Tiger Challenge 2017

I had a tonne of fun yesterday. It was a learning experience as far as judging and scoring goes. I learned a lot. I was also very excited to see a lot of the students that I help teach in the Monday/Wednesday advanced class really show off the stuff they've been working on.

I was ridiculously nervous about the dragon dance. But, it went very smoothly. I wouldn't say flawless, but pretty well considering the amount of practice time we had together. Being black belt grand champion was exciting and unexpected. But, what I took away the most from it, is how much I have improved, even since last year. I remember struggling with my balance in all of my forms, in particular, kempo. Just something else that helps indicate how far I've come in the past couple years.

Thanks to everyone for being super supportive, and congratulations on great performances and a lot of hard work.

Casting the I Ching

So I've received a promotion at work. Which is cool, although it will make my work more demanding. But I also think I could use it as an opportunity to improve on some of my administration skills and take some courses that would help me in the future with some of my business goals.

The I Ching is a super ancient type of Chinese divination. Now I don't know how much weight I put into any kind of divination, but I do believe in the power of synchronicity, and I know in Daoism, there is the theory that our paths all cross like a spider's web. I believe the term that my master used to used was "fen". The idea that we all have a role to play in each other's reality. As we have all experienced, what seems like a very small and simple decision, can have very large repercussions to someone else.

Anyways, casting the I Ching. I got a changing hexagram; yin changing to yang. Which is cool because the first hexagram I got was considered an "evil" hexagram. So now I'm moving into what would be called an auspicious time. Although it's hard to say when one will end and the next begins. But for now, what I've taken from it, is that I have an abyss in front of me, and an abyss behind me, and the best thing to do is wait. But soon, I will move forward into a time where the tree falls and the monkeys will scatter (yep, one of the interpretations, figure that one out!)

Well, that was an odd blog....

Accountability

I was thinking a little bit about what I talked about in the meeting. Making commitments to people so that I stay engaged with my kung fu. Whether or not they are acknowledged, they are things that matter to me. I feel like I'm an integral part of something, and that drives me to be there as much as possible. Whether or not it's reality, it helps drive me to improve and keep moving forward.

I hope someday I can make a commitment just to myself. Making myself accountable to me. The only one I let down is me, but that's something huge. I feel the importance of this already. Being honest with myself is the first step. I won't be accountable to myself, if I don't acknowledge where I'm truly at. Did I do my pushups today? No. Why? Because I chose not to. I have to be willing to have these conversations with myself.

At the same time, there's always this thought in my mind. Would I be able to stop doing kung fu? I'm pretty sure the answer is no. Even if I became mediocre for a while, there's something inside of me that feels like kung fu gives my life purpose. And not because my occupation is not valuable, or because I don't play a very active role in my family. But kung fu makes me recognize the quality of everything I'm doing in my life and question whether or not I could be doing it better. It makes me practice my compassion and empathy, because I can always be growing as a person, and even those skills take practice.

So I hope one day I will be accountable to me. And I know that the path I'm on, the path that kung fu has shown me but that I have chose to walk down, is the best way for me to get there.

A friend of mine has been living in Nepal for about nine months studying Tibetan Buddhism. Having a conversation recently she was explaining to me that a lot of their study and practice involves the preparation for death. They do not believe that this physical reality we live in now is the end of life. It is a state of consciousness that we all go through to get to the next dimension of reality. Every morning when you wake, before you move or get up, you open your eyes, look around, and ask yourself, "am I still part of this physical world?". If the answer is yes, the next thing you ask yourself is, "okay, now what am I going to do with this day?". It puts you into the right perspective first thing so that no matter what happens, you've set your intention for the day.

This week someone lost his life on one of our job-sites. I didn't know him personally, but as I'm sure you can imagine, our office was chaos. There are still investigations ongoing so I can't say much about it, other than, it looks like an accident. My heart aches for his family and friends.

I couldn't have had a more pertinent reminder of what this weekend is about. I spent most of my time off thinking about how lucky I am that, in this reality, I am surrounded by so much love.

Goodbye September

I haven't had an easy time thinking of something to write for this blog. I've been really busy lately with life, but I'm working on changing my perspective to incorporate kung fu into a lot more of the things I do on a day to day basis. I've started writing in a journal before bed which is something I've never really considered before, since I don't love sitting and writing down my thoughts. But I'm supposed to be using the journal to write 3 things I'm grateful for every day. I'm not super consistent, but I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would which is a great place to be. Again, it's all about perspective.

I've cut out coffee, again. It's so easy to pick up a habit like coffee. You start with one cup here and there, and then it becomes 2 cups, and soon you feel like you can't finish the day without it. Maybe not everyone gets to that point, but as I already have problems with fatigue, I decided it was a good idea to get off of the java train.

Lastly, our month of vegetarianism was great! I have a little bit of an internal struggle because of the auto immune protocol diets that I've been trying. Most, don't eat gluten or dairy, and then more extreme ones don't eat grains of any kind, legumes, or night shades (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers etc). So if I'm vegetarian, what do I actually eat? I have to ask myself what my priority is, how I feel physically, and how far I want to take this diet. I don't enjoy eating meat all the time. Don't get the impression that I don't love meat.. but I feel as a conscious consumer, I need to eat what I need to, not just what I want to. It's something that I'm working on formulating a plan for. But I haven't made any solid decisions yet.