Lull Nullified

    It will sound odd but this week I did my regular Kung Fu but I didn't get a chance to do my irregular Kung Fu. Let me explain. It was a very chaotic week, short staffed at work (summer holiday time), busy with summer projects at home, a shower faucet giving me grief, a demo, a family get together (golf game/BBQ), football, and so on, just plain old busy. So busy in fact that the only Kung Fu I got in was in class, and that is out of the norm for me. I usually get time during the day to put in 10 min here or there, but life got in the way repeatedly last week, and the next 2 or 3 don't look any better. I suppose I could get up earlier, but I sleep so little as it is that I feel that I would start a detrimental path that would directly affect my heath, I am lucky to sleep 5 hours a night as it is.

   I love being busy, just not all the time. I am currently finding myself in a constant state of a "what's the next disaster/dilemma/major event" mentality, and it is throwing off my rhythm. So to reset myself today, I am going outside right now to do some Tai Chi, and I am not stopping till I am done. (after proof reading and posting this of course).

   See you all in class👍

Campfire Demo

   1 practice. 1 great team. 1 great demo.  I’ll remember this one for a long time. The crowd was awesome, lots of engagement, the weather was perfect.

    I’ll admit I was EXTREMELY nervous about being the Dragon Head tonight. But thanks to my team, I personally think we did awesome. Every time I started to freak out, I would just look at my teammates and that would ground me. Such great people, makes my life so much easier. 

   Just wanted to put out a quick blog, and not just cause we were told too. This will help keep it fresh in my mind.

One for the Ages

    Canada Day Demo, July 1 2023, 11:30ish am, Stony Plain Pavilion hill - no wait - Pioneer Museum field. It's sunny, no wait, it's raining, no wait, it's both. Was that lightening? Wow, listen to that rolling thunder, awesome. There is excitement, there is a little fear, I think to myself "we best get this show on the road ASAP!". A little jog from site A (the hill) to site B (the field), now we are all together. The crowd is good, lots of kiddos (excellent). No time to warm up (the little jog over helped), we are on in 4 minutes, no 2 minutes. No time for a run through, Dragon goes here, weapons go here and Lion goes here aaaaaand, begin. 

   Lion part one looks great! Dragon has unlimited room and Todai Bauer uses it (NOW I Am Warm!!), weapons demo kicked some royal butt (in my opinion), Lion part two looks even greater!! If you haven't seen the video here is the link.

https://youtu.be/VYQ7c-1dAQw

   Adaptation and improvisation was in full force this day. And this IHC team crushed it! From the location to weather (lightening is normally pretty cool but NOT during a demo!), to the crunched time frame to weather (ya I mentioned it twice), it was epic. There were new potholes to contend with (bonus points - no one sprained anything), some slight timing issues, then my weapon started to undo during my 20 seconds of fame (yikes!), Adapt adapt adapt. But I wouldn't change it for the world. The excitement mixed with anxiety mixed with the pressure mixed with thrill of performing, you can't buy this stuff, you have to truley live it to appreciate it . And it makes you feel so alive that you wonder how you ever lived without it. 

   And then there was the last lightening strike just after we finished, Flash Bang, 1 - 2, right there! I actually felt the static electricity, OMG!! If that didn't get your heart pumping, nothing will! "Wow" is all I can say. Nothing like a little life affirming terror to end your demo, cool beans. 

   Now to try and top this one, without the lightening if you please.😁

Missed Comments - Time Zones

    I want to apologize to those who have commented on my blogs and never got any type of response from me. I never realized there where even comments there until today, I never thought to look. My bad for not using this platform properly, I will adjust my settings (hopefully correctly) so I see the comments. I'm not really a computer guy so this will be an adjustment for me as well as I usually stay away from our laptop unless I absolutely need to be on it. And because of this I have missed some real gems, So consider this a blanket response, thank you for your comments. Again, my bad for under using this platform.

   17 to 20 seconds. Demo for Canada Day. Find my favorite part of my weapon form and make it fit in this time frame. Sounds easy enough. But for some reason, every time I do the form, it morphs a little here or there. I have some moves I really like BUT, they are separate from each other and other moves connect them. By condensing the time, I am forcing some move together that don't belong with each other. It is proving to be challenging, and fun. Luckily I have all this week off work so I can work work work on this until I have a final product that not only fits the time constraints but looks wicked and mean.

