My world through a video screen. TV, Desktop, LapTop, IPad, IPhone. The new normal. Social distancing, self isolation, Pandemic, ventilator lottery, Covid-19. The new reality. Never in my life did I think this would be the world we live in. As an Asthmatic, this worries me, a lot. Every sneeze, every cough, every ache and pain, mild panic grips me. It seems at times like we are living in a Hollywood movie or Epic novel, the stuff of a twisted writer's mind. The book I am reading right now, "The Stand" by Stephen King, chillingly close to our new now, what a stupid choice by me to be reading right now.
The reason I am writing about this is because of an casual encounter I had yesterday while shopping for groceries. My wife ( Deb ) had me on a mission to find her some flour so she could do some baking ( mmm, banana bread ), and someone had said that Superstore had flour. Well they did, I went there and I grabbed 1 bag , all we needed, and headed for the cashier. Well on the way, I ran into Sifu Melanie Beckett. At first, my mind couldn't process that I know this person and that she was actually here in person and not just some video call. I was at a loss for words at first. I didn't have time to plan what I would say, you know, the new norm. I had to go "old school" and just chat. It felt like a bubble popped around me. Suddenly, the world was back in all it's colors, smells, and sounds. It was almost overwhelming. It was liberating, I wanted to let loose the verbal diarrhea monster and release all the pent up "isolation" that the new norm has been stockpiling inside me. Luckily for her, I remembered that no one, especially someone with a small child at home, wants to spend to much time in public right now so I shut myself up, said "goodbye" and re-entered the new norm.
Now don't get me wrong, I am extremely lucky in my situation during this time. My son is at home from school safe, my wife is being very smart about having to work in the public (no choice - banker), other members of my family are either safe at home or as safe as they can be, none of us sick. I get to see some or most of them every day ( lucky them, LOL ), and I know that not a lot of people have that kind of luxury. I am still working so I am one of the lucky ones. Financially we are good, heath we are good, connecting with love ones ( phone and face time )we are good, online Kung Fu ( thank you thank you thank you ) we are awesome, so all in all, I can't complain because things could be SO much worse.
What I am getting at is that I hadn't realized how closed in my world was becoming. I was starting to get used to living through a video screen and didn't even realize it. The small talk ( my favorite ) is gone, it's get in get out. Almost everything is on the phone or a computer screen, very little outside personal contact. I understand the importance of this right now but that doesn't make it any easier.
How to adapt? I don't have the answer, sorry. Everyone must find there own way through this. Just remember to lean on friends and family whether it is video, phone call, email ( mail if you want to go old school ), or stand out in your backyard and talk to your neighbors, etc. They are going through this with you, just not "with" you. If you need me for any reason, call, text email, whatever, I'll answer - I promise.
780-970-3590
donbjorkquist@hotmail.com
Now to Kung Fu. Oh wait, that was about Kung Fu. "How so" you ask? Silent River Kung Fu Online. That's how. As close to being on the mats as we can get right now. The first online class came out on Friday, I have watched it twice already, going for a third later today. Going to book my 1on1 later today when I have a better idea of some pertinent questions to ask. While it is still not 'being there" at the Kwoon, isn't the real question, "where am I and what am I doing?". If I am doing Kung Fu, does it matter that right now it is in my living room. Isn't it important that I am just doing Kung Fu, location be damned for now. Seeing the participation of fellow students during this time via Zoom warms my heart. I hope everyone keeps it up, I know the Bjorkquist clan will be there every step of the way. The new norm may stink, but just like my chance encounter yesterday with Sifu Beckett, when the new norm becomes a thing of the past, just think about how awesome - no, check that, awesome doesn't go far enough, just think how supercalifragilisticexpialidocious everything will be. The world will be awash with old sensations made new again. This isolation will hopefully have made us better humans, able to understand what has happen and make some positive changes for the future.
