Project Earth Day - The Lorax

I found myself in Chapters the other night, and came across a Dr. Seuss book I have not had the pleasure of reading. It’s called “The Lorax”. It was written about 40 years ago, and addresses the state of our environment and what happens when we disregard it in search of fulfilling our greed. It was an amazing read. I noticed that it was printed on recycled paper, and is actually being used as a tool for Earth Day, which is April 22nd.

After reading it to my girls, I found myself very inspired. They asked questions about it, such as, why would he cut down the whole forest? Where will the animals go? What will they eat?

We live in a world, where our resources are disappearing. And we end up with leaders that tell us they have a plan, but won’t be ready to tackle it until 2050. That is way too late. So while I realize I cannot change the state of the world’s environment, which sustains us, I can make a start.

I am starting a project, which I would like to complete by April 22nd, Earth Day. Here is what I propose.

1) I want to encourage reading this book. It is full of great rhyming, and has an amazing message. Buy it, borrow it, read it at the library. I highly recommend it.
2) I would like each student in Silent River Kung Fu, and any friends they have, to write a letter to Mother Earth, saying what they can do to help save her. Pictures are great too.
3) I want to publish them on a blog, for the world to see our message. In doing so, I think we can raise a lot of awareness towards our environment, and together we can make a difference.
4) I will have some pre-printed standard letters available at the front counter, but will accept any medium for this project. I encourage the use of recycling paper for it - used wrapping paper, or the back of “garbage” printouts. Whatever you wish, but let’s try to be environmentally friendly.
5) I am also hoping to gather some tips, and put them into a guide book of sorts. Again online, so that we can access ideas to put into use.
6) When you have your letters finished, leave them at Silent River Kung Fu, and I will collect them.

That's it for today. I look forward to reading the letters!!!

My Crazy Perspective

So here I am, with about a gazillion thoughts screaming through my head. I am presently worried about a number of things, all of which I have to tackle one step at a time. I tend to worry about the outcomes way before all of the facts are presented, and I always seem to undermine myself and my abilities to cope. I worry about how others see me, and what thoughts go through their heads when I am dealing with a crisis. Whether I am dealing with my kids, or with an issue at work, the worry is always there.

I have a new one. I guess I do have to keep it in perspective but it hit me on Friday. For the past few years, the goal of black belt has seemed quite far off. In a way it still does. I have so much left to learn, and I am filled with doubt as to how I am possibly going to pass. I realized Friday after class, just how close my goal is. I also realized that I will NOT go back, that I have worked hard to get where I am. I have a way of forgetting just how far I have come.

We did sparring drills in class. I have always had issues with sparring and it stems from my very first sparring class as an orange belt. Anyway, I haven't done much sparring over the last couple years, mostly due to a rib injury incurred while sparring. Thankfully this did not have an effect on my training mentally. I don't think. I felt an anxiety attack coming when we were told to gear up. However, SIfu Freitag came in, told me it was just drills, but to wear my chest gear anyway. Ha Ha. For those who haven't had the pleasure of seeing this, I look like a pink power ranger with it all on.

My point is, I got through it. I managed to calm my mind, and kept my focus on the task at hand. I didn't allow the "I can't do this" attitude to come through, and instead told myself, that "I can". And I did. I am not naive enough to think that this is it, that I have gotten through my issues. But I did realize that I have a long ways to go in a short amount of time. And if I keep my journey in front of me, I know this is something I can accomplish. Six months to grading isn't that far away.

I have my pushup assignment to help keep me focused on progress, and it should help me get stronger. Granted, I can only do girly pushups (due to my rib injury) and not many at one time. If I can keep my perspective on my goal from getting too crazy, and if I can keep my focus on the task at hand, attaining my goal is more than just possible. I can do it, and I will.

(On a side note, I received a compliment from a fellow classmate on Friday and it went a long way. It's amazing how a few simple words can make such a huge difference.)

(On yet another side note, I really appreciate the patience and support from the instructors with overcoming my injury - both mental and physical. This is truly an amazing place to train.)

Choices and Attitudes

We all make conscious choices, and from my perspective, they are influenced by our attitudes.

If I have a positive attitude, and am presented with an idea, I can weigh the pros and cons, and make a choice that makes me feel good. If I have a more negative attitude about something, say I have already made up my mind before I have all the facts, I am not going to reap any benefits from this idea and cannot open myself to possibilities.

We are faced with choices each and every day. We choose to be positive or negative, and we choose how events or challenges are going to affect us. And these choices stick with us. We choose to accept our lots in life, or we choose to try to make a change or a difference. I honestly believe that our attitudes are our choices influence each other. Adjust a negative attitude, and different choices are made.

