5 times with 480 pounds.  We do free barbell squats with up to 245 pounds for 6-8 reps.

My one repetition best ever in the bench press was 255 pounds, but I now train regularly at around 195 for 5-10 reps.  

We do from 16 to 20 sets, 8-12 reps per set, during each workout.  We sometimes drop to 5 reps for our heaviest lifts. We lift some comparatively heavy weights for a couple of older men!! 

My current summer season (6/12-8/15) fitness, bodybuilding, and weight training schedule is as follows:

Monday:   Walk for 4 miles 5am; Weightlifting for Legs 4pm; Yoga class 5:30pm; Taijiquan practice 6am; Gardening in morning.
Tuesday:   Walk for 4 miles 5am; Weightlifting for Back and Shoulders 4pm; Yoga class 5:30pm; Taijiquan practice 6am.
Wednesday:  Walk for 4 miles 5am; Taijiquan practice 6am; Gardening in morning.
Thursday:   Walk for 4 miles 5am; Weightlifting for Chest and Arms 4pm; Yoga class 5:30pm; Taijiquan practice 6am. 
Friday:   Walk for 4 miles 5am; Weightlifting for Legs 4 pm; Taijiquan practice 6am; Gardening in morning. 
Saturday:  Walk for 4 miles 5am; Taijiquan practice 6am; Gardening in morning.
Sunday:  Walk for 4 miles 5am; Weightlifting for Chest and Arms 4am; Taijiquan practice 6 am; Gardening in morning.

For more information about Strength Training for Persons Over 55 Years of Age, please check my webpage on the subject.  This webpage also gives more details on my exercise program. 

The Principles of Weight Training:  Overload, Progression, Specificity, Rest and Recovery, Nutrition, Variety, and Proper Attitude. 

Listen to what some other people have said about having the Proper Attitude: motivation, intention, desire, goals, determination, willpower, and focus:

“Weight lifting is about lifting the impossible, overcoming the unachievable. If you don’t lift things that are hard, and only do the things you can do, it’s only going to get boring.  Unless you want to lift beyond your limits to get stronger, to achieve new goals, and to be satisfied, you got to lift past these challenges, and still lift the things you think are impossible to really understand how your true strength will show.  Lift how I lift, see how I lift, watch how I lift, learn how I lift, and your true strength will come forth and be revealed”
– Chasers Holmes

“When it comes to eating right and exercising, there is no ‘I’ll start tomorrow.’ Tomorrow is disease.”
– V.L. Allinear

“To feel strong, to walk amongst humans with a tremendous feeling of confidence and superiority is not at all wrong. The sense of superiority in bodily strength is borne out by the long history of mankind paying homage in folklore, song and poetry to strong men”.
– Fred Hatfield

"Take care of your body.  It’s the only place you have to live.”
–  Jim Rohn

“When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot become manifest, strength cannot be exerted, wealth is useless, and reason is powerless.”
– Herophiles

By trying hard we often achieve more than we dare hope.

You can't push yourself forward by patting yourself on the back.  
 
Waiting to do something isn't enough, you must do it.

You can never achieve great success without great exertion.

“Training gives us an outlet for suppressed energies created by stress and thus tones the spirit just as exercise conditions the body.”
– Arnold Schwarzenegger

"There is no point in being alive if you cannot do the deadlift."
- Jon Pall Sigmarsson

"We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same."
- Carlos Castaneda

"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength."
- Arnold Schwarzenegger

"Winning is not normal, and people who win do so by following an abnormal path. The discipline and dedication and sacrifices are incomprehensible to the thousands, standing outside looking in, who are capable of joining, yet unwilling to pay the price of admission."
- Steve Trippe

"It is no use saying, "We are doing our best." You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary."
- Winston Churchill

“The higher your energy level, the more efficient your body. The more efficient your body, the better you feel and the more you will use your talent to produce outstanding results.”
– Anthony Robbins

“Most of us think we don’t have enough time to exercise. What a distorted paradigm! We don’t have time not to. We’re talking about three to six hours a week – or a minimum of thirty minutes a day, every other day. That hardly seems an inordinate amount of time considering the tremendous benefits in terms of the impact on the other 162 – 165 hours of the week.”
– Stephen Covey

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."
-  Steve Prefontaine

"If you fully believe you will be successful and can visualize yourself being successful, you will succeed."
- Tom Platz

“I do it as a therapy. I do it as something to keep me alive. We all need a little discipline. Exercise is my discipline.”
– Jack LaLanne

I don't have time to lift, I make time.

