Long and Short

    A couple of thoughts today.

   The Bjorkquist clan did our short demo videos for Chinese new year yesterday ( Sat Jan 30). What a blast that was. We laughed, we smiled, we goofed, WE HAD FUN. It was chilly ( -12ish ), the ground was sloped and unforgiving ( back alley cement parking pad, frozen and cooold ), but the sun was out in all its glory and we where gung-ho to get this done because it felt like a DEMO! Oh how I miss doing a demo. The pressure to perform without error, the lightning fast adaptation ( or lack of ) when you do mess up and the self analysis that it brings, what an awesome gauge as to where I am at this point in my training. Good or bad, here it is. People walked by on the path behind our house, every one of them smiled at us, though some did look a little confused as to why a family of 3 was standing outside with their weapons ( nun-chucks and tonfas ) and no coats on. Silly Canadians. Amazing what is socially acceptable now that may have raised an eyebrow just a short while ago, Covid, the new social equalizer, anything goes, just don't breathe on me and stay 2 meters away. My other thought on this is how unforgiving a video of oneself can actually be. While it did provide comic relief for my wife and son, apparently I do some very weird facial expressions and make some funny noises when I do my forms, who knew?

   As to the video we shot yesterday, it really highlighted ( for me ) the need to connect with the earth, to ground myself. Lately I have really been trying to concentrate on the connection between my heel to the earth and the energy that it brings to my center then the form. Too often I don't ground myself  between moves, moving to quickly to the next move without solidifying the move I am currently doing. My wife, my son and now the video all graciously highlighted this for me in an unpleasant light, thanks team "pick on dad", love you. So what am I going to do about that, why train more of course. I have recognized a problem, I know the solution, now I just need to connect the two. Train train train, choo choo.... whoops, wrong train. 

   Long year Rat, short year Ox. So I don't know if anyone has done the math but boy is the year of the Ox a short one compared to the year of the Rat. Year of the Rat 2020-21 was and still is 383ish days long, Year of the Ox 2021-22 is only 353ish days long. Did we lose time, mathematically yes, 30ish days. I guess this means same numbers in less time, sweet, that means more dedication to Kung Fu. This is a good thing! As this is a grading year for me, I am always looking for promps and prods to move me along, less time is a good one. Is this the carrot or the stick? Both I hope, I like carrots ( usually in cake form ) but I need the stick.

Keep Calm and Chew Your Food

    It's amazing what a little panic can cause. Quick back story. Last night, supper, hungry, eating to fast, choking, nuff said right? Needless to say, I didn't enjoy this. Lesson learned, slow down and don't wolf down your food, and when %$#^ happens, your training will kick in. 

   Thanks to both our first aid training ( mandatory to become a black belt ) and the thought process that Kung Fu enables, I only panicked a little then took immediate action and unchoked myself. Painful and unnerving, but a great lesson on both what to do and what not to do. While standing over the sink trying to figure out what was happening, I ran through the choking lessons from our first aid training. As I did, the calmness of my Kung Fu training allowed me to not freak out and think my way to unplugging my pie hole. It was gross, it was unnerving, it was painful, but here I am.

   I will guarantee you that without both the first aid training and the mental/physical awareness that Silent River has given me, things would have been very different. Thanks for that Silent River, you are literally a life saver.

   I guess I also owe my Mommy and Wifey an apology for not listening when they were always telling me to "slow down and chew your food". Lesson learned, now pass the pie, I'm really hungry.

P.S. I could also see that both Deb and Kody where 100% ready to jump and help in if I needed them, thanks family, you rock!

Stretch

    The more I look at my forms and techniques, the more and more I am noticing my lack of flexibility. My stances are to high, my kicks are only a danger to someones knees, I am not fully engaging my upper body and my breathing because my lower half is unable to achieve the same range of movement as my upper half. Starting right after this blog, I am aggressively going to start fixing that. Looking at the black belt test, 2 of the test are specifically about flexibility, these should be a no brainier, an easy 10, I want those 10s, I need those 10s. So if you hear moaning and groaning today, maybe some whimpering, it's just me trying to see/touch my toes.

3 Steps Back to go 1 Forward

    Ah ha moment, light bulb, I see said the blind man, plain as the nose on my face. All of the above are true thanks to our brown belt class meeting yesterday. What am I talking about? If you where at the meeting, you would know, if not, well.....

   Da Mu Hsing, I was having a conflict internally with one of the moves, it didn't "feel" like I wanted it too, and because of the meeting, I now know why. Please excuse my terminology, this is what I am seeing in my mind as I describe this. 

