A Blog of Things

For the first time in a long time, I don’t know what to write this blog about. I have had a number of ideas that never made it any farther than that, ideas. They stayed in my head, the context for those would-have-been-blogs is gone, making them feel less important to bother to capture in words.

 I thought about what sorts of things I have been doing, what sorts of things I’ve been thinking about, and several small ideas started to pop up, but nothing that would consider to be a “large” enough topic to explore in a blog. So I am going to write out those thoughts just to see what happens.


-I know I have nothing to write about because I haven’t really been training. This is my “I am here, I am just writing a blog for the sake of writing a blog, to exercise my ability to keep promises and work on consistent action” type of blog

-I am very disappointed with myself for not engaging with the Week in the Life of the I Ho Chuan project like I wanted to, for not really engaging with the team at all in the last little while

-I am proud of my efforts to help organize The Great Lion Building Project, since I wasn’t sure if I was ready or capable to take on a role like this, and I’ve learned a lot and am grateful for the whole project

-I have been thinking about my requirements and goals and numbers for this year, compared and contrasted to the ones for the year of the Dragon, trying to get things back on track, as well as how I can start/stay on track moving into the new year

-I am wondering if I should try to change the way I've been entering my numbers so it will be easier to add them to the end of my blogs (if anyone has any suggestions of how they've been adding theirs I would love to hear them, I use excel to track mine)

-I am thinking about my front thrust kicks, how I can fix them, how I can train my eye for detail to catch a low crane stance or a swinging motion in my leg, when I am going to find time to practice

-I am thinking about acts of kindness, simple but incredibly kind things that people have said to me over the last little while that have completely made my day. Seeing examples of others being kind and trying to be mindful, to try to be that person next time. 

-I am thinking about how proud I am seeing my teammates perform their forms, slowing getting into the pre-banquet mindset, and reflecting on how different it feels this year compared to last year (another blog to come exploring this)

-I am thinking about how I am making the best and most sustainable efforts towards the Mastery requirement I have ever made, I can probably recite 96% of the poem with complete accuracy  consistently. (There's just one line in the middle that I keep jumbling the words on, but I'm working on it)

-I am thinking about how I am nowhere near where I want to be for my numbers, but I am still working at them, telling myself that each rep is one more that I normally wouldn't have done, each one is one more closer, each one still counts


Although this was not a blog with one consistent theme, it was still nice to get some of these thoughts put down into tangible words so that I can think about them in the different way that only comes after the blog has been written. 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Or can I...?

Between it floating around in the back of my mind for almost a week, reading sifu Brinker's blog post about it today, and sifu Rybek encouraging us to write a blog after tonight's meeting, I think all three created the mental conditions that were just right for me to have a lightbulb moment about the knifehand-long punch-open roundhouse/(dragons whip)-spinning back kick section in da mu hsing II, and I'm very excited about it, I mean, jumping up and down punching the air excited.  My initial question about this sequence that kind of kickstarted this whole thing was that I was having trouble feeling any flow or power from that spinning back kick at the end of the sequence. When sifu Brinker explained that the energy flows just like it does in the knifehand-punch 1) it blew my mind that the spinning back kick was meant to be connected like that!! and 2) I thought I had an answer to my question and all it would take would be to practice with that intent in mind.  However as I ...
Read more

I don't want to write this blog

 I don't want to write this blog. Which is exactly the reason I'm forcing myself to write it. It's only the second month and I've already started to fall behind on my monthly goals (which is one of my personal) requirements for this year. I thought I would have made it a bit farther into the year before something like this happened, but lo and behold all it took was the switch from one month to another and it started to crumble. For the whole first week of March I didn't even have it on my radar until I went to input my numbers for the week and realized I made zero progress. Swallowing my disappointment, I resolved to do better next week. Still no change and another bout of shock when I put in my numbers for the week. On the 12th I wrote in my spreadsheet where the hours should have gone "doing absolute terrible with this one need to address it in a blog ASAP" next week, no hours logged, no blog and just like that mediocrity swiftly snapped it's jaws c...
Read more

Could a Robot Do Kung Fu?

During one of our discussions in the second degree brown belt class last Saturday my brain threw a question completely out of left field at me. Sifu Brinker was describing how flow and power does not come from executing a technique with overly specific instructions (i.e. "ok I'm going to move my arm 98 degrees to the left then extend my elbow in 3.5 seconds then...") and my brain grabbed that idea and ran with it, almost immediately asking "COULD YOU TEACH A ROBOT KUNG FU?????" I made a note of it then left the idea alone because I knew as soon as I started to think about it there is no way I would be able to refocus on the actual discussion (which I very much wanted to hear). Once I allowed myself to think about it my first answer was:  probably , and it would most likely be better than us at it because you could measure out the timing and distancing, all things we have to constantly adjust and practice, to a microscopic level, and the robot would be able to ex...
Read more