Pizza!

 

I have been amazed so far with all of the blogging, and I am finding it so inspiring. You guys are awesome! The hard part will be to keep up with the blogging - every year we all start off gung ho and blogging is strong, but then as we settle in, it’s gets more difficult to maintain. But the key to a successful year, is to keep blogging. It doesn’t have to be deep and delicious every week, but the simple act serves an important purpose. It keeps us engaged, with our training and each other. It keeps us aware of where we are in our journey, where we feel we are and how we see our progress. Blogging regularly keeps our instructors and fellow students informed so they can offer a hand if we need it. It’s a keystone to a successful year in the I Ho Chuan. Go Oxe

It’s Now

 

As I sit here with our most senior cat asleep on my lap, I can’t help but think about the knowledge that we lose when someone is no longer with us.

For example, my husband’s aunt is the record keeper and historian in the family. She has ties to all of her family near and far, knows so many stories and has oh so many memories. How do we hold on to them after she is gone? I am positive that a lot of that knowledge and history will be just gone.

In speaking to my aunt the other day, she mentioned that she was going through pictures and said that she doesn’t know much about them, but my mom would have. Mom was our historian.

And then there is Kung Fu. It’s over 2 thousand years old, but what knowledge do we really have? How much of Sifu Brinker’s knowledge will eventually be lost? I found myself looking at the nafudakake last week, and again wondering about all of the Sifu’s that no longer train with us. A bunch of them I have never met, and the same with all of the students no longer training.

It occurs to me that time is precious. It’s important to know our past, but it’s more important to know our present. I need to make the most of now, so I don’t miss anything. It can be easy to get lost in the tomorrow’s or the yesterday’s, but really the time is now.

Leading

 

Leading as an example. One of the things that became important to me as my training continued, was for my kids to see me accomplish something amazing. Not for my ego, but so they could see that with hard work anything is possible. It didn’t start that way though. I joined Kung Fu for self defence, and that grew into a way of life for my kids and I.

I was a single mom, working full time and training for my black belt. I leaned heavily on my parents for child care when I was at class, and more so during my grading year. My parents questioned why I was grading for my black belt as they felt I wasn’t spending enough time with my children, but I stressed how important it was to me that my kids saw me succeed so that they could have confidence in themselves.

It took a little bit of time, but my parents did see the benefits to my kids from my training. My dad hasn’t specified what exactly he sees, but he still brings it up from time to time. And that makes me feel good, because I know how he felt especially during my grading year.

Kung Fu is a way of life, and it permeates mine entirely. Our family is kind, compassionate and giving. We care about our environment, and our community. We are sensitive to our impact on those around us as well as our planet. I don’t know that my kids could physically defend themselves anymore as they haven’t trained in 4 1/2 years, but I am pretty confident that they are smart enough to stay away from potentially bad situations. And that’s a win in my books.