Journey

Cool picture, right?

The last entry of 2012.....
When I first started blogging, I found it difficult to imagine blogging every week for a whole year! Now, I sometimes don't make it a whole week without something twigging my blogging fingers.
I have been very reflective lately, thinking about my journey and how I got to be where I am and doing what I am doing. In the beginning, we were told that if we practiced for 10 minutes a day, we could get our black belts. I remember thinking, they can't mean everyday! Now, I get a little antsy if I don't have an hour or two to devote to my kung fu everyday. In the beginning of my I Ho Chuan journey, we talked about reaching great heights and going amazing distances. I remember thinking, they can't mean me! Now, I don't know any other way than to reach as high and as far as I can.
I am at the beginning of my journey as a black belt and it stills feels a little weird when someone calls me Sifu, I catch myself thinking, I'll get a black belt to answer that question, and I feel like a total newby when we are bowing in a class. I am not really sure where my journey will lead me and I am excited to find out.  I want to continue to strive to be amazing, I want to practice hard and I want to try my hardest at everything that I do. I am curious about what I will reflect upon at this time next year or the year after. I am very glad that I have this blog to help me remember and to leave a trail of crumbs in case I need them.
Happy New Year Everyone!

Awesome!

My dear friend gave me a journal yesterday, it is called The Journal of Awesome . This is what is says in the foreward:
Hi Everyone,
A few years ago I hit some giant speed bumps in life. Within the span of a few months, my wife told me she didn't love me anymore and my best friend lost the battle with serious illness. I was heart-broken and lonely, and my mind was all over the place.
I found a lot of comfort back then in writing about one awesome thing every single day. I would come home from work and start jotting notes about random little things - like the cold side of the pillow, the smell of a bakery, or finding five bucks in my coat pocket - and just sort of smile to myself.
Over time these awesome things started putting my mind in a different place. They helped me get to bed without a twisted stomach. They helped me find focus on all the little things that make life so awesome. 
So I kept coming home and writing about one awesome thing every day. I kept writing and writing and writing until my little website called 1000 Awesome Things suddenly won some big awards and got published as The Book of Awesome and then  The Book of  (even more) Awesome and then The Book of (holiday) Awesome in dozens of countries and languages around the world.
The Journal of Awesome was created in response to teachers, preachers, grandparents and grandkids who told me they started writing their own little thoughts about what them think, smile and laugh from their day.
This journal is a wide open space for you to share your big wishes, dream your big dreams and remember all the precious little moments that make up your day. I've filled it up with pictures, prompts and reminders of how awesome life can be. I know you've lots of your own thoughts too, and I think that together we can create something pretty special.
Let's have some fun and let's stay awesome forever and ever and ever.

I am going to use the journal to record all the amazingly awesome things that happen in my world every day. From time to time, I will share them in my blog.

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope that you are all blessed with some awesome this holiday season!!!

Truth

I found this after I posted my journal this week and I wanted to share it!

I can

Do you ever wonder why things happen? Where is the"good" in a tragedy? What are we supposed to learn from the senseless death of small children? Today, the lesson is lost on me.

• I can thank God for my blessings

• I can be more empathetic towards people who suffer from mental illness

• I can not worry about the small stuff and be glad that I have small stuff to worry about

• I can pray for the families that have suffered during a time that they should be rejoicing in the birth of our Lord 

• I can pray that there is more world wide understanding and assistance for mental illness

• I can appreciate what I have in my life and not take for granted that I will always have it

• I can't make someone else's pain go away, but I can pray that they will find peace and accept what has happened. 

Until next week.......

TIME

When I first started my journey towards my black belt, I didn't really understand what it would take to reach my goal. I listened to what my teachers told me but I didn't really hear them. At first I was jumping through hoops, doing what I thought others wanted me to do  and what I thought that I should be doing. I was not successful! I spent the better part of a year wandering about without focus. One day, I realized that there was nothing left for me to do except get down to it. I started to take ownership for my training and figured out that the only thing that lay between me and my goal was me. Although I had completed many reps of my forms and techniques and combinations, I hadn't spent any "time" with them. I needed to do my forms mindfully, feel how it was to move the way I wanted to and seek feedback from my mentors on how to make improvements. I spent hours and hours, with no distractions,with myself. I focused on every aspect of being a good martial artist and took the steps that I thought were important to help me reach my goal. It took me a long time to figure this out and once I did, it took a long time to reach my goal. It doesn't need to take you a long time to reach your goals, just a period of time where you are consistently, mindfully working towards them (Take consistent action!). If you are serious about your goals and you want to do it right, there are no short cuts, no easy way, just hard work and commitment.

Peace

In life, when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it,

You surround yourself with people who make you laugh, forget the bad, and focus on the good. 

So love the people who treat you right, pray for the ones who don't.

Life is too short to be anything but happy.

Falling down is a part of life, getting back up is living.

Who do you trust

I want to talk about trust. How do we build trust? What does it take to keep trust?
In KungFu, we begin our journey as a white belt, not really sure if we are on the right path. We are open to learning something new and by virtue of showing up, have put some trust in the instructors to introduce us to their art. As we are laying the ground work, we are gaining the trust of the instructors by how we are processing the information that we are receiving. Are we showing respect, are we doing what they ask (practicing), are we demonstrating that we can learn by retaining what they show us, so they are able to show us more? They are also earning our trust by giving us stuff to learn, not too much and not too little. Over time, they discover what we need to grow and prosper and we learn to trust that they know best.
Throughout our martial arts training, this process repeats itself over and over again. Whether you have been promoted and moved to a different class or have decided to try your hand at Tai Chi or San Shou, you begin the trust building process again, with a new teacher or with the same one and a slightly different curriculum. Trust is one of the foundations that we build on from the very first day that we step on the mats.
We keep that precious trust that we have fostered by trying our hardest each and every time, and by being honest about our abilities and disabilities. Our instructors need to know that no matter what our belt level, we are there to learn, and our students need to know that as long as they are trying, we are there to teach and motivate them.
You might be wondering why this relationship is so important? Well, our instructors need to know that we will respect the skills that we are being taught. And we, the students need to know, that the instructors will respect us as they are teaching us.  We can not have respect without the trust.
These are my thoughts for this week,