Week before Xmas

So this will be short

The girls are home Yeah! They are going to go over the tai he form with me because I am planning on doing it at the Tiger Challenge this year and it needs some perfecting.

Really enjoying participating in the Dragon Dance group its alot of fun and is starting to look impressive. The area we are doing it in is pretty small so everybody being in the right place at the right time is going to be critical.

Christmas is busy here at the office and at home. Really getting everyone a gift certificate is so much easier! Not as much fun though

MIA

So I have not blogged for the last 7 weeks ... and I am supposed to explain this!  Not sure how to do this without sounding like a whinny baby offering endless excuses.   Its not that anything disastorous has happended it more like ALOT of things have been going on. 

Since June of this year its been very busy at work ... the number of workers doubled and the projects got bigger and more complicated.   So as a result I have been getting farther and farther behind on my other responsibilities at work (ask the last time I went out on a site inspection ... its been months).  Its not just Kung Fu journalling that has taken a hit, its happening all over my life.   Haven't been helping as much with my Mom.  Its a litany of small things that I have not been keeping up with.

I like to be organzied and plan and schedule things unfortuantely lately everything has been getting done last minute, just under the wire so to speak.  I do not like living like that ... its hugely stressfull and my theory is that with good planning you prevent that from happening.  Its just that I have been juggling too many balls ... so many in fact that I don't notice that I dropped one until it comes to bite me at a later date when the status of the situation is now urgent.  I.E. in November and December ... the safety audit;  the bonding paperwork, healthy eating,  my daily eating journal,  blogging. 

My life being so chaotic I guess conciously or unconciously I made choices about things that were going to get done and things that were going to be sacrificed.  Kung Fu is something that is for me and that I do just because I like doing it.  Alot of the other things in my life people are relying on me and it appears that I give those priority over something that I do just for me.  

Did I make the right decision (conciously or unconciously) ... still don't know, but I was aware that I was not performing as well as I would like.   Did I let the I Ho Chuan team down by my lack or participation? Absolutely!

Had a discussion with my husband a month ago and we agreed that we need to make some changes in the management of our lives.   My husband Dean comes first before anything else, and Dean loves the ballroom dancing and I love dancing with Dean so its something that will remain in our lives.   We both enjoy running our business, even if sometimes it makes you crazy, its never boring.   I feel something missing without  Kung Fu in my life so that remains.  (You will notice Kung Fu came in third, I believe that is the correct order for me)  The responsibility of caring for my Mom and my aunt is not something you get to slough off so it stays. 

However altnerate arrangements can be made for renovations, healthy eating, working out, housekeeping, yardwork etc. which take up all kinds of time.  

We have already started with this;

• A Bowflex at the office.
• We had a fellow come out a give us a price for some renovations that will happen in the spring. 
• Found a service in St. Albert that provides organic, partially prepared meals.  

Still need a housekeeper and someone interested in some partime yard work.  Still need to convince my Mom to move from Sylvan Lake to an assisted living facility in Edmonton or area (that will be the tough one, I have been trying for the last two years).   In additiion I asked my husband/business partner to not make any drastic changes at work for the year of the Snake so that Jackie (my right hand girl) and I can have a breather on the business management side of things.    Hopefully life will smooth out as we put these things in place.    

24 of 52

So the financial quarter is done and all the bonuses for the Supervisors and Workers are paid out.   The end of a quarter is brutal busy and its a struggle to get anything else done during the workday.  Usually I manage to sneak in forms repetition,  or some extra numbers for pushups and situps during the day at work ... not for the last two weeks.  In addition the elbow injury/strain is getting worse and not better.  Friday after the I Ho Chuan and BlackBelt class my right elbow hurt so much I couldn't pick up a cup of coffee never mind spin a spear (which I did very badly at class, I apologize to anyone standing next to me while I was trying to do the single or double articulation ... you were at risk of being struck).  Going to see my physio this week!

Reviewed my requirements and realized I have made a lot of progress on some of my personal requirements like the reducing plastics ... I have learned alot, discovered alternatives, and made alot of changes in my buying decisions.  You can't always be driven by the price tag on item ... you need to calculate the 'real costs' .... the economic, environmental and social impact that those cheap plastic lawn chairs have on not just you but the world.  Canada provides a lot of the raw materials, with some basic refining to the point of a plastic resin which we then send to many places in Canada and around the world and they pump out all kinds of plastic products, which in turn get shipped all over the world and back to Canada.  Note:  that there is a new type of plastic which is BHP free for food storage ... seriously look into this as I have discovered 90% of the plastic left in my life is in the kitchen.

