Getting Lucky vs. Hooking Up – guest post
by Michael Russer, reprinted with permission from The Good Men Project Here’s why today’s “hook up” millennials may be our best hope yet for a shift towards true intimacy. – – – When I was the age of today’s millennial men I thought about one thing when it came to women—getting “lucky”. This was something that didn’t happen all that often, hence why the term “getting lucky” was so apropos. In our current culture getting...
Three Ways to Kill Routine and Revive Your Romance
by Michael Russer, Reprinted with permission from the Good Men Project At some point most relationships end up in the rut of routine, here is a sure-fire way to get out of it and stay out for good. Ever drive to work only to arrive and remember little if anything about the details of how you got there? That is one of the ways routine shows up in our lives. We put things on autopilot and let our subconscious do the “driving” as it...
Guest Post: A Blessing and a Challenge for the New Year
Republished with permission from Masculinity-Movies.com by Eivind Figenschau Skjellum (video greeting at the bottom) 2014 has been a year of enormous change and growth for me and most of the people I know and love. If you are someone who is in honest conversation with your life, I bet you’ve had the same experience. We are in many ways in over our heads, with lives full of activity. And while “activity” used to mean that...
Symbols of Transformation – Talisman
by Randy Marks Nine years ago, I joined the Mankind Project (MKP.org) after completing the New Warrior Training Adventure (NWTA). The Project changes the world by helping men heal and serve others, including their families, friends, and all humanity. The Talisman I received at that NWTA is probably my most valued possession. It originally was just a red pouch on a leather cord. Over the years, I added a lot of beads and other...
Sunlight Defeats Shame
by Dave Klaus I have a very different relationship with shame than I did a few years ago. Indeed, as I have learned to forgive and love myself, it rarely comes up at all. But when it does, I choose to dig right in, glean any useful information from the feeling, and then let it go. But I used to feel a lot of shame. I truly believed that there was something terribly wrong with me; that I was a freak, a weirdo, sui generis: truly...
Yep. I was Scrooge.
by Dave K Last night I took my family to see “A Christmas Carol.” It’s become a tradition for us, and is really one of the few holiday traditions we celebrate. I’ve seen this show many many times, but this one hit me especially hard. For decades, I was a Scrooge when it came to Christmas. I could rant and rant about killing trees, and commercialism, and phony temporary brotherhood. I was a humbug through and...
3-6-5 4-3-2-1 – Ignition
by Mike Morrell My heart burned within me like a molotov cocktail Melting atrophied organs of sense and perception Third eyes blinking open from awakenings rude Iridescent night vision seeing sights long subdued. Tricksters, gods and monsters find themselves drawn in To boys kicking off the covers revealing themselves to be men Without apology. Things hidden share secrets by flickering flames Word-making devices now turning a page....
The tie that binds
By Tim O’Connor As a server at a restaurant, my son Corey wears a tie. As a dutiful father, I’ve always provided him with the Dad-Assist Tie. That’s where I tie the tie as if I’m going to wear it, but slip it over my head and give it to him. But the time comes when a 20-year-old son must buy his father a beer in a bar. No wait… the time comes in a young man’s life when he must learn to tie his own damn tie. Recently...
So Far Within Reach – a Poem
by Jeffrey Bates …a small boat sat on the rocks on the beach as he approached it felt just out of his reach the oars they lay inside half disclosed the old man in his chair dreamed a dream as he dozed. The stream from the mountain descended to the shore Where the boat had been dreaming of the man it knew before He approached and he saw the world without care, As he breathed in the sun, felt the crisp morning air. The old man, he...
The Little Bucket – A Children’s Book – the Answer is Inside
by Boysen Hodgson New Warrior brother Jeffrey Bates (Bedford, Indiana 1996), has written a mythical children’s story called The Little Bucket. With a poetic voice and unique illustrations The Little Bucket is a hero’s journey that will enliven and stimulate the imagination. The book teaches about empathy, boundaries, how to understand bullying, reaching out for help, and also about what it’s like to feel lonely and lost and...
