My Precious Rusty Atrophy

    It's amazing how fast skills can erode or disappear all together. I went to do a few forms last night while outside BBQing, and quickly realized nope, that is not how this form goes, or this one, or this one. I was mashing three forms together, Yikes! Obviously I am not practicing as I should be, I wasn't just rusty, I was lost. Now to tell the truth, I was more just going through the motions so that my time in front of the BBQ wasn't wasted by me just twiddling my thumbs, but still! I know better. I need to do each rep with a purpose, not just because. My bad entirely. 

   So this morning I am reviewing my forms, all of them, and seeing just where I want to focus on so I can fix one technique that will help with ALL the forms. No more silo, like the mighty Tolkien said (modified for Kung Fu of course) " One technique to rule them all, one technique to find them, One technique to bring them all, and in the Six Harmonies bind them " So sorry for any LOTR fans out there but this is just how my brain works.

Tis the Season

    I am privileged. I have a loving family, a decent job (though I gripe about it way to much), a home, transportation, health, mental stability, the list goes on and on. But I still complain. Why? 

   Is it entitlement? Is it my "right" to whine when in all reality I have more of everything than I will ever need or be able to use? Tough to answer but no I don't.

   Sitting at Christmas dinner with my family last night, I thought about this, and I was immensely proud to be part of this group of people. They are happy, caring and loving people. But there is a gigantic gap in this circle, my Dad, I dearly miss my Dad, this is the fifth Christmas since he passed, but I endeavor to acknowledge him and all he accomplished, striving to fill his gigantic shoes with my choices and actions. Everywhere in my Mom's house there is reminders of him. One that hit me hard last night was seeing his Operation Red Nose (https://www.operationnezrouge.com/en/) hat with it's dozens of pins, each one representing a year of him volunteering to ensure people he didn't know got home safe to their loved ones' after a night of celebration. Then there was his volunteering to drive seniors to appointments, his work with the Kinsmen, his 150th blood donation, etc, big BIG shoes! 

   So what do I do to help my fellow human. Yes I donate blood at least three times a year and I will volunteer when I am volun-told but I need to do more.

   Being a Martial Artist stirs this feeling in me to a frenzy. In a good way of course. I am not going to rush out and impose my ideals on those who do not want it, but offer my hand to those who want it, not taking offence when they don't. Being a part of Silent River allows me to do this in an organized way, but I need to step out on my own and do more if I am to start to close the gap left by my Dad's passing. 

   Anyways, that is where my head is at today. Just wanted to share...

From Where Does Inspiration Come?

   Inspiration is funny. It can forever allude you or it can be right in front of you, just waiting for you to notice it. It is a Ninja and an raging Elephant all at the same time, mysterious but obvious, silent but a deafening din, amazing but mundane. So to acknowledge it's omnipresence, I will throw a couple of recent events that have inspired me. 

   Todia M Ward. Working with you on your board break sequence has inspired my back fist. To have to explain what I "feel" made my understanding of what I was doing snap into focus, even though we were working on a hammer fist. Funny coincidence but there it was, right in front of me.

   Sifu M Hayes. Taking down the Lion the other night, you popped right up on top of the bag like it was just a small step over a small stone. WOW! My jaw hit the ground! Suddenly all my excuses of age and non-fitness seemed absolutely ridiculous. I was in bewilderment of my mediocracy, staring me right in the face like a disappointed parent shaking their head at their lazy child. If that didn't inspire me, nothing ever will.

   Todia M Ferris. Your ability to recite all the kid's name like the are your own children, truly masterful. I bow to your ability to be in absolute control over this. 

   Sifu K Rybak. Your ability to throw AHA moments at us, pure awesome sauce. The whole stance thing last week, you must have seen nothing but deers in the headlights from us. Pure "what the??" not just by the students you were teaching at the time but by me as well. Makes so much sense, how could it have been there all along, in plain sight, hiding within 50000. Six harmonies that are one, flow, intent, power, Chi, all right there for the world to see. Mind blown. 

   So this is just last week, and only but a few of the top events that really stand out. It goes to show me that inspiration is everywhere. All you need do is to just look for it and it will reveal itself. 

Saturday Training, Why I Go

    Open training. I almost always go with clear intent as to what I want to accomplish. Case in point, yesterday I wanted to polish up some moves with my Tiger Fork. Now that my shoulders have started feeling "better", I wanted to swing/spin it a little to test my muscle memory. Started out fine, felt good, but then there was just no more room for me to do this. But this, of course, is a good thing. That means open training has lots of students there. So I switch to my stick cause that is much more friendly to practice with when space is limited. But here is the rub.

   As soon as I got my stick out to practice, a white belt came over with their stick and started to ask some questions. So my focus was now on answering the questions posed to me, and then next thing I knew, I had two junior students asking me questions. Well I can see where this is going, and this is just plain awesome. A teaching opportunity has just arisen and I will gladly step into this role and do my best to help them out. 

   So we spend the next 25ish minutes going over Stick 1 with a dabble into Stick 2. We cover stances, intent, projection, recovery, etc. Great, I have hopefully answered the questions, I hope I hope I hope. And even better, if they only take away one thing from this interaction between us, my day is 100% better.

   I love the fact that my fellow Kung Fu enthusiast feel comfortable enough to come to me for council. That interaction outside of structured class is so important for my training. I mean really, how can I give instructions without understanding what I am talking about. And I will also freely admit when the question is beyond my knowledge, which drives me to get the answer to my void of understanding.  It really does test both my skill and confidence, forcing me to understand both my intent and that student's intent, if that is even possible.

  

    So open training, two words with the infinite opportunity for growth in both skill and spirit. This is why I go.

Square in a Circle, Carrot or the Stick?

    Time. Limited, finite (for us mere mortals), fleeting. Always a puzzle and a challenge to fit in everything I want to do in the time I have. Family, work, Kung Fu, sleep, reading blogs, feeding, ticktock ticktock, time marches on. Even in writing this blog, time is not on my side, I overslept (6am!!) so right off the bat I am behind on my mental list of todo's. So I squeeze in time for this blog, forgoing laundry and Mlong Kuen reps, and I know it (blog) will not be ground breaking but hopefully it will have a purpose. 

   I like lists. I write one every day so I can plan my day. It almost never goes perfectly, but it goes on regardlessly. A few things might get pushed, new things might get added, but on I march, doing my best to turn todo into tada!. 

   Adaptation is essential but at times it is painfully frustrating. I need the struggle though because without it, mediocrity seeps into my day. If I have no sense of urgency, I justify my procrastination with self-righteous excuses. Pushing forward and using time instead of fighting it creates opportunities. Some are meh, some are downright earth shaking!

Pause here..... 12 hours later my Sunday is caught up and I am finishing this blog.....

   So here I am trying to get back to my thought train, I think it was opportunities. To be taught, to be teachable. Right, that was where I was going with this mental maelstrom, I think. But now I have lost my original path for this blog, it is now a chasm of futility and that is a shame, cause I really wanted to get it in a blog, drat!

   So I will chalk this up to a loss on the opportunity path, I let the idea die during the day. It might come back to me, I hope it does.