Sing Your Song: Mettle Maker #264

Sing Your Song: Mettle Maker #264

  • Hum your solfège before you break out into song. To avoid injuries, warm-up thoroughly for at at least 8 minutes before you train. Do 2-3 minutes each of (a) jumping rope or footwork (b) light calisthenics and (c) shadowboxing, forms, light heavy bag work, or 8 minutes of MBF.

  • Wreck your rhythm. Disrupt your form by picking up an awkward object, like a hiking stick or water bottle, and go for a run. It’s amazing how a little thing can make such a big difference in terms of cadence and therefore, energy demand. Try it!

  • When it comes to your favorite weapon, change your tune. With weapon in hand, can you safely run and perform key maneuvers like shoulder roll, side deadfall, forward dive, baseball slide, etc.? If not, you should probably pause working on your fancy techniques and interpretive dance moves and start figuring it out. If you can’t move with your knife, stick, tomahawk, gun, or what-have-you without killing yourself, that’s an issue. Put in 10 minutes of movement practice with a dull/dummy version of your weapon. Count the number of faults — times you touch yourself with the business end or point the weapon at yourself. When your 10 minutes are up, perform 50 Push-ups for each fault. For more help and guidance, sign up for the Bobcat Frontier Martial Arts Program.

  • Learn a bird song. This is a Great Crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus) that I identified using the Cornel Ornithology Lab’s free Birdnet app. The single “weep” call at dawn or twilight is indicative of a calm area free of aggression by other birds or predators. Learning bird calls brings your landscape alive. CLICK TO LISTEN

  • Sing a new psalm. This month’s spiritual symbol is the Candle. The wick runs through a candle the same way your spine runs through your body, and the flame at the top of the candle is analogous to enlightenment. Try lighting your fire with meditative singing. Chant or sing a piece of beloved scripture and see what happens to your head. If you’re new to this, you’ll likely feel a little peculiar. But if you stick with daily practice, in a few short weeks you will likely come to appreciate its affects. I’ve pasted the words to one of my favorites below, as well as an audio recording. A sung hymn, psalm or other “mantra” easily triggers a positively altered mental state. Get there.

PSALM 24, RESPONSORIAL FORM

R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
The LORD’s are the earth and its fullness;
the world and those who dwell in it.
For he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?
or who may stand in his holy place?
One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
He shall receive a blessing from the LORD,
a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

Audio Player