rattled

 

Rigid fury.

Held against my will.

Computer hostage.

My wife told me to disengage. Walk away. 

Sitting on the wooden bench. Brain buzzing stuck. So upset.

I ended up standing beside the pond, staring down at my bare feet in the grass.

It was just then ----- my cell phone came alive ---- and a voice reached out to help untangle my emotions.

A friend who was led to call me. A little bird told me, he said. 

Like an angel. Like divine providence. Like a glass of cold beverage. Like a companion. Familiar and patient.

In due course we were telling each other corny jokes and laffing. It was salvation. The rigid clamp gave way to freedom. I ended up in our front yard, seated on the sun bench, birds chirping, clover between my toes, a grin on my silly face. So sweet.         

restoration comes when I hold my cat Pookie. Fur against my finger tips.        

Laying still on deck cushions, sun light 

Recall the rescue.

When I was carried

being low

being weak

still loved

exhausted 

anytime rest comes

sleep

recovery

lingering

drifting 

mindful

yes

song medley

Song Medley by Karl Marxhausen    

18 minute video.

The energy is present today. All five songs put down in one take. The order: (1) Alli nall  (2) Following  (3) Infinite Mercy  (4) Beloved  (5) Recall   All songs under copyright with Karl Marxhausen, Carrollton, Missouri.

The Lord leads my wife and I every day. Each day an adventure. We work out in the Chillicothe YMCA pool two or three times each week. We meet with friends over lunch at small cafes in Carroll and Ray County, in north central Missouri. North America. 

-------------------------------

From day to day, each day takes us somewhere.

In it all Jesus is real. The moments surprise. He lifts, he speaks, eagles glide, the yard grows green. I am grateful for Jan my wife. We are a team in our retirement. Fluid. Mindful. Kind hearted. You will hear the surprises of joy in these songs.

Thank you for being a part of my life. Today the courage returned to post music on the Moss Creek Journal. To stay up on making a video or typing at the keyboard takes energy and effort. Much time is far away from this activity. But today work was given here.

Stay in touch dear reader. Leave your comments and encouragement down below in the comment box. 

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

cold thermogenesis

It's Monday afternoon. May 13th. Time to check the tub temp.


Water is 55 degrees F. Air is 65 degrees F. This is how I do Cold Thermogenesis in Missouri.

43 minutes. This is the real deal. My main focus is maintaining my breathing. To hear my comments go to the following time stamps.

00:39  check water temp
02:48  breathing 
05:05  clock time
08:51  focus breathing 
09:52  adaption
11:59  duration in cold
13:42  about shivering 
15:45  sunshine helps 
16:29  skin tone
17:27  extend time
21:21  marker 20 
22:07  surrounding temp
23:27  bird song


24:58  tub fits one person  
26:08  cooling with ice
29:00  toe touch warm ups
31:19  marker 30

31:36  when to go longer
32:40  reluctance
36:35  marker 35
39:00  no distractions
39:15  body burns fat
39:25  white fat
39:31  brown fat
39:50  water at 50 - 55 converts white fat to brown adipose tissue
40:07  brown fat warms organs
40:25  happens while I sit here
40:52  workout  
41:35  marker 40

WRISTS IN HOT WATER  WARMS ME UP THE BEST. 



Eleven minutes. Cold organs from being in cold water. It takes one to two hours to bring internal body temps back up to normal. Activity helps. Wrists in warm to hot water does it the fastest for me.

The tub we use:
https://karl-marxhausen.blogspot.com/2019/03/tub.html 

These are easy methods for cold adaption that Jack Kruse provides: 
https://jackkruse.com/cold-thermogenesis-easy-start-guide/ 

Drinking hot water helps warm up my internal organs.

tub

When we returned from Mesa, Arizona -- I thought I could resume doing cold therapy the way I had previously done it.  NO. I COULD NOT!!!  My regular routine was toooooo much for my body. It had been 24 days without the rigorous training. 

I started over - spending less time in the tub during the workout. Instead of the 12 minutes, I dropped back to only 4 minutes. Another day it was 8 minutes. The next time it was 12 minutes. A day later it was up to 15 minutes.

The workouts vary. Jan and I look at the water temp, the air temp, and how we are feeling that day. One thing I can tell you is that CT works for us. It is the workout of our choice. We burn off fat by sitting in a tub of cold water between 50 and 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

Drawing from my journal

Four minutes. I brought the tub out of storage while we were gone. The 140 gallon stock tank was bought at Orschelns Farm Supply for 96 dollars September 2018. This video gives you an idea of its size and how water is put in. There is no pump. Anybody can do this.

Loading tub onto truck bed at Orschelns in Carrollton, Missouri

Carting tank with wheel barrow around house to the back yard

Home movie from snow day north central Missouri two months ago.

 

 

The work out is called Cold Thermogenesis. It is the generating of heat and burning fat. Not at the gym. Not with exercising muscles and sweating. But by cold adaption. While sitting in water between 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit  hormones in humans work better. 

Mitochondria, the batteries in our cells, spin faster. The body creates more brown fat (brown adipose tissue). This is what we have around our neck and spine and chest to keep organs warm. During the workout of sitting in cold water the body transforms white fat (white adipose tissue) into brown fat, which gives off heat much faster. Leptin is a hormone that controls metabolism and blood sugar. 