We also choose to see the negatives or the positives in a situation. Someone who has a more positive attitude about life in general is going to be the person trying to see the positives in any given moment. A negative attitude however, will not see the positives nor will they try.

Take for example a few people I work with. One has Turner’s Syndrome. She is 24 and is only 4’7”. But she is the tallest person I know. She has the most positive attitude, and her height does not even occur to her. She never complains - I mean never. I have worked with her for a year and a half now, and not once have I heard her complain about the disadvantages of her height. No tall shelf slows her down, and buying a car is more challenging for her, but it doesn’t even occur to her let it slow her down. She has accepted her lot in life, and is making the best of it, each and every day.

Another example is a girl I work with who has Cerebral Palsy. It isn’t as severe as it could have been, but she is challenged. The muscles in her right side are much weaker, so that she cannot really hold anything with her right hand, and she has a slight gait to her walk. But it doesn’t really slow her down either. She had her car fitted with a couple of devices to allow her to be independent, (her gas pedal is on the left side). She types and mouses with her left hand only. But, she carries boxes all the time, and is always walking. She refused the handicapped sticker for her car, and lives her life to it’s fullest. And she has the biggest heart I have ever met.

But on the other side of the fence, I also work with two deaf girls. And both have a “woe is me” attitude. One is also diabetic but doesn’t take care of it. She eats a tonne of sweets all the time, while complaining that it wasn’t made with Splenda. She now has foot problems due to the diabetes, but it is an excuse for her to only do desk work. She can walk down the hall to my desk a dozen times in a day, but to ask her to do some filing, and it’s “Oh, well my feet hurt, I can’t”. She is a nice lady, but it frustrates me because she has such a negative attitude. Everyone else is expected to accommodate her, and when we don’t, we are obviously all out to get her.

My point is that our attitude has a huge impact on our daily lives. Take a negative attitude and put in into Kung Fu. You will have a student who simply expects to be given a stripe or a promotion to a higher belt. This student will complain when someone else surpasses them, because they have been there longer. I hope that students like this, can learn to understand, that Kung Fu is a personal journey. You cannot compare yourself to another.

Same goes for our assignments in class. I admit, that sometimes I don’t feel good enough, and that it is all in my attitude. I have to take a step back and realize that I worked hard to get where I am, and usually once I see the journey I have been on, and my past accomplishments, then my attitude improves.

If we make a choice, and go against our attitude, I am sure that it will have a ripple effect. I could be wrong, but I know that when my attitude is on the sucky side, and I choose to go to class, when I don’t feel good enough, my attitude is always better when I leave.

Just a few thoughts for a cold, but sunny day. Spring is coming, I know it, it’s inevitable!

A poem

I wrote a poem today, but realized that it is too dark to post. Here is a poem I found, that struck a chord for me.

Patience

Patience is the best
Shock - absorber.
Patience is the highest
Peace - discover.
Patience is the greatest
Perfection - believer.

Patience is the soul - power
Concealed.
Patience is the heart - tower
Revealed.

In between your failure - tree
And your triumph - tree,
The tree that is growing
Is known as your patience tree.

Yesterday
Patience was the beginning
Of my perfection.
Today
Patience is the flowering
Of my satisfaction.

Sri Chinmoy

Appreciation

I realized last night how much I actually take for granted. And it isn't until something is removed or taken away, that we realize what we actually had or have.

I have taken my parents for granted, or at least the help they give me in child care. Today is Family Day, a day that I don't have off. I work for the Federal Government and since this is a Provincial holiday, I am not entitled to having it off unless I take a vacation day.

My kids have had the flu for the last week and a bit. They are both feeling better, which is really great. Now, with today being Family Day, the schools and Daycares are closed, and they should be. But both my parents are sick now and I had nowhere to send my kids while I went to work. It isn't a big deal, as I just have to take it off now. But it made me realize just how much I depend on my parents. And I have also realized how much I take a lot of things for granted.

Our lives are short, and we never know when they are going to end. It isn't something we can predict or prevent, so we need to live each day to it's fullest because it might be the last. A girl in her late twenties died last week. She hit a gravel truck head on on a slippery highway. She was about 4 months pregnant. I am sure that someone took her life for granted and assumed that they would all get to enjoy the new baby and live to a ripe old age. Not so.

I take many things for granted, and not just the care and help my parents provide. I take my job for granted. I take being able to buy groceries and make my payments for granted. I take my Kung Fu for granted.