Just think how those mats will feel the first time you set foot on them again, gives me chills. Every break fall, every slide step, every bow in bow out, new again. Seeing your fellow classmates, for real, the Alter, the pictures on the walls, the smell of the wood, all of it. I will savor it all like never before.
Miss you all.....
Sunday, March 29, 2020
Sunday, March 22, 2020
Are You Proactive or Reactive
Are You Proactive or Reactive?
I debate this all the time at my work with my boss, are we reacting to a situation or have we planned well enough for it that we are prepared? Most of the time it is reacting not pro-acting to a situation because predicting consumers wants and needs is almost impossible because of an infinite amount of outside factors ( weather, trends, supply chain, etc ). By reacting to a situation and not being prepared fully for the "needs" of the situation, profit is lost, manpower is wasted, customers get frustrated. Definitively not the best way to do business, but it happens everyday and is unavoidable in most cases. Now to step back and look at this personally.
Am I a reactive or proactive person? Do I plan ahead or do I knee jerk and run out in fear because I am afraid of shortages or running out of something? I like to think I am proactive. I like to believe I have thought about my family and their/my needs and planned accordingly. With what is going on in the world right now, that is being put to the test.
Today I got a little bit of a shock. I use spud.ca for some online ordering of food for home delivery. It's a great service, delivered to your door weekly, fresh local ( when possible ) produce and bakery goods. Works great, good quality products, very friendly people, helps local producers ( when in season ). Well I went online this morning to place my weekly order and BOOM, this weeks delivery trucks are all full! My weekly order is now 2 weeks away. At first I was annoyed, then I wasn't. It occurred to me that more people are using this service than ever before because of this current crisis and that is a good thing, people are trying to stay at home as much as possible to slow the spread of this virus. Again I say, that's a good thing. It has adjusted my thinking a little because that tells me more people are finally taking this more seriously. Good!
Now I sit back and think to myself, if need be, how long are we good for in our house before we start to run out of some of the essentials? Hmmm, time to do an inventory, I guess I am not as proactive as I had hoped.
"How does this relate to my Kung Fu" I ask myself. Well, Kody ( my son ) started Kung Fu at Silent River in September of 2008, Deb ( my wife ) and I started in March of 2014. So for the last 12 ( Kody ) and 6 ( Deb and I ) years of our collective lives, Silent River Kung Fu has been an intricate part of our lives. The people, the training hall ( Kwoon ), the joys and challenges faced in class, the triumphs and defeats, all of it, woven into who we are and who we have become because of Master Brinker and his absolute super human drive to bring this treasure to us. And now the new reality sinks in.............
Online classes. This is a reality I never thought would be necessary. Luckily, Master Brinker was proactive enough to not only be prepared for this, but up and running IMMEDIATELY! That is proactivity ( made up word ) at it's best. Since the school's last class on Tuesday, I have already seen 3 info meetings and 1 I Ho Chuan class. That level of preparedness by Master Brinker and his top notch instructors is amazing. Thank you for that!
Now, am I prepared to use this new powerful tool? Doing as checklist, audio/video, check, space to do Kung Fu, small check ( there a 3 of us doing this in a 12'x8'ish area ), time to do this, HUGE CHECK, and most importantly, willingness to attempt to put at least as much effort into this new reality as Master Brinker and all of our awesome instructors have put into this, INFINITY CHECK!! While I will miss the interaction and comradery that the in-person classes bring, I am intrigued and excited to switch to an online format. Time for this old dog to learn some new tricks, arf.
So back to my initial question, are you proactive or reactive? Are you the hand extended offering help, or the hand reaching for help? Asking for help is not a bad thing if you learn from it. Offering help is only good if it needed and wanted, not forced. Be your best right now to others, and most importantly, be safe.
