Tag Archives: musings

Time and the clock

2 Replies

Time and the clock.

My daughter’s alarm clock is blaring through her door as regular pulses reminiscent of the loud echoing blasts announcing a prisoner escape.  How she is sleeping through it amazes me.  Her strategy is to have multiple devices yell at her land of nod until one or another pierces the veil of her dreamscape enough for her to join the world of the awake.  She then stumbles up and out of her room towards the bathroom and the beginning of her morning.

It puts me in mind of how much of what we do is regulated by time.

We have the “masters” of the industrial revolution to thank for that one; having invented mechanized devices as the means of production, they needed a “regular” workforce to man and woman those machines.  Hence our alarm clocks which still beckon us (more like rip us) from the delicious warmth of bed and dreams into the world of work and dare I say a bit of drudgery???

Not so the boxer’s time clock!  Least ways not in my estimation.

Those intervals of time feel more like the explosions of musical notes with three minutes to blow your ax before resting and blowing again.

Shadow boxing around my living room gets to feel like an improvisational dance, throwing punches this way and that as I circle my way left then right, hop skipping forward or to the side, my arms flailing at the air to their own rhythm.  Then the dead s-t-o-p before repeating it all again — and yet different.

A jazzed solo, the improvisation of a boxing performance has all of the nuanced grace of a horn pushing out its notes in a staccato rhythm all its own and yet timed and lovely and full of melodic undertones, the dance of the body fluid and full of the momentum that pushes it from one posture to another for three full minutes before the ding of the bell signals the end of the round.

Good morning from Brooklyn!

5 Replies

Good morning from Brooklyn!


It is way too early, and yet with books from my latest grad school paper strewn about me on the couch, the noise of buses beginning their early runs and the thought of a Starbuck’s morning bun to get me going, I’m feeling rather privileged to be able to write a blog piece.

Plus I’m feeling quite joyous at the realization that today marks my 200th post!

I’ll admit it, I’m wowed!

And having put one foot in front of the other since starting this blog on October 7th — (is that really just a little over six months ago) I’m doubly wowed at how much writing Girlboxing has meant to me not the least of which because it’s brought me into two intersecting communities of things I love: writing and boxing. 

Thank you all for being the audience for my musings!

And for the chance to wake up at ridiculous hours in the morning to do my daily something which has grown to include writing, morning yoga and the occasional shadow boxing foray around the living room.

It’s also gotten me back in the gym on a regular basis and most importantly, a renewed appreciation for the sweet science and overwhelming respect for the men and women who practice the art.

On the more personal side, writing Girlboxing has been my own private Kaddish.  A way to honor memory and loss as a daily act of positive intent by exalting the best in life.  Some days are better than others, but I always, always write with a sense of wanting to have each day be that much better than the last.

Thank you all again for your generosity in listening!

 

One breath at a time

2 Replies

One breath at a time.

If there is one thing I’ve been trying to gain out of a daily yoga practice aside from the physical benefits, it’s been the reminder to take things as they come.

With yoga, one performs poses to the rhythm of the breath (or at least tries) and in doing so can be “present,” with the experience.  Or put another way, the mind helps push the body to extend itself to its best place — and through regular practice the possibility of great flexibility and strength, not to mention a more focused mental attitude and the *chance* for some clear moments free of mind-movies!

The practice, however, doesn’t always guarantee the focus or the release of all that mental junk that clogs the thinking which can hamper one’s ability to perform at one’s best.  Focus being another whole facet of every discipline and whether it’s yoga or boxing it requires a lot of inner strength to maintain.

That’s where in my estimation the emphasis on the breath in yogic practice can help in priming the mind towards focus:  a great way of tricking your mind into paying attention.  Kind of like Lennox Blackmore’s pop to my head as he yell’s “wake-up, wake-up,” when I make a truly fundamental blunder during our workout. It’s also a reminder to slow down racing thoughts that are extraneous to the task at hand.