Embracing the cold activates a metabolic pathway in the body that shuts off sugar cravings and promotes the burning of fatty acids to support thermogenesis. That means calories cannot be stored in the cold when your mitochondria burns them for heat under the activation of the sympathetic nervous system.         Kris Domitrovits

We've been fortunate. Cold air over nite keeps the tub in the 40s. We are able to bring water temp up with bucket heater. I have heard of others adding ice to the water to bring the temps down to the 55 degree range. This summer we'll see.

The second part of the workout is warming back up. I heat up my wrists in a bowl in the sink. The best way. I also change into clothes and walk up hillside on our street and back to the house. Sometimes I jog. It depends. It gets my blood pumping. To warm up organs that are cold.

Hard fat tissue has become soft underneath. Skin over muscles is tightening up. We like the results very much. Cheers.

* * * * * * * * * *

gray smudges on knuckles

The country drive last Sunday began "the stir........"  
Monday after running errands, I stopped by Lincoln Lakes "to stand ...... and be. listen. feel the sharp air on my face. silent, hoping for a response."
I began a checklist. Dug out my padded overalls. Would my body still fit in them?? Pulled the heavy backpack with paints and supplies out of storage.
Tuesday I checked off the overalls. It was a squeeze with my tummy, but I fit. Went out with the hand saw and for my new past time, hand sawing tree trunks that lie out in the yard. Each in various stages of being cut. It is more of an exercise for me to do, rather than a task to accomplish. An exertion to keep my mind sharp.
Wednesday the paint kit was moved into the cab. The easel in the back. For a time to come.
Friday the sun remained out long enough for me to "go look. pull out the backpack, set up the easel, hunt and locate the bungee cords. telescope the legs out. stand and observe. locate the graphite.. and sketch."

Orange road cones are stationed around me as I draw from the creek bridge on South Ely Street. Sunshine. Nip in the air. Clear sky. November. And the promise of an overcast afternoon. ... An hour passes. I regard the creek on the west side of the bridge. Another day for that, another time.

Today it goes well. How will my body respond tomorrow? ...to this stretching and lifting, bending and moving, climbing up and down out of the cab. Another check off the list, taking down the easel, carrying supplies back into the cab, lifting, placing. Gathering the cones. Off down the street.

  
Ely street meets West Lincoln Street and I stop by a green field with trees aflutter and a house nestled beneath its boughs. At last I find a fallen branch and mark the place I want to come back to. No sketch. Jotted thoughts on a paper squatch in my pocket to remember by.

On the shore the easel and drawing pad secured with bungee cord around back. All set.
A sullen monument of bleached tree ascends to my right. A far tree bank across the lake. Two houses peeking out from behind way up there. The breeze cold, the sunshine bright, the sky still clear blue. Bright yellow green algae. This place I hope to return to and paint.
Less than an hour I am satisfied.

Piling all into the cab. Easel hoisted. Graphite retired. The smudges removed with a clean moist baby wipe towel. I return home. My eyes roam through the passing tree trunks to backyards and houses tucked away in the wood. The spark bursts. Houses tucked away in the wood. A concept to come back to.

Here, I have finished posting the photos and typing the text, and the weather report proves to be true. The clouds have rolled in and the sunshine has left.

Thanks for reading it. It's time for lunch.

North central Missouri, central United States, North America, planet earth.


 

carving question - r p marxhausen

Monday December 5th I was in Concordia, Missouri, on the campus of St. Paul's Lutheran High School, to look at works my father had made.

Thanks to the Director of the school Paul Mehl and the Advancement Director Bart Mueller, I was shown a marvelous wood-carving on the lobby wall of Krueger Dining Hall.

A bas-relief carved from a single piece of wood. Roughly measuring two feet wide and three and a half feet tall and a depth of one inch. Here, Bart Mueller holds a ruler next to the carving. Double click to make image larger.

Paul Mehl told me it was called "Paul In The Face Of Christ."

Look closely to see a face within a face. The way the two persons meld in the design reminded me of the illustrations by William Blake.
Could this exquisite piece have been carved by Reinhold P. Marxhausen of Seward, Nebraska?

That work raised many unanswered questions.

Today Dec 7 I found two other carvings my father had chiseled out of stone.

The Eagle which hung around our house when all of us lived on Columbia Avenue. We had moved there in 1964.

The tall marble cylinder that was among many works Dad had on his studio deck, next.

The Head of Christ, above. Below, photo of Reinhold cutting on the marble cylinder, in his office space studio - on the third floor of Founders Hall. Early in his teaching career as Art instructor at Concordia Teacher College in Seward, Nebraska. He started teaching in the fall of 1951. My guess, that photo is no later than the mid-1950s.

How did Reinhold get connected doing artwork for St.Paul's College in Missouri?

A couple thoughts: his bride Dorris Steinbrueck was from Blackburn in Lafayette County. That campus was nearby. There is the Missouri Synod Lutheran connection. It is hard to say. But I am hoping to hear from others who know something about St. Paul's College and High School and more about this unusual wood-carving.