Acceptance

    I am having a hard time accepting that I am getting old. My body and my mind battle constantly over this. My mind says "just do it!", then my body answers back "take that old man!". One week my knee is sore, next week my back, this week it is my wrist and shoulder, constant and persistent, never ending, aggravating. How I miss youth and the ability to bounce back like it never happened. We all get older, nothing can stop it, so I need to stop complaining about what hurts and focus on what doesn't, like right now, my earlobes feel great.

   I just read a book by Ray Bradbury called Dandelion Wine. It was a great read, I highly recommend it for those who like to contemplate life and death. It helped me with my thoughts on these subjects, with acceptance as to who I am and what I am doing to myself as I age. Legacy, family, savoring life, all richly painted in this book. 

   So I will listen to those who wish to give me their sage advice, my Doctor, my Wife, my Mother, my Instructors, their wisdom is golden. This is not to say I am retiring to the front porch and a squeaky rocking chair, no chance there, no way no how. It just means a kind of armistice between my two opposing personalities till I can "just do it" without the "take that old man", a warm happy place where pain is kept at bay. 

   Well thanks for hearing me out, be good.

P.s  I miss all the discussions about smoothies. I didn't pay a whole bunch of attention to it while it was there but now that it has disappeared, I miss it, Reason I say this, I could used a few suggestions for inflammation and blood pressure. Your knowledge means so much more to me than the online gibberish that just wants to sell me their "stuff".

Separate but Connected

    Tai Chi. Mlong Kuen, Two Kung Fu forms I am learning. Lots of similarities, lots of differences. I hadn't realized that one was trying to impose itself on the other. Thanks to a little question here, a little self reflection there, and some expert advice, AHA, now I can see and feel the separation I need to make both achieve their intended purpose (I still have years/decades of practice to do though!!). 

   At the beginning of Mlong Kuen, we do a double arm "uppercut" with an "stretched" stance. In Tai Chi part 3 near the end, we do a hop/turn double arm temple punch. Similar but very different. In Wednesday's Tai Chi class, this move felt too aggressive to me, to "shouldery", for some reason. Thanks to an insight by Sihing Burke, a bulb came to life in my noggin. She mentioned the whole Mlong Kuen move thing. And then I saw it. I was doing the Mlong Kuen stance with the Tai Chi double arm temple punch. And I was aggressively snapping my wrists, over-reaching my center, trying to compensate/correct for the incorrect stance. While the combination of the two felt powerful, I knew it was out of place in my Tai Chi. By correcting this grievous error I was making, the move fell back into place, making the next moves reconnect with the intent and flow that thousands of years of design was meant to be there. Then Sifu Dennis confirmed this, cementing it in my mind. 

   And now I am looking at other forms, to see if this is isolated (not!) or a reoccurring theme. I am hoping for the best but planning for an awful lot of work, cause I suspect I know the answer already. 

P.S. hopefully I spelled Mlong Kuen correctly, I forgot that messages disappeared after seven days since the last time I had asked. My bad.

So Many First Times

    Farmers Day parade June 3 2023. It was so cool to be a part of this. I witnessed so many firsts for my fellow Kung Fu'ers and experienced a few myself as well. First, Todia Mike Kohut, your creativity never ceases to leave me in awe, you rock sir. Todai Kat Thelwall, your first lion dance, really? You did amazing. You are now a veteran, welcome. Young Todia Wolschlager on the gong, way to go young man! Young Todai Hoffman, future Buddha maybe?? Ran with the Lion like you meant it, sweet moves! So many first for so many, great day. 

   My first revelation (?) was with my weapon. Not a walking in a parade with a crowd of people weapon. I was constantly shoulder checking, thinking about the pointy end and where it was pointing. A couple of time I accidentally stabbed the pavement with it, whoops. I wanted to swing it around and show it off a little but there were way too many ways that could have gone very wrong. Next year, something small, dull but fun, suggestions? 

   Another first was the demo after. I accidentally(?😏) buried the tip of my Tiger Fork in the ground on my very first move, neat, squishy. But this totally messed up my next move cause I was still grinning from stabbing the ground. As well I had made the choice to go barefoot for my demo because the ground was too tempting not to run my toes through it. I had the foresight to do a broken glass check before hand but left the twigs where they lay. Oops. Halfway into my form, my toes picked up a twig making it look like my toes were having a smoke 😅. Again I lost focus, grinning like a fool but soaking in every moment, lovin it. Would I go back and change this goofy series of events, absolutely not!!

  So to sum it up, great day, great opportunity, great experience.