Sunday, October 27, 2019

Calling all teammates

   This last Thursdays mandatory class was tough. Not because of who was there but because of who wasn't there. There was barely 1/2 the team there. We all need to be there if we are ever going to come up with an awesome demo for Chinese New Year. We all made the same commitment at the beginning of the year right? We are in the home stretch and need to push it a little harder, but we need to all be there to make this happen. Excused absences are understandable and acceptable, life happens, just not showing up isn't fair to the rest of your teammates.

   Sorry if I am stepping on any toes but it was something I needed to put out there.


Sunday, October 20, 2019

Random, again

   A few thoughts on the last week.


   First off, the "diet tracker". This is a lot harder to document and track than I expected. At first I was documenting every couple of hours as to not forget anything. Then it was every day and I was still keeping up. Then the weekend hit, I haven't even thought about it till now. Whoops. I'll start anew Monday morning and try again. First round - fail. Try try again.

  
   Second, I got to do some Lion Dance practice this Saturday and it surprised me how many things I have already forgotten . Having a different partner than I was used to was startling. My "habits" and "tells" got blown out of the water. It was like learning the techniques all over again. Hmm, wake up call! What else have I  allowed mediocrity to creep into and atrophy? Great exercise though, I really enjoyed it!! Thanks Mr Sollinger and Sifu Langner for putting me through the ringer, "please sirs, may I have another?".



Numbers

Haven't done this in a little while

Sit ups   41951
Push ups   41793
Sparring   365
1609km Complete
1000 acts of kindness   Complete
Hand form   352
Weapon form   440




Sunday, October 13, 2019

Thankful

   It's Thanksgiving weekend, and my question to you is.... What are you thankful for?

Backstory...

   As a younger man, let's say 14 to 30 years old, I took EVERYTHING for granted. My job, my friends, my health, my family, my freedom, my relationships, my education, etc. I was invincible, the future didn't matter because I was young and bulletproof. Ohh to be young again......

   I look back now and realize just how lucky and naive I was back then. Now I am not saying my life was perfect, far from it, it is just that I never looked down the road to see the path I was on and where it was leading me. Then it happened, someone came into my life that made me think about the future and how important it was.

Today... 

 She has made me think about what I actually wanted in life and how even the most simple of choices can have either positive or negative consequences on your life and those around you. She showed me the future can't just "happen", that if you want something you must work for it and never give up. She taught me the value of family. Of friendliness. Of being good because it is right and actually easier then being bad. Of "the long game". And of course, Love.

   Yes, I am talking about my lovely wife Deb. My anchor, my rudder, my kick in the @%s when I need one. My purpose. My glue.

   So for all that is good in my life, all that I am currently thankful for, thank you wife of mine, thank you.



Side note...  

   Without her, there would be no Kody. Which means, 11 years ago when Kody started at Silent River Kung Fu, that would never have happened. Which means no you guys. I am very thankful that I get to know ALL of you.

Sunday, October 6, 2019

Random

   For the first time, I am unsure of what to blog about so I am making this up as I go. Normally I have an idea that has been festering in my brain for the week that I look forward to putting in a blog. This week, not so much. Not that I don't have anything going on, quite the opposite, it's just a time of the year that I like to review what I have ( or haven't ) accomplished. Am I ready for winter? Am I ready for the mountain of work the next 2 months at work bring ( inventory and tire season )? Was there anything important that I still needed to do before mother nature and father time forces me to wait till next year? And so on........

   When we bow in before every class, I do my best to turn off the outside noise and ONLY think of the here and now of what we are doing. When we are in a I Ho Chuan Saturday meeting, I try to focus on the conversation at hand and not the pile of things still needed to be done out "there". I failed at this in yesterdays meeting. My mind was everywhere else and not where it should have been and it was annoying me to no end. Normally I like to throw in a little into the conversation but yesterday all I had in my head was white noise. I haven't been mentally tired like this in a long time. I am finding it really difficult to really care about the outcome of my decisions. Not good.

   This got to thinking about the grading coming up for the Black Belt candidates. I can only imagine what is going on in their world right now. Makes all my excuses and imaginary distractions seem awfully trivial. Time to reboot, re-evaluate, and refocus my wants and actual needs.

   I want to thank Mr Sollinger for making me think about that. He has asked a favor of me for his grading, I accepted of course, in fact, I feel very honored that he asked. Then it hit me, that is less than 2 months away!!!! I felt a shock of panic blast through me. Here I thought we would have all the time in the world to work on this, WRONG!! At best, I can free up 3 or 4 Saturdays to work on this with him. Not good enough, I can do better for him. This is a monumental day coming up for him, I need to be available at any time to help him prepare. So Dan, thank you for helping me out of my fog, time for me to go practice my moves. You pick the time and place, I will move heaven and earth to be there for you. DO NOT HESITATE, I mean it.



  This random blog actually was very helpful, I think the fog is lifting, thank you Master Brinker for making these mandatory. I can see why this is so important.