Path of Pain

    This is short blog. I have a roving ball of pain/soreness in my body. One day it is in my left instep, next day, lower back, next day, right ankle, next day, left bicep, today, it seems to have taken residence in my gumption. It is annoying, it is limiting my training, I want it gone. I'm not sure if it caused by diet, sleep patterns, exercise level, age or a combination of all the above. 

Liam Neeson ( and a little tweak by me )

I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills AND MENTORS, skills AND MENTORS I have acquired over a very long career. Skills AND MENTORS that make me a nightmare for PAINS like you. If you let my BODY go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.”

 You understand that pain? If you go away away, we are good, stay and we will have a problem.

   All joking aside, I can live with the annoyance of pain but I would prefer not to. I think I'll start with my joint pain, my plan is to find the best NATURAL way of dealing with inflammation. I hear pineapple does wonders, any other advice for a guy over 50? Then my weight and sleeping patters, I've heard these can go hand in hand, not enough sleep makes weight loss very difficult. I want to keep it simple so that I might actually stay with this and improve my overall health. 

   So now I'm off to do some light training, I really want to play with the Stiff Swinging Kick to Spine from this weeks live stream, looks fun.

Word Crimes and Random Connections

   Weird Al Yankovic. A genius to me. A master if you will. You see, I love humor, and I dislike disrespect. Weird Al is a marvel to me not only because of his sense of humor and ability to parody life but he shows the utmost respect for the artist/song he is parodying because if an artist says "no, he can't use their song", he won't. He has quite a few songs that I absolutely consider classics ( another one rides the bus, yoda, fat, etc ), but one that I just get a total kick out of is "Word Crimes". You see, something I also value is the ability to use the English language properly. I bring this up because of yesterdays 2nd degree brown belt meeting. We discussed "verbology", you know, the ability to properly ask a question, proper terminology, the way you phrase your thoughts into words. This is incredible tough for so many people because we just don't talk to each other anymore. We text, blog, podcast, email, short and sweet, to the point ( usually ), no fact check. no responsibility, with spell check, the ability to erase and revgbd...redo. I dislike this A LOT!. 

   Real live conversation isn't like that, it has awkward silences, it takes turns, loses itself completely from the point, especially for someone like me who's thoughts and ideas tend to come out in a verbal tidal wave ( verbal diarrhea I sometimes call it ), no chance to screen or smooth out the lumps, hurry hurry hurry before you lose their attention. And everybody gets sooo offended sooo quickly nowadays. One wrong word and BAM, you a racist, your a narcissist, your blacklisted, no chance to explain, damage done, everyone with a phone or access to the internet and no ability to think for themselves hates you. Sorry, I'm going down a dark road here, time to get back to my point. 

   I like to listen and think, explore a conversation, contemplate. I don't have the greatest ability to orate my thoughts back to someone once they are worthy to share, but I try too. I get to excited, nervous, trip over my own tongue. Sometimes what I think and what I say are nowhere near the same thing and I don't realize this till later.

   Thoughts are so hard to put into words and we need to change that. I never used to understand why my Dad loved to just sit around a fire, no music, no distractions, just family, friends and fire. I get it now, conversation. It is becoming a lost art and needs to be practiced and used more before we lose it all together, before it changes into something impersonal like a text or blog or email. 

   Just like our Kung Fu. You can watch all the movies you want, write all the blogs you can think of, talk endlessly about ideas, but if we don't get up and actually practice the art, it will become history, a fable, and that is terrifying to me. 

 Chautauqua anyone? 

Then maybe a Lion Dance. Then Forms seminar, board break challenge, Tiger Challenge?

 

 

Thanks to You

    So many people in my life have done kind or extraordinarily meaningful things for me with no thought of personal gain, and I think it is well past time to thank those with whom I may have neglected to acknowledge for their commitment to me and to the greater good of mankind. This list is actually quite long, and I'm not surprised. There is really so much good and compassion out there, you just need to look past the small amount of negative and overly loud narcissists out there to find the "kind" in mankind. I'm not going to list EVERYONE because that would get a little tedious for you to read through, so instead I am going to make it an extra personal goal over the next little while to go out of my way to acknowledge as many of those people as I can. There are some I want to acknowledge here  ( this is hundreds of people actually, but I'll group them in a great big collective thank you hug ), because the current lock down prevents me from doing this face to face, so here we go.....