That last one, my Kung Fu is a tough one for me to admit. But it's true, I take it for granted. I am very lucky to have the opportunity to train at an amazing school filled with amazing people. I take for granted how much I learn and how lucky I am to be able to pass on my knowledge. I take for granted, and sometimes forget the journey that I took to get where I am today.

It's time that we all look at our lives, and take stock the things that we take for granted. We take for granted our sense of smell, sight, mobility, touch and taste and hearing. We take for granted the people in our lives and the things we have. We need to stop and appreciate how lucky we are to live where we do and the freedom we have. We need to look in the mirror and appreciate the very fact that we are alive. We need to look beyond the little things. If your significant other is constantly leaving the cap off the toothpaste and it irritates you, is it really worth fighting over? What if that person didn't come home today? They were in an accident or something else. How many regrets would you have? Look at the person you love today, and appreciate them for what and who they are. They might not be around tomorrow.

Politics, yada, yada, yada

So, I am not one for politics. I can handle personal politics without any problems, but then I have my hand in the can. I deal with it all the time at work, and I feel that I do quite well with it.

Now the Provincial Election is coming up. I personally am not one to follow what goes on with government as it just doesn’t interest me. However, if I choose not to vote, I am not exercising my right, and with one vote, I can make a difference. So I am going to try to stay informed, so that I can make a choice based on what I know, and not someone else’s bias.

It is time for me to decide what is most important to me, and to see which candidate measures up the best. My biggest problem though, seems to be that I will ultimately have to chose the lesser of the evils. I feel the candidates, and all of them, still have only their best interests in mind. Do they really care or understand how much it takes to raise a child today? How that they have a provincial subsidy for children in daycares, but it stops the day they start grade 1? That doesn’t make any sense to me at all. Just because my child is now in school every day, does not mean that my working hours can be adjusted to accommodate this. How about the seniors on a fixed income? Their pensions do not adjust as the cost of living increases. What about them? And then what about our environment? I believe we need some serious plans to preserve what we have and to encourage a future for the generations to come. These are just a few of my questions, and I wonder if any of them will be addressed. I might be faced with a choice of 3 guys, who might each address one thing of importance to me.

At any rate, I will have a choice to make. I have to celebrate that, since I am privileged to live in a country where I have a choice. I have a voice, and I will use it. I dislike election time, as I have to take interest in something that I don’t have much interest in. However, it is something I will do, and I have no idea which direction I will cast my vote. I am guessing it will be the lesser of the evils.

Children of the World

What is happening to our children? Or rather, what is happening with parenting in this day and age?

All over the news right now, are a couple of incidents that occurred recently. One, a father who, in a drunken state supposedly, dragged his 1 1/2 and 3 year old girls, in only t-shirts and panties/diapers into the -50 weather to freeze to their deaths. It might not have been intentional, but tell me why it had to happen? What did those two little girls do to deserve that?

Another, was a 23 year old girl with autism, who was left to starve to death by her sister. This sister, her guardian is being charged with manslaughter. She made this girl sleep on particle board, with a deflated air mattress covered in her feces. This girl went from 200 lbs to 85 lbs when she was found. How could anyone do this? What did this girl, who had the mind of a 3 year old, do to deserve to die with such indignity? It breaks my heart.

Yet another, an 8 month old baby girl, left on the cold cement in a parkade. Thankfully, she didn't have to die, but why was she left there in the first place?

These are only a couple of the millions of monstrosities being stowed on our world's children. And maybe these hit me so hard because they are here, in Canada where we are supposedly the more advanced culture. How can I believe that?

Another thing to think about is what we bestow on our children as far as beauty goes. What is wrong with us, when a 7 year old refuses to wear a winter coat because it makes her look fat? What??? This girl I heard about was 7. She should have been worried about the size of the snowman she was going to make, or the next time she could go out on her sled. Not what she was wearing or how she looked.

We have this huge responsibility to raise our children. They are our future, and we are in a position of extreme power. But why do some people end up destroying the gifts of our future? I look into the eyes of my children, and I am so thankful for them. I want to protect them from all of this, and to shelter them. But I am being naive. I need to educate them, that is their best defense.

Kung Fu can help me with that, I am sure. It can help me to teach them that every person deserves to be treated with respect, the values of being a good person with peaceful intentions. It can help me teach them to accept people and their cultures, and to ultimately respect themselves. It can help me teach them that beauty comes from within, not from what you see on the outside. Our art flows from the inside to the outside, and from the outside to the world around us.

I can make a difference through my kids. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But one day I will have left my mark, and so will they.