   So right after the back fist, we have the grab/shoulder take down toss. This felt very weak, not powerful at all, why?! As with everything else in a form, stance stance stance is soooo important. The thing is, it was my stance from 3 moves prior that was causing the problem, it had just snowballed through the form to this point, picking up bad mojo as it went. Turns out my cross step into an open X/shoulder chop was way to shallow, which in turn, when I unwound into my back fist/horse stance was also to shallow, which in turn, made my grab/toss into a pushed in horse stance way to shallow. Snowballllll !! All Master Brinker had to say was one word, horse stance, and my stuck wheel gained traction, bing, light bulb. Why was my pushed in horse stance crappy, because my prior horse stance was crappy, why, because my prior open X was crappy. So lengthen my open X, deepen my horse stance and voila, proper pushed in horse for the shoulder toss! So easy to fix, if only I had known where to look. Oh, hang on, I do know where to look, to our instructors! 

   If I had ever needed a reason to want to be at every meeting possible, this just provided the answer. One word from my instructor and my problem is figured out. One word!

180 in 1 Second

    I have a weird and active sense of humor. I can usually find a bright side or a funny side to most things. The above image turned my humor to sadness so quickly even I was shocked. I know it was supposed to be funny, punny, even maybe a little silly, but it struck me deep. How many places, households, businesses, schools, gyms, universities, could we hang this in and have it be true, and not be funny like it was intended. It made me turn my disapproving waging finger at society and say "shame on you", but then I looked in the mirror and thought, is this me? I decided to make myself a little promise/challenge, this will not, can not be be me! To accept this way of thinking is what, in my opinion, is one of the major things wrong with the world today ( I know this makes me sound old - but I am old you whippersnappers!😃 ). 

   Too many people start self improvement on themselves only to realize how hard self improvement/awareness ( ie. Mastery ) really is. Too many people say "good enough" instead of "good, enough". The comma in that saying makes all the difference in the world. To say "good enough" is to reach a certain point, and quit, fulfilling the destiny of the sign above. To say "good, enough", to me, means mastery is now in your life and the above sign can go erase itself. I know which one I want to choose, now to actually do it, all in, no partial about it.

Be Like the Dog

    My dog's name is Bailey. She is a 3-1/2 years old Shih tzu/miniature American Eskimo cross. She is a riot, loving, playful, mostly obedient, full of personality. She is definitely a house dog but boy can she play hard when the time is right. 

   January 2, 2021, we ( Deb, Kody, myself and Bailey ) went on a day trip to Jasper to visit my Cousin Mike. It was the first time Baily has ever been on a long road trip like this. For the first 2 hours of the drive to Jasper, she was all over the inside of the van, dog park?, Grandmas?, pet store for treats?, groomers for spa day?. You could just feel her excitement at the adventure she was on. She didn't care where she was going, just that she wasn't left behind to wait for us to get back home. 

   Skip ahead to Jasper. My cousin lives at a cabin (as big as our house, but he calls it a cabin ) at a lake just outside of the Jasper town site. Gorgeous place, a view that leaves you in awe of this marvelous planet. The lake is a few hundred steps from his back deck, so we head down there for a walk, the four of us, Mike and his rescue dog Josephine. Bailey is having the time of her life. Smell this, taste that, pee here, run, bark, more run, ice?, more dogs?, run, run, run..... I don't know what I enjoyed more, being with my family or watching Bailey have the time of her life. Us silly humans just watched her play and play and play some more, laughing and encouraging her as she gave it her all, holding nothing back. 

   By the end of our short trip, she was totally spent, but if a dog could smile, she was grinning ear to ear. 

   So why can't I be more like that with my Kung Fu? Seizing a golden opportunity when it presents itself, immersing myself totally in the moment, going 100% all out until I drop. Why do I hold back when practicing a form, when doing fitness training, when sparring? I'm not saying to lose control of myself, but to take what I have and squeeze out every drop of universe juice I have, loosening the constraints, both physical and mental, destroying the limitations I have imposed on myself. 

   Don't be left behind, don't hold back, don't hesitate, be like the dog!

Tired

 Tired, just plain old tired. It has been a busy couple of weeks off from work, I should feel rejuvenated but instead I am just tired. Did I try to do too much in my time off, maybe. Is it knowing the mountain of catch up I will have to do at work when I get there, maybe. Either way, I feel the best thing to do to kick this feeling of blah to the curb is to....... go do some Kung Fu! So this blog is short because if I don't get moving now, my butt will be stuck in this chair for hours. See ya all tomorrow at the Q&A.