See you soon
I debate this all the time at my work with my boss, are we reacting to a situation or have we planned well enough for it that we are prepared? Most of the time it is reacting not pro-acting to a situation because predicting consumers wants and needs is almost impossible because of an infinite amount of outside factors ( weather, trends, supply chain, etc ). By reacting to a situation and not being prepared fully for the "needs" of the situation, profit is lost, manpower is wasted, customers get frustrated. Definitively not the best way to do business, but it happens everyday and is unavoidable in most cases. Now to step back and look at this personally.
Am I a reactive or proactive person? Do I plan ahead or do I knee jerk and run out in fear because I am afraid of shortages or running out of something? I like to think I am proactive. I like to believe I have thought about my family and their/my needs and planned accordingly. With what is going on in the world right now, that is being put to the test.
Today I got a little bit of a shock. I use spud.ca for some online ordering of food for home delivery. It's a great service, delivered to your door weekly, fresh local ( when possible ) produce and bakery goods. Works great, good quality products, very friendly people, helps local producers ( when in season ). Well I went online this morning to place my weekly order and BOOM, this weeks delivery trucks are all full! My weekly order is now 2 weeks away. At first I was annoyed, then I wasn't. It occurred to me that more people are using this service than ever before because of this current crisis and that is a good thing, people are trying to stay at home as much as possible to slow the spread of this virus. Again I say, that's a good thing. It has adjusted my thinking a little because that tells me more people are finally taking this more seriously. Good!
Now I sit back and think to myself, if need be, how long are we good for in our house before we start to run out of some of the essentials? Hmmm, time to do an inventory, I guess I am not as proactive as I had hoped.
"How does this relate to my Kung Fu" I ask myself. Well, Kody ( my son ) started Kung Fu at Silent River in September of 2008, Deb ( my wife ) and I started in March of 2014. So for the last 12 ( Kody ) and 6 ( Deb and I ) years of our collective lives, Silent River Kung Fu has been an intricate part of our lives. The people, the training hall ( Kwoon ), the joys and challenges faced in class, the triumphs and defeats, all of it, woven into who we are and who we have become because of Master Brinker and his absolute super human drive to bring this treasure to us. And now the new reality sinks in.............
Online classes. This is a reality I never thought would be necessary. Luckily, Master Brinker was proactive enough to not only be prepared for this, but up and running IMMEDIATELY! That is proactivity ( made up word ) at it's best. Since the school's last class on Tuesday, I have already seen 3 info meetings and 1 I Ho Chuan class. That level of preparedness by Master Brinker and his top notch instructors is amazing. Thank you for that!
Now, am I prepared to use this new powerful tool? Doing as checklist, audio/video, check, space to do Kung Fu, small check ( there a 3 of us doing this in a 12'x8'ish area ), time to do this, HUGE CHECK, and most importantly, willingness to attempt to put at least as much effort into this new reality as Master Brinker and all of our awesome instructors have put into this, INFINITY CHECK!! While I will miss the interaction and comradery that the in-person classes bring, I am intrigued and excited to switch to an online format. Time for this old dog to learn some new tricks, arf.
So back to my initial question, are you proactive or reactive? Are you the hand extended offering help, or the hand reaching for help? Asking for help is not a bad thing if you learn from it. Offering help is only good if it needed and wanted, not forced. Be your best right now to others, and most importantly, be safe.
See you soon
Sunday, March 15, 2020
A little this, a little that...
By my reckoning, this is day 51 ( 7%ish gone, 93%ish left ) of the Year of the Rat, day 51 on a year long journey, day 51 towards reaching my "goals" set forth by Master Brinker and myself, so where am I now? Well, my numbers seem to be moving steadily along ( summary at the end ), of course they are not where I would like them to be, but are they ever?
Mania.. We are all being affected by the current mania about "COVID-19", I call it mania (Mania is the Greek word for madness. It is derived from mainmai, to rave in anger
Stepping up... a couple of really positive things are happening because of all this. If you haven't read my wife's post , you should. She talks about a person in our neighborhood who posted on our local site that if anyone is self isolated or unable to go out and needs anything from the local stores, they would be more than happy to do this for them. WOW, that's what this world needs more of right now!!
