(un)tangled thoughts

Looks like a sword, made of a stick called a bokken. I'm very happy with my weapon choice a few weeks into the year. I have a form that I quite like, and it's designed as a blunt-weapon demonstration. I took a video, and I'm looking forward to seeing my progress at the end of the year. When I chose the bokken, I had no real concept of what kind of manipulation would make this weapon dangerous. In fact, I initially thought of the bokken "only" as a practice sword. Looking into it, I quickly realized that the bokken is very much its own style of weapon. While it looks so much like swinging a sword, the intent switched from sharp to blunt makes this one super interesting but also challenging. Now that I have a basic structure for my form, I'm really trying to practice wacking it. It's a lot harder than I thought, especially dynamically, when I add footwork. I got a few good wacks in yesterday, mainly stationary yet, but at least I have had a chance to feel wh...

I just came back from a walk. It wasn't on my to-do list today, and it didn't look nice out there, raining but not pouring. But I decided it's a good time to see how much snow is left on the north side of the property and how the pond is filling up. Along the way, I snapped a few pictures, mostly of mosses and lichens. I sank in knee-deep on one side of the property and was pleased to see my rhubarb pop up in a different location. Now I got back and feel really good (I was sick with a fever yesterday, which makes this probably feel double as great), energized and inspired. I know that going for a walk always makes me feel better, even when the weather doesn't seem as inviting, but noticing the world out there probably has just as much impact on my well-being as the fresh air, vitamin D, and physical activity do. I often take pictures on my walks, orand hatendo bring back treasures such as rocks, twigs, fungi, leand leavesNoticing the small things (although not all are p...

Coming out of our Saturday meetings is a great time to write a blog post if my schedule allows, as there is always so much that gets stirred up. Today, two things stand out. When "we" talked about blogging, I felt crushed right away because I knew I was already short. The whole discussion about calendar week vs. 7 days combined with both Malinda's and Kaylee's comments opened up something I've really struggled to understand over the last few years. I attend these meetings and often come out inspired, but also sometimes so confused. One week I feel like we are being crushed by how we fail our requirements and "how much we suck".  And other times I feel encouraged because we discuss any movement forward, no matter how little means progress, and as long as we move forward, we are on a path to mastery. I feel silly this only seems to make sense now but I struggled to understand why I constantly felt like getting mixed messages. I attributed it to the fact th...

This was the hardest week yet in the year of the horse, and it started right after our last Saturday meeting at which I was still confidently explaining that things are going pretty good. There is a whole slew of reasons why it got harder, and trying to list them makes me feel kind of yucky, as it sounds like a bunch of excuses. I think I'm aware of most of the reasons that started piling up, one of which is the lack of autopilot that comes with a week of school holidays, but there was much more.  One day I went through my day and it took me until I went to bed to realize all of a sudden that I had done absolutely nothing for my Kung Fu yet. It truly surprised me to realize that I at no point in the day made a conscious decision to delay or even not do my push-ups or sit-ups, I simply didn't think about it at all. And from there it got worse I tried to do more the next day but I noticed that it was really hard to convince myself to do even my regular amount. At that point, I th...

As I was trying to think of a topic for my next blog and recalling the memorable moments that stood out from this last week, I thought of a situation that brings me right back to my ego, so here we go again. While attending the level one classes this week, Sihing asked me to work with an orange belt on stick 1-3. After Toudai showed me his form, I was instantly flustered. I guess I assumed there would be enough obvious things I could pick out and correct, or encourage him to practice, or somehow contribute something useful to his learning. But watching him run through, I just found myself being blown away by his power and intensity, and I felt imposter syndrome and panic sneaking in. I mean, I tried to reason with myself that there is an age difference and there is a male vs female argument, but really, the roles felt far too reversed. I managed to pick out a few little details, but really, I was just grasping at straws. After class, I was sharing my experience with Leon, and he listed...

 After my first 4 weeks of tai chi, I feel like I have a little bit of a handle on it now (only regarding the sequence and following along). The first two weeks I felt very overwhelmed and out of place. For whatever reason, I thought I'd be able to come in and shadow my classmates enough to dive right into what's there to discover about energy and centering and tying it right into my Kung Fu. That was not the case. I was somewhat shocked to realize that shadowing anybody was very difficult, and as soon as I didn't have an eye on someone doing the exact same move, I froze, not knowing what's next for any of my limbs. Retaining the sequence enough to take it home and go over it seemed impossible after the first class. I was glad there were two of us living in the same house, having started this journey now. But even with what Leon remembered, it was hard to puzzle anything together as what he retained and I brought home looked very different from each other. Thankfully, t...