I am grateful for the space to grow my own garden
I am gateful for the 4 beautiful pumkins that grew and will soon be pie filling
I am grateful for skype ... the girls and I talk every week on wednesday
I am grateful for the wonderful people that I love and make my life worth living
I am grateful for 4 seasons ... so I can have beautiful autum days

23 of 52 Enjoying the weekly challenges

So the elbow is still a problem, and what's weird is that straightening it is where it gets really painfull.  Back to knee push ups ... Sigh!

The challenge for last week involved meditation which is something I struggle with, however, while waiting at a job site I was reading the book called 'Savour' and there is mindful meditation on page 85 called the 'Love Meditation' which outlines a focused 'mindful' meditation.  So this is what I did!  It is/was really cool and I felt very much at peace afterwards.   Even my multitasking brain could handle it and found it beneficial.  Yeah!

This weeks challenge of practicing forms & sparring in such a small space is something I can actually pull off at work.  The floor space in my office is about that size ... close the door and away I go and no gawkers!   Good idea ... be aware of sharp corners on desks its gotten painful once or twice so far.

22 of 52

So due to my efforts to catch up on my pushups and situps I have actually done something to my right elbow ... it really hurts to straighten it out completely, and it kind of looks swollen. So for the last few days I have been iceing, appling stinky chinese medicine and modifying my pushups to more on my left side and not actually straightening it to the point of locking the joint. Not sure how it will go ... will keep you posted. Thats why I picked the challenge of hidden leg technique ... no arms required.

Thanks to whoever picked mu long koon as a challenge, one of my faves!

While in China I started learning a form called Tei Hua (not 100% sure of the spelling). I learned the basic movements up to the part called ba gua walking and have been practicing it to that point.

The girls have been answering my questions like "what is the hand position here? and where should my weight be? and what kind of stance is here?" during our skype calls for the last 4 months. Now thanks to our discovery of an internet feature called 'Dropbox' the girls and I can share photos and videos much more easily. (Their access is pretty limited and slow) My daughter Melanie who is one of the two sweetest children ever ... video recorded this form for me. She does it very slowly and emphasizes the hand positions and videoed it front and back so I can see everything no matter what direction she is facing. The quality is excellent and I am sure that is due to the group of foreign students that she trains with. Thanks everyone! This will help me huge in getting Tei Hua looking like what I know it should look and feel like. Thanks Mel for caring and taking the time to do this for me.

Give me a week to tweek this form and I hope to have it mastered to the point that I am willing to show it off.

Sifu Beckett.

21 of 52

This week I plan on catching up on my reading the I Ho Chuan member blogs, I really missed this part ... it helps keep me in touch with everyone and appreciate the struggles everyone is going thru.  I learn a lot from all you guys. 
 
Just wanted to say that I am really impressed with the efforts that the team has put into the demos, the ipad raffle, snow shoveling, finding more demo opportunities and the way the group is coming together ... the cheerleaders are the glue that keep everyone engaged and forging onwards, Kudos to you!  

 
Sifu Brinker uses the analogy of baby birds sometimes so I am going to add to that and say when a baby bird first tries to fly sometimes the first few attempts involve some painful landings, its part of the learning curve.  Eventually you will be launching from the nest and swooping across the finish line in a truly spectacular demonstration of aerodynamics, I can see it!  You just need to decide when, and until then the I Ho Chuan team will pick you up, dust you off and encourage you to try again.  How do I know this ... personal experience.

My shoulders are really sore from all the additional push-ups I needed to do to catch up what I missed doing on holidays (for some reason the sit-ups don’t hurt as much). Dancing with the hubby, he had to keep telling me to hold my own arms up and not rest on him. Pretty sad!