This morning was a case in point for me.  Doing yoga, my mind wandering, I lost an entire pose, meaning, I *did* the pose, but lost to a mind-movie I “woke-up” somewhere at the end of it, not really remembering how I got there and in a teeter-totter not to fall down.  So yes, I did yoga, but I really didn’t because I lost the stream of what I was doing and without that, can I truly say that I practiced?

Try that in boxing, and one ends up in a face-plant on the mat, and frankly in yoga too, because so many of the poses not only require balance, but mental “presence” to truly gain mastery of the practice.  And it is that presence, that “be here now” concept that see’s one through so much of the daily struggles of life.

So, full-circle to the breath … take a few moments out of your busy day and remember to breathe and in so doing, slow down enough to be where you are one step at a time.

Under the gun: Or how I learned patience from the ring!

Leave a reply

Under the gun: Or how I learned patience from the ring!

“I don’t see you studying,” I say.

The prodigal says, “Did you know that the French Revolution started in 1789?”

I say, “yes, but what’s that got to do with biology???“

Prodigal says, “but Mom, I thought you’d like the fact that I know a random fact.”

Ugh!

I hate 6th grade biology.

I hate tests and I hate having been chained to my beloved youngin’ variously cajoling, pushing, pulling, commiserating and otherwise attempting to aid and abet her as she has variously studied, grumped, whined, drifted and finally studied some more for her very b-i-g test tomorrow.

Getting the picture?

We’re talking ten rounds of constant battle and I am up-against-the-ropes losing … badly!

So, what’s to be done as she pushes up from her book to organize a deck of playing cards … PLAYING CARDS?!?!?

BUT … we also have a eureka moment, viruses, bacteria, and now protists done!

And wait … ah ha.  The cards are down and its fungi time — and not only that, I can see that somewhere deep in the recesses of her brain she is thinking, “but I really do want to get a good grade!”

Yep, I’m off the ropes.  She’s quiet, and focusing, fingers flying across the keys of her mac book as she confidently says, “Mom, I’ll be in bed by ten.”

Seeing through the noise

Leave a reply

Seeing through the noise

Sometimes when life is really, really busy and bogged down with minutia, it’s hard to see through the noise.  We get so wrapped up that we find ourselves wrapped up in our wrappings.  We don’t remember what our intentions were in the first place — and how to get to where we intended to go.

To place it terms of the ring, we get so hung up the business of boxing whether as an amateur, a pro or a Saturday boxer like myself, that we lose site of the work itself.  We forget the lovely feeling of pushing our bodies to the limit; of feeling the grace of the fundamentals; and importantly remembering that being in the gym is a lot of fun.

I guess reading about Rola El-Halabi has upset me a lot — I cannot begin to imagine the dynamic that led to the horrific actions of her stepfather, but it does put me in mind to be very thankful indeed for the opportunities that I have, that many of us have, to be able to practice our sweet science in relative freedom.

So next time you’re feeling tied up in knots, take a deep breath and whether your passion is writing, boxing, running, cooking or throwing clay on the wheel — have a go at it again, only this time nice and slow so that you can remember just how wonderful a feeling it is to practice the thing that you love.

 

 

My gym day

8 Replies

My gym day!

Saturday is my gym day.

I walk my daughter to her Aikido Dojo — where she usually does her three hours split between the open and advanced classes — and make my way over to Gleason’s Gym for my own sweet 16.

Today’s practice will entail a straight no-chaser kind of morning:  four rounds of shadow boxing, four rounds of pads, four rounds on the double-ended bag with four rounds on the speed bag to finish the circuit.  Then it’s off to two-rounds of easy crunches on the sit-up chair as I mentally drift into a nice tired feeling in between catching glimpses of folks sparring in one of the boxing rings.

It’s become a kind of bliss.  My shirt half-soaked with sweat.  My face flushed.  Perspiration matted in my hair. My legs a little shaky as I make my way into the locker room to change; today kind of special, because instead of three hours, my prodigal will be spending her day at a seminar so free until 5:00 PM, I can tarry at the gym before taking my time walking home.