Loving Through My Shadow – a poem
by Les Gaines What is this shadow following me, damn? Just a lie of what I truly am. A mark from yesterday when some guy said I wasn’t good enough to play. That old stain has been like a stone locking away my heart in a catacomb. How can I live? How can I breath? With this mirage of limitation blinding my destiny. I pay the price to feel worthy. But still it’s clear that I’m not free. No, just a proxy of what I should be, offering a...
I know trauma – a poem
by Les Gaines As if asleep in a sea of denial, loathing my own shadow, my faithful friend with me along so many miles. I know the crippling fear of stepping beyond the front door; that hope for a better life was best left ignored. I know trauma. I know the doubt that comes when everybody wrong seems right, and everything right seems wrong; when every arm but mine looks strong. I know the helplessness of trying to feel like something,...
WOUNDED LEADERS: A Book Review
GUEST POST by Peter Clothier “Wounded Leaders: British Elitism and the Entitlement Illusion,” by Nick Duffell. First, don’t assume from this book’s subtitle that is irrelevant to us here in America, or to our leadership. It is of vital relevance, no matter the specificity of his target. Nick Duffell’s title will have resonance for anyone who has lived through the past couple of decades in America and watched our own...
A Circle of Men
by Les Gaines I sit in a circle with Men who are ready to go within, whose eyes blaze like diamonds in disguise and whose bodies are poised with determination. Unwilling to compromise, and using clever minds as a honing device, the brothers listen in. For groans and moans of shadows and doubts that utter, “I am less than.” In this circle of men, we find traces of hopes we’ve seen before, hidden behind childhood doors arousing pain we...
The Rising of Basic Goodness — Embodiment in a Global Society
by Two Crows Calling First we took a hard look at our ego self Speaking our feelings of what we wanted in love, work and a peaceful world Discovering in our dyads and in our meditation that what we yearned for was so often in breakdown, “stalled”, not happening. We saw our own self sabotage, living in illusion, deceit, blaming others, caught in subtle consumer and family dramas. Our list of counterfeit, cocoon traits hit...
The Butterfly King – Edmond Manning on Writing and Daring
by Edmond Manning By what right does a white man tell the story of a black man? Describe that man’s struggles, the lifelong challenges he faces, the hardships of living in a white-centric culture? I have asked myself this question many times. In September, the third book in my ‘Lost and Found Kings’ series, The Butterfly King was published. The premise is the same in each book: a gay, Midwestern car mechanic invites another man to...
Working on My ‘To Be’ List
by Stephen Simmer – MKP USA Mission Circle Coordinator I don’t read emails, I scan them. The idea of slowing down and staying fully present with a thought is very difficult, very foreign to me. If you’re like me, you might notice a persistent voice, right now, telling you to hurry through this email, to grab the point that Simmer is making, deposit into the meaning-bank for possible future use, and move onto the next...
My Poem 310: Meeting Wisdom
My Poem 310: Meeting Wisdom The shaman knows those noises… They sometimes disturb the hunt…they are sometimes the result of the hunt… You see, the shaman has kept to his roots, not like the shamans reed flute, having been cut from its root, its soundings are the lamentations of the broken hearted which the shaman knows but he Also knows of the healed heart… knows the Icy grags and shadowed vales…becoming...
BOYHOOD: Not Exactly a Film Review
GUEST POST: by Peter Clothier Originally published at the Buddha Diaries (for Luka, a bit later in his life) I woke this morning thinking about Barack Obama, and how perfectly he fits the model of manhood proposed by Rudyard Kipling in his unjustly maligned and frequently parodied poem “If.” In case you don’t remember it, here’s how it starts out: If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on...
The Transformational Power of Daily Rituals
By Gonzalo Salinas According to Charles Duhigg author of The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, approximately 40% of what we do every day, we do unconsciously. We have formed a habit that we tend to repeat every day, and it’s making our choices for us. So, think about all the things you do every day. Some of them probably don’t serve your highest purpose but still, you repeat them religiously...
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