Spark

    I love Kung Fu. It is such a part of my life now that I see it's benefits in everything I see and do. I'll keep this blog short as I could go on forever about this but I'd be preaching to the choir, right?!

   A person has entered our family circle recently, nice person, not your regular 20 something meat stick that seems to be everywhere nowadays. So we where sitting around having a family dinner a while ago, chatting, enjoying each other's company, and the topic shifted to Martial Arts, sweet, my favorite topic. We knew she has a back round in Karate, in fact she is a black belt, she had mentioned it before. At first, she just mentioned very casually that she was a black belt in Karate, testing our waters of acceptance. She is now starting to talk about it a little more every time we see her because she now sees that we have a common passion. As we talked about different aspects of both our and her art, I can see the spark growing in her eyes to take up her art again. I have not asked her yet why she stopped practicing, that is for another day. Baby steps. 

   If not for my family's background in Kung Fu, this conversation with her probably would have fizzled long before this stage, and another martial artist might have lost their connection to their art. But because of Kung Fu, and in her case Karate, a gentle breath has been blown on the ember burning in her, hopefully sparking a flame that just may turn into the fire that she needs to re-embrace her art. And I don't mind being a gentle prod now and then, encouraging her to share her knowledge with us, who knows what we may learn from her, it actually gives me goosebumps thinking about it.

Opportunities

    I currently have 16 days off work, that is a veeery long time for me. Usually I only take off a few days here or there, constantly trying to micro manage my staff during that time off. This time, with this amount of time I have taken off, I am going to concentrate on Me. I am planning to really use this time as a golden opportunity. Normally there would be relaxation, a road trip, a few naps (okay, a lot of naps), in my days off. This year though, I am forcing myself to look back at all the time I have wasted waiting for the cosmos to reset and get back to something I recognize, bad Don, and because of that, I screwed myself over for grading. I spent to many hours waiting and waiting for who knows what. Time wasted. Time I will never get back. But what's the big deal? I'm getting younger, right? Right? RIGHT!? Nope.

   So everyday of my 16 days off, I am going to treat like a golden goose. An opportunity to be greedily protected, squeezed till all the opportunity juice is gone.

mmmm, opportunity juice

 

 

   Day one, yesterday, was going great till I popped my back, to much juice I guess. Today though, I'm feeling great, rested and energetic.............. Sorry, opportunity was knocking so I decided to answer (Zen!).

Cascade of Indolence

    Time to cut the cord, unplug, wake up, relearn to focus more than 2 feet in front of my face. Lately I have been wasting far to much time on my phone, or watching TV, or surfing the net, or playing games. My brain is numb. It is getting hard to tell one day from the next. All my fault, my choice, and it gets me nowhere. The lack of physical and mental engagement is actually painful this morning. I feel tired even though I have done nothing. I look back at the last few days and try to add up any positive forward progression and all I see is sloth and inaction. Time to move, unplugged.

More Mental Spaghetti

    This blog was a tough one, I had so many thoughts and ideas that I wanted to touch on, but who wants to read another opinionated essay by a middle aged man. I think to much about things I can't control and don't focus enough on the things I can control, like my training. I can sit in my easy chair and lament the craziness of 2020 all day long, pointing my finger at injustices and saying "I remember when..." or I can get up and pour that energy into Kung Fu. Guess which one is going to bear fruit?

   Two current challenges have been presented to us/me today, Mrs Ferris's daily challenge, 100 snap kicks on both legs, and Master Brinker's "Master Dave McNeill's 80th birthday" push up challenge of 800 push ups. Today I choose to focus on these 2 challenges and relish on the pleasure that physical exertion brings. 

   That is all for today, time for some Kung Fu soul cleansing.