Reflecting as I walk; I know I’ll feel like summer: slow, deliberate, easy.  My body supple and warmed and ready for anything on my lazy meander up the hill near Gleason’s; smiling at the tourists under the Brooklyn Bridge overpass and finally returning to my usual self somewhere near Cadman Plaza where the rush of people will start to catch me back into the flow of a busy Saturday.

 

 

 

Off my feed

Leave a reply

Off my feed.

I’ve been a bit “off my feed,” so to speak over the last couple of days with deadlines all over the place, lots of work and way too much on my mind.  My hope is to get back into a more regular pattern beginning tomorrow.

My own sweet 16!

2 Replies

My own sweet 16!

I was not one of those girls that had a sweet 16 or a sweet teenage anything for that matter.  To put it charitably, my adolescence was challenged, and of course, it was the late 60’s so the best of circumstances were fairly topsy-turvy.

Flash forward to my future — 2011 and here I am touting the joys of my Saturday gym days where my sweet 16 consists of four rounds of shadow boxing, four rounds of hard work with Lennox Blackmore on the pads, four rounds circling and boxing the double-ended bag, and four rounds to wind things up on the speed bag.

We are talking the perfect morning.  Not to mention seeing the likes of Sonya Lamonakis and Belinda Laracuente going through their paces.  Inspiring to say the least — not to mention the countless men and women, old and young working their hearts out!

This is all a long way of saying whatever may have brought you down in your life — you have it within your power to reinvent it all to give yourself a sweet life.  And really, why not, what have you got to lose except some bad crap that happened so long ago it doesn’t matter anyway.  So be a champ to yourself with your own special brand of sweet 16, you deserve nothing less!

Life in snippets

1 Reply

Life in snippets

I had my annual visit to the accountant yesterday.  He’s a friend, but one I only see 45 minutes a year managing to catch-up on our lives in between questions about expenditures and dividends.

Those kinds of snippets of conversation; however, can be very affecting.  This year’s catch-up was no exception. He’s gone through the break-up of a long-term relationship and I’m in still in that one year period following my mother’s death.  That’s a lot of momentous change for one year, and yet I observed that he was happily going about transforming his life in wonderful new directions — just as I have found new outlets for expression.

It got me to thinking that gym life is kind of similar.  We make friends and share wonderful emotional moments, but only in small intervals.  Life in a boxing gym is no exception, yet the pursuit is often solitary.  Sure in a boxing class, their may be a circle of a few people all warming up together; but the majority of time for a boxer is spent moving in and out of contact.

Shadow boxing, pounding on a heavy bag, bobbing and weaving around the double-ended bag, and moving along the slip rope are all fairly solitary experiences.  The interactions tend to have to do with keeping out of each other’s way as on a busy evening, four, five or even six boxers shadow box in the ring, each carving out a bit of solitary space while dancing around without colliding or impeding the others.

And yet those conversations happen.  In the locker room; in the intervals between rounds; and in the occasional acknowledgment in the mirror as both boxers bang away at imaginary opponents.  It’s one of the things I have come to love about going to Gleason’s Gym.  The chance to feel embraced by a community of friends I may or may not see for periods of time, and yet are always there in my corner as I am in theirs.

 

 

 

MMA & Boxing: Taking a look!

2 Replies

MMA & Boxing: Taking a look!

I’m still trying to grapple with the sport of MMA (no pun intended).  It is certainly fast, exciting and tough.  With a growing fan base and movements to legalize MMA bouts in more states including, New York, I  thought it might be fun to post a few videos, courtesy of YouTube to see the great New Mexico fighter, Holly Holm in her first MMA bout as compared to Holly’s performance in a boxing match with Brooklyn’s own Belinda Laraquente.