Fellow students at SRKF, each and every one of you, yes you, I'm pointing at you! Your commitment to the art we practice, to the school you train in ( either at home, in the Kwoon or wherever you are ), your willingness to learn and the energy you bring to the cosmos, I feel energized by your very presence, I am lucky just to know you, thank you.

Sifus both past and present at SRKF and in Kung Fu in general. The path you show me as a student is not just a path to mastery but a path with a purpose. You make me better just by being who you are. Every Sifu at the school, as an individual, brings something different to the table but all with the same goal, to make the world we live in a better place for not just themselves, but for everyone, regardless of the baggage that most people have. I could list dozens of Sifus who have changed my life but the risk is I might miss someone, and I can't do that, that would be an injustice to them. So this is for EVERY Sifu, thank you.

Master Brinker, I am going to keep this short as I could write a novel about how you have guided me and my family to where we are now, but anyone who knows you already knows what I would write because the path you lay out is so easy to follow, the leadership you provide, your passion for the art of Kung Fu.... I could go on and on, but as I said I would keep this short so, thank you.

My family, Deb and Kody, I know I can do this in person but I wanted to publicly acknowledge you both as well. Without you on my journey, there is no joy, no stopping to smell the roses, no reason to push forward. You two are my companions on this journey through this crazy world. I may push a little to hard sometimes to do "things", but that is only because we are so good together and our time is so finite, I want to enjoy every moment before I can't anymore. You two rock, not just thank you but love you.

This part of my kung fu is so important to me. Acknowledging those around me makes me train harder, think more, and appreciate what I can do as an individual to make the world a little better place for all. I'm gonna go train now, feeling revitalized by writing this.

Numbers Time

    Recently Ms Ward posted that she was going to post her numbers regularly, made me realize I haven't tallied or posted mine in a while. So without further ado...

Requirements  ( 354 days in this year, we are on day 52 ) ( green good , orange warning to me , red bad , blue out of my control )

No Quitting  done, still here going "strong"

Push Ups  7360/50000   on track

Sit Ups  8255/50000   on track

Two Forms 1000 reps

    -weapon ( double axes )  100/1000  ( outside space will bring wayyy more reps )

    -lau gar  75/1000  ( outside space will bring wayyy more reps )

Sparring 1000 Rounds   140/1000   on track

1609 Km   370/1609  ( spring/summer will definitely help this number )

1000 AOK   228/1000   on track

Mend a Relationship  being nicer to everyone, or at least trying to be

Journal 1x Week  done

Maintain an Online Presence  done

3 Public Performances  not yet but hoping to soon ( thanks to Covid )

Learn to Lion Dance  again, not yet but hoping to soon ( you again Covid!)

Tiger Challenge  soon I hope

Zero absences  done

Excel in curriculum  not for me to judge but reviewing as necessary

SRKF Projects  none yet ( darn you Covid!! )

Mastery  almost there

Personal Demo  coming together nicely

Board Break  starting on that toot sweet

Five Applications  ideas swirling, need mats to practice

Grading day  excited and terrified for this

Grading Assignments

3 Personal Ref   1 so far 2 more to go

Reading Zen  done reading, working on questions

Written  done except Zen

Criminal background  whoops-forgot about this- will do this week coming up

First Aid Certification  done

 

Personal Requirements

 

These will really start to present themselves over the next few months. I have my benchmarks and I am setting my objectives, unfortunately my shoulder is preventing my progress, but I will work on other things that are not shoulder related. Since these are all fitness related goals, spring/summer will help significantly. 

One of my person requirements was to cut down on my screen time (tv,surfing,etc), this is tougher than I thought it would be as everyone is blogging significantly more this year than in previous years. That is a good thing. I really don't mind reading everyone's blog, I may not comment as much as I used to but I still really need that engagement from y'all, so go team Ox!!