“Intensity builds immensity”
– Kevin Levrone

“To keep the body in good health is a duty… otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.”
– Buddha

Have the courage to accept what you can't alter and to alter what you can't accept.

Thoughts are mere dreams until you put them into practice.

If you waste today crying over yesterday, you'll be able to waste tomorrow crying over today.

"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence."
- Vince Lombardi

"Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory."
- General George Patton

"There is no failure except in no longer trying."
- Elbert Hubbard

"Bodybuilding is much like any other sport. To be successful, you must dedicate yourself 100% to your training, diet and mental approach."
- Arnold Schwarzenegger

"If",."perhaps" and "but" never got any person anywhere.  

The most important day of your life is today.  
 

"Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragement, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak"
- Thomas Carlysle

"I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds"
- Henry Rollins.

"Squat more!"
- Jesse Marunde

"That which does not kill us makes us stronger"
- Friedrich Nietzsche

"Sell yourself short on nutrition and you're selling yourself short on maximizing your physique development."
- Ernie Taylor

"If you believe in yourself, have dedication, pride, and never quit, you'll be a winner. The price of victory is high, but so are the rewards."
- Paul "Bear" Bryant

"Strength is happiness. Strength is itself victory. In weakness and cowardice there is no happiness"
- Daisaku Ikeda

"We don't know who we are until we see what we can do."
- Martha Grimes

 

Blanche Karen Garofalo Retires

Karen Garofalo, my wife, retired today, Thursday, on June 12, 2014.  

Her last employment was with the Tehama County Department of Education (TCDE) in Red Bluff, California, from 1998-2014.  She worked 30 hours per week, 5 days a week, as a Special Education Instructional Assistant helping physically and mentally handicapped students.  

She worked with preschool students at the special education center at the Barrendos Middle School campus in Red Bluff.  She helped severely handicapped primary school students at the TCDE Special Education Center at the Gerber School in the Gerber/Proberta area.  Then, she worked with adults, ages 18-21, at the Tehama Adult Learning Center (TALC) in Red Bluff.  She enjoyed working with and supporting the following teachers:  Gary Ulloa, Holly Allison, Judy Howry, Mary Craig, Ann Lieker, and the administrator Julie Howard.  

Karen has also worked for the Pacific Bell Telephone Company as a telephone operator; at the Popps Ferry Elementary School in Biloxi, Mississippi, as a instructional assistant; and, for an optometrist as a receptionist.  She, of course, has "worked" for many years, and will continue to do so, as a homemaker, mother, and wife.  She was very active for many years as the President of the Hacienda Heights Friends of the Library, and was given the annual Citizen's Award in 1993 by the Los Angeles County Public Library System.  

Karen has raised two fine children, Alicia June and Michael Delmer.  Our two children, their spouses, and two grandchildren live in Portland, Oregon.  

I hope that Karen has a long, enjoyable, productive and energizing retirement.  

The Hieroglyphics of Place

"I live so much in my habitual thoughts that I forget there is any outside to the globe, and am surprised when I behold it as now--yonder hills and river in the moonlight, the monsters. Yet it is salutary to deal with the surface of things. What are these rivers and hills, these hieroglyphics which my eyes behold? There is something invigorating in this air, which I am peculiarly sensible is a real wind, blowing from over the surface of a planet. I look out at my eyes. I come to my window, and I feel and breathe the fresh air. It is a fact equally glorious with the most inward experience. Why have we ever slandered the outward?"
-  Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), Journal Vol. 4, 1852

"Look hard at what pleases you and harder at what doesn't."
-  Colette    

"It is easy to suppose that few people realize on that occasion, which comes to all of us, when we look at the blue sky for the first time, that is to say: not merely see it, but look at it and experience it and for the first time have a sense that we live in the center of a physical poetry, a geography that would be intolerable except for the non-geography that exists there - few people realize that they are looking at the world of their own thoughts and the world of their own feelings." 
-   Wallace Stevens, The Necessary Angel 

 

Spirituality and Nature

 

A scene along the Sacramento River near Red Bluff, California.  The Sacramento River is less than three miles due east of my home.  The smaller volcanic cones in the background are about 10 miles northeast of Red Bluff.  The area north of Red Bluff is forested with deciduous "blue" oaks (Quercus douglassii).  Our area is considered to be the beginning of the volcanic Cascade Mountain range, starting with Mt. Lassen.  Mt. Shasta is 100 miles north of Red Bluff.  Volcanic mountains and cones are essential to the "hieroglyphics" of our place on this earth. 