From Holly Holm’s recent MMA debut bout vs. Christina Domke:

Classic Holly Holm vs. Belinda Laraquente in the ring from 2009:

Your thoughts will be appreciated!

 

Why I love women’s boxing!

8 Replies

Why I love women’s boxing!

Afghan Women Boxing, Credit: AFP/Katherine Haddon

I came across an amazing piece about young Afghani women training for the 2012 Olympics entitled, Afghan women boxers eye Olympic knockout!  We’re talking from the Taliban to the ring — in a country where girls and women still struggle for the right to leave the house or attend school, never mind don boxing gloves to learn the intricacies of the sweet science.

As Katherine Haddon put it in her lead graph, “In a gym at Kabul’s main stadium, where the Taliban used to publicly execute women accused of adultery, female Afghan boxers hoping to make it to the London 2012 Olympics are practicing their jabs.”

This is why I love women’s boxing.

Sure there’s the “game” side of it and the frustrations of attempting to make it as a professional — but at its heart any woman who boxes has an opportunity to push herself past all of the crap of gender construction in whatever society she is in to work it all out on the bag.  As a case in point, pick any ten random videos of a female boxing match on YouTube and read the vitriol, if the comments aren’t sexualized then they are some nonsense about how women “shouldn’t fight …”  And those comments are written here, in the U.S., so what’s that saying???

Meanwhile, back at the gym, girls and women box anyway because they have figured out it’s a beautiful way of moving beyond that sort of thinking into a realm of physical and mental strengthening.  And whether it’s an Aikido dojo, Tai Chi in the park or young Afghani women with an Olympic dream, taking those steps — and providing opportunities and encouragement for other women, young or old to take those steps is what will ultimately knock down the barriers that still keep so many women locked up inside.

YouTube also has a link, however it will only play on their site.  I recommend it highly!  You can find it here.

Yoga mama shadow boxing around my living room

2 Replies

Yoga mama shadow boxing around my living room

Having fallen “off the wagon” so to speak, I’m on day two of my renewed daily yoga routine what with being a bit hit and miss over the last two weeks — with an every 3rd morning routine.

What can I say — my arms are straining from plank pose, my hamstrings from downward facing dog, and my whole body from the Warrior 1, 2 & 3 sequences, but hey, I’m sitting taller while breathing nice and deep and full.  Even the kitty is excited, finding in my unfurled yoga mat a fun toy she’d apparently, really missed.

Next up, three rounds of shadow boxing around the living room to James Brown’s “Funky Good Time” before prancing my way around the kitchen to make some breakfast for the family.

It’s good to be back.

 

 

 

Slipping and sliding

4 Replies

Slipping and sliding

My little black cloud has returned.  The one my mother used to say followed me everywhere as a constant reminder of all the doom and gloom in the world.  I felt it coming on as a bad fever dream over the past couple of weeks when I started eschewing morning yoga in favor of reading Google “Top News” headlines.  Next came my compulsive news-watching — and now I’m in full-blown “chicken-little” mode what with four disabled nuclear reactors in Japan spewing radiation and reactors five and six on the way.

I guess it was the earthquake-tsunami combo that really put me over the edge and saw me blow-off a perfectly good weekend of work in favor of the intricacies of nuclear power plants.  Did you know, for instance that after the diesel engines failed, the workers jerry-rigged fire hoses to pour water into the reactors?

Having been to Japan both as a traveler and for work, there has been an immediacy to the events that hit home — not to mention that I not only grew up in the era of “duck and cover,” but having had parents who were active in the Ban-the-Bomb pacifist movement of the late 50’s & 60’s knew rather more than I needed to know about nuclear bombs.

So meanwhile, I have work piling up for grad school, a body that is no longer a supple as a pretzel, and am struggling to find my way into the sunshine again when really — well, you get the point, I’m under my little black cloud!

Talk about a slip and slide.

Well, its time to take my own medicine and get out of my own way so to speak.