Second, cleaning of the training hall. This really concerned me that in order to stay open during these times, the training hall would need to be cleaned constantly and thoroughly like never before, and that only a handful of people would step up to do this. So far I am happy to say my fears where unfounded! Between the mopping, sanitizing, sweeping and general cleaning, we actually seem to have more people willing to help than jobs to do!! Way to step it up fellow Kung Fu'es, it makes me feel more that ever how awesome the people at Silent River Kung Fu truly are.
On that note, did we as a school what to start an initiative, like my neighbor did, and offer help to those who need someone to pick up some groceries ( or other things ) for them? I know this opens up Pandora's box, there would be many details to discuss, but I wonder if the time is right to do something outside of box so to speak. I would love to hear people's thoughts on this, it feels to me like the right thing to do at this time. Please think it over, or at least think what you can do personally to help those who need it right now. It doesn't necessarily need to be school related, but I wanted to put this out there because I would rather be part of the solution instead of doing nothing and being part of the problem.
Now the Numbers... dun dun dahhhhhhh ( insert ominous music here )
Push ups 7080/50000
Sit ups 7125/50000
Sparring 220/1000
1609KM 453.2km/1609km
1000 AOK 235/1000
Hand Form 192/1000
Weapon Form 194/1000
Personal
Kicks 760/10000
Many more are weather dependent ( -24C this morning )
Mania.. We are all being affected by the current mania about "COVID-19", I call it mania (Mania is the Greek word for madness. It is derived from mainmai, to rave in anger
Stepping up... a couple of really positive things are happening because of all this. If you haven't read my wife's post , you should. She talks about a person in our neighborhood who posted on our local site that if anyone is self isolated or unable to go out and needs anything from the local stores, they would be more than happy to do this for them. WOW, that's what this world needs more of right now!!
Second, cleaning of the training hall. This really concerned me that in order to stay open during these times, the training hall would need to be cleaned constantly and thoroughly like never before, and that only a handful of people would step up to do this. So far I am happy to say my fears where unfounded! Between the mopping, sanitizing, sweeping and general cleaning, we actually seem to have more people willing to help than jobs to do!! Way to step it up fellow Kung Fu'es, it makes me feel more that ever how awesome the people at Silent River Kung Fu truly are.
On that note, did we as a school what to start an initiative, like my neighbor did, and offer help to those who need someone to pick up some groceries ( or other things ) for them? I know this opens up Pandora's box, there would be many details to discuss, but I wonder if the time is right to do something outside of box so to speak. I would love to hear people's thoughts on this, it feels to me like the right thing to do at this time. Please think it over, or at least think what you can do personally to help those who need it right now. It doesn't necessarily need to be school related, but I wanted to put this out there because I would rather be part of the solution instead of doing nothing and being part of the problem.
Now the Numbers... dun dun dahhhhhhh ( insert ominous music here )
Push ups 7080/50000
Sit ups 7125/50000
Sparring 220/1000
1609KM 453.2km/1609km
1000 AOK 235/1000
Hand Form 192/1000
Weapon Form 194/1000
Personal
Kicks 760/10000
Many more are weather dependent ( -24C this morning )
Sunday, March 8, 2020
Blame
Frustration, apathy, anger, distrust, defeat, sadness. All very negative thoughts, all very negative feelings. Almost everyone will have them creep into their lives at one time or another for reasons they may or may not understand. I find a couple of these creeping into my thoughts as of late. I don't like it.
As I get older and more experienced in life, I start to see things in life that really disturb me. One of the biggest ideals that are bothering me the most at this moment is the way mankind tends to treat each other. Anger, judgement, condemnation, ridicule, apathy.