Seeing - Quotes and Poems

Mt. Shasta (14,179 feet high): Lore and Information

 

The Fourth Act of Awe

"What is divinity if it can come
Only in silent shadows and in dreams?
Shall she not find in comforts of the sun,
In pungent fruit and bright, green wings, or else
In any balm or beauty of the earth,
Things to be cherished like the thought of heaven?
Divinity must live within herself:
Passions of rain, or moods in falling snow;
Grievings in loneliness, or unsubdued
Elations when the forest blooms; gusty
Emotions on wet roads on autumn nights;
All pleasures and all pains, remembering
The bough of summer and the winter branch,
These are the measures destined for her soul."   
-  Wallace Stevens, Sunday Morning, 1915 

"Even before I could speak, I remember crawling through blueberry patches in the wild meadows on our hillsides.  I quickly discovered Nature was filled with Spirit; I never saw any separation between Spirit and Nature.  Much later I discovered our culture taught there was supposed to be some kind of separation - that God, Spirit and Nature were supposed to be divided and different.  However, at my early age it seemed absolutely obvious that the church of the Earth was the greatest church of all; that the temple of the forest was the supreme temple.  When I went to the sanctuary of the mountain, I found Earth's natural altar - Great Spirit's real shrine.  Years later I discovered that this path of going into Nature, bonding deeply with it, and seeing Spirit within Nature - God, Goddess, and Great Spirit - was humanity's most ancient, most primordial path of spiritual cultivation and realization."
-  John P. Milton, Sky Above, Earth Below
 
"In all things of nature there is something marvelous."  
-  Aristotle

"The first act of awe, when man was struck with the beauty or wonder of Nature, was the first spiritual experience."
-  Henryk Skolimowski  

"When the healthy nature of man acts as a whole, when he feels himself to be in the world as in a great, beautiful, noble, and valued whole, when harmonious ease affords him a pure and free delight, then the universe, if it could experience itself, would exult, as having attained its goal, and admire the climax of its own becoming and essence."
-  Goethe 

Spirituality and Nature

Awe and Wonder

Working, Reading, Listening

I have been very busy with home improvement projects, gardening, reading, loading and testing software on my new HP desktop computer, weightlifting, walking, and writing.

It has been very hot, over 100F, each day in the afternoon.  These high temperatures make outdoor work or exercise after 11 am quite difficult for us.   

Karen and I work Tuesday and Wednesday at our school jobs this week.  Starting on Thursday, we are off work at our school jobs for summer vacation.  Karen retires this Thursday, 6/14.

I have enjoyed reading the following two books about the history of string quartets.  First, "The Cambridge Companion to the String Quartet" edited by Robin Stowell, 2003, 373 pages.  This was a Father's Day gift from Karen.  My daughter gave me three string quartet albums for Father's Day.  Second, I am also reading Paul Griffith's "The String Quartet: A History," 1983, 240 pages.  Both are difficult reading for me when it comes to the detailed explanations about the musical theory of particular compositions.  I can neither play music nor can I read music.  I'm more interested in the historical development, biographical and cultural backgrounds, the technology of the instruments and recording, and innovations.

This week, I listened to Beethoven's String Quartets, Opus 18, No. 1-6.  They were played by the Tokyo String Quartet.  I listened to the MP3 digital recordings.  Clear, crisp, exciting!  These string quartets were composed by Beethoven from 1798 to 1800.

Also, I have been listening to Kitaro's "The Sacred Journey of Ku-Kai," Volumes I - IV, 2006-2010.  This music is classified as "New Age Music."  The Ku-Kai albums were nominated for New Age Grammy awards.