Yep.  It’s first-you-cry, wash-my-face time.   I could quote from Casablanca to myself … you know the one, “I’m not good at being noble, but it’s clear to me that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.”

And yeah, I’d be right.  Part of the all the stuff that happens in “this crazy world” is our own obligation to make it a better place.  So while I can’t do much to help in Japan other than sending on a few bucks, (nope, I didn’t major in nuclear engineering), what I can do is get out of my funk to live a better day and save the black cloud for where it belongs, in the sky to provide rain for all of those pretty May flowers.

So in the spirit of sunshine, born-again Pollyanna says, “have a great day!”

When life happens

4 Replies

When life happens.  (UPDATED)

Our hearts go out to the people of Japan as they recover from the devastation of last night’s 8.9 earthquake.  These sorts of events remind us that much of life is out of our control and that no matter how hard we try and how much we prepare, life happens.

The images of a wall of water in some places as high as 30 feet making is way inland over the farmlands and towns of Northern Japan also remind us that life’s knockdowns are filled with twists, turns and the ripple effects of an original event.

Still whether a knockdown in the ring, a terrible personal loss or the experience of an overwhelming natural event, the point is to do one’s best to “roll” with the punches while helping others who may be worse off than ourselves.

UPDATE – scarier than we knew …

The tsunami has had devastating effects on the countryside in the region of Sendai — and now, there are two nuclear power plant facilities that have been declared nuclear emergencies.  One of the plants just sustained an explosion of one of its nuclear reactors, and the roof of that reactor has reportedly collapsed.  Experts are stating that a “Chernobyl”-style incident is unlikely due to the reactor’s design, still, it seems that a meltdown of some kind is occurring — along with the potential for catastrophic outcomes.  It’s not for this post to comment on the relative merits of nuclear power, suffice it to say, we fear for the human toll of these extraordinary events and urge everyone to provide what assistance they can during this terrible time for the people of Japan.

>>> One suggestion is to text REDCROSS @ 90999 to make a $10 donation in support of Red Cross disaster relief efforts for earthquake victims in Japan.

For further updates, the New York Times is here.  Guardian (UK) is here.

Losing is no fun

4 Replies

Losing is no fun

As with many experiences, sports can provide terrific highs as well as terrific lows. Heartbreak losses in the ring can be devastating to one’s morale, never mind that recovery from injuries sustained is made that much tougher when the fight ends up in the loss column.

One can listen to all the jibber-jabber about being in the game for the sake of it, but there is no feeling like winning whether it’s an amateur bout, a chess game or acing a paper. What particularly stings is when the winner takes that extra moment to grind in one’s loss whether it’s trash talk in an interview or some snide comment in an email. Whatever it is — one can cry in one’s proverbial beer or get into gear for the next something head held high for having tried in the first place.

It’s the latter that feels the hardest — especially when plans have to be adjusted, strategies rethought and importantly, the inevitable shoulda’, coulda’, woulda’s have to be worked through.  I’d offer up Grandma’s advise again — about having a good cry, washing your face, and moving on — but sometimes that doesn’t quite reach the moment.  Sometimes the “screaming-mimi’s” need to take over with a good dose of the “it’s-not-fairs” before one can begin to approach anything resembling the acceptance that leads to moving on. And that’s where the heavy bag comes in handy — ’cause in those moments it’s really good to hit things as a way of working out feelings of anger, sorrow and plain old disappointment.  The point being to find you’re inner heavy bag, that space where you can release all the feelings you have without taking them out on others or expressing them negatively on yourself — and thereby find your way to getting where you need to go whether it’s sending your latest work onto another publisher, having your team scream “rematch”! or quietly working your way back into the gym to fix whatever technical flaws you found, say dropping your left when you counterpunch, that leaves you vulnerable to attack.

So have a good cry and get back at it ’cause deadlines have a way of reappearing before you know it!  Oh and remember what my old therapist Ralph used to say, “happiness is the best revenge.”