This stems from something that happened to me yesterday at Costco. Nothing crazy, nothing that doesn't happen everyday. We were standing in line to pay and the cashier and her assistant were just doing their jobs, being friendly, chatting. For some unknown reason, it drove me crazy. All I wanted was to buy my stuff and get out of there, don't talk to me, don't make pleasantries, just do your job and let me go.
Really Don, what is the matter with you?! All these fine young people were doing was being themselves, open and friendly, and I should have drank that up and thanked them for being rays of happiness in a world full of black holes. Instead I grunted, took our stuff and left. Again, what is the matter with me?
I could blame many things, social media, the weather, lack of sleep, the anniversary of the passing of my father, work, so many things to blame. How about I blame the one thing that I can change,I can blame myself. There is the true culprit. There is the real reason and solution in all this. Me. If I am not willing to encourage the light and fight the dark, I am part of the problem. I don't want to be part of the problem. I want to be part of the solution.
So I have looked inward, I have turned my eye upon myself, I will try my best to be a ray of light and not a shadow because the shadow hurts and the light heals.
Time to go do some good, Thanks.
As I get older and more experienced in life, I start to see things in life that really disturb me. One of the biggest ideals that are bothering me the most at this moment is the way mankind tends to treat each other. Anger, judgement, condemnation, ridicule, apathy.
This stems from something that happened to me yesterday at Costco. Nothing crazy, nothing that doesn't happen everyday. We were standing in line to pay and the cashier and her assistant were just doing their jobs, being friendly, chatting. For some unknown reason, it drove me crazy. All I wanted was to buy my stuff and get out of there, don't talk to me, don't make pleasantries, just do your job and let me go.
Really Don, what is the matter with you?! All these fine young people were doing was being themselves, open and friendly, and I should have drank that up and thanked them for being rays of happiness in a world full of black holes. Instead I grunted, took our stuff and left. Again, what is the matter with me?
I could blame many things, social media, the weather, lack of sleep, the anniversary of the passing of my father, work, so many things to blame. How about I blame the one thing that I can change,I can blame myself. There is the true culprit. There is the real reason and solution in all this. Me. If I am not willing to encourage the light and fight the dark, I am part of the problem. I don't want to be part of the problem. I want to be part of the solution.
So I have looked inward, I have turned my eye upon myself, I will try my best to be a ray of light and not a shadow because the shadow hurts and the light heals.
Time to go do some good, Thanks.
Sunday, March 1, 2020
Numbers time
This year has been a real challenge keeping up with my numbers. Some staff issues at work have forced me to change my daily schedule and that change has caused me to lose my "numbers" time. It really sucks! But such is life. I have been trying to adapt and do my numbers at different times during the day but there isn't a lot of extra time in my days to squeeze this in. Well that's enough whining about that, so here are my up to date numbers as of right now, Mar 1, day 37....
Mandatory
Push ups 5300 or 143 ave/day
Sit ups 5355 or 144 ave/day
Sparring 130 rounds
1609KM 322.5Km or 8.7Km ave/day
AOK 170 or 12.7 ave/day
Hand form 167 or 4.5 ave/day
Weapon Form 144 or 3.9 ave/day
Personal
Most of these are outdoors so the "numbers" will really start to show come spring but the prep work for these is on going and on schedule so I am happy with the progression here. Thanks to all those who are giving me advice on everything from stretching to kicks, I really do appreciate it.
Off to crunch some number time........
Mandatory
Push ups 5300 or 143 ave/day
Sit ups 5355 or 144 ave/day
Sparring 130 rounds
1609KM 322.5Km or 8.7Km ave/day
AOK 170 or 12.7 ave/day
Hand form 167 or 4.5 ave/day
Weapon Form 144 or 3.9 ave/day
Personal
Most of these are outdoors so the "numbers" will really start to show come spring but the prep work for these is on going and on schedule so I am happy with the progression here. Thanks to all those who are giving me advice on everything from stretching to kicks, I really do appreciate it.
Off to crunch some number time........
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