20 of 52

Finished typing up my notes from Vacation and posted to the blog site. Been back 6 days, settled back into the rut, although I seem to have gotten confused about the weeks as Sifu Rybak had to remind me that this is next week! Its been really busy at work as I have alot of catching up to do and its just really busy at work. This month has been hell on my numbers, pretty much behind on everything. Pushing the reset on September 1st and doing some serious reps for my forms, situps and pushups, even healthy eating took a hit ... I was all over the place, eating at the wrong times, eating too much some days and nothing others, drinking too much coffee, drinking too much wine. Its been nice since I got home, the garden is producing like crazy and I have all my healthy stuff to cook and snack on. Have my safety audit coming up in October and some training to maintain my CSO status which is on my list of requirements so doing the coordination to make that happen. Got a course booked in September called 'Busy being Busy' its going to help me be more productive and less busy, doing the important stuff rather than the urgent stuff. I will let you know how it goes. The reno's seem to whipping right along and I will be there this weekend so see you all there.

18 & 19 of 52 ... on Vacation

Ist Week of August Dean & I went to Nova Scotia for our nieces’ wedding.  Never been to the east coast before and I must say the scenery is spectacular.  After the wedding thing we went on a motorcycle tour ... drove down alot of winding secondary roads and stayed at bed & breakfast places that were old fashioned cape cod styling loaded with antiques, it was a lot of fun.    As the east coast was the first area in Canada settled it has some serious history that us westerner’s don’t always know about or appreciate.  It was nice to see some of the places talked about in our history books and discover some cool characters that weren’t covered in school.  One sad note, there is a military museum in Halifax that talks about the Halifax harbour area and the fort that is built there and it also covers the Canadian involvement in WWI and WWII.  I left in tears, letters from loved ones and medals and newspaper articles collected and displayed in remembrance of so many people that died.  I know that they are no longer here but it makes your heart hurt for all the suffering. 

Practiced my meditation sitting next to the ocean a number of times.   Its rare that I actually achieve any type of meditative state but it was very gentle sort of experience sitting next to the ocean listening to waves & birds, smelling salt water and have a lovely cool breeze whisper by.    You can just be in the moment and appreciate the experience. 

 

Second I wrote while at the Queen Charlotte Lodge in BC but couldn’t post.

 

Out in the middle of nowhere (Queen Charlotte Islands) on a fishing trip with my hubby and one of his clients’ & girlfriend.  It rained today so Sue wanted to have a spa day ... we got massages and sat in the hot tub, read by the fire which was really nice but unusual.  Don’t usually go on vacations ... Dean and I go on adventures which this trip has been for sure.  Didn’t get seasick, yeah!  Learned how to fish and drive a boat and got my sea legs so ingrained that its feeling weird to be walking on land.  Logging my food and kung fu stuff is alot easier here than it was riding the motorcycle in Nova Scotia. I brought my planner here so I could update at night but it was a little hefty for the motorcycle trip so I used a little note book which I filled ( as I write big it hard to fit stuff on the page).  Was reminded again what a great life I live ... not perfect, still have problems, but the good parts are truly awesome.

17 of 52 Going on Vacation

It has been just crazy busy, family visiting, work busy,  weeds growing, it seems like the only serene times are when I get to go thru a form.   I am falling behind on everything kung fu related except for eating right (the garden is producing massive quantities), although you wouldn't know that as I haven't been posting to the diet tracking site, it is all recorded in my notebook at home however.  Tonight at 12:10 am I am getting on a plane with the hubby and going to halifax for 10 days,  attend a wedding and some motorcycle riding is all I have to do .... its going to be so nice.  And I can do some catching up on my numbers and still sleep in ... awesome!  So I will take some great pictures, eat seafood till I bust, see halifax and actually have fun doing my kung fu for 10 whole days.  Be back on the 11th. 

16 of 52 Juggling Act

So as usual I am late with this posting, my diet posting is behind as well.  Honestly I feel like a juggler on a high wire.  I get steady and I am tossing situps, pushups, tai chi broadsword, the tei hua form, journalling, eating right, etc and they are just flowing nicely then, work gets busy (jiggles the wire) my mom gets sick, (jiggles the wire), or for example dragon/lion dancing practice gets added to the items to be juggled list ... oops! Dropped that one!  I do not seem to have enough hands, time or skill to juggle all these things while balancing on a high wire. 

So today I am very frustrated with myself and with all the commitments and responsibilties that I am dropping, and failing to accomplish/complete.  I hate disappointing myself and other people. 

15 of 52 July long weekend

To continue ... the July long weekend is a tough place to start diet tracking online although I did stick to the portions limits I can't say I ate healthy, just well.

So in the last few days I have heard from several people that my husband and I constantly interrupt each other.  How rude on both our parts!   So I will be concious of this and note in my acts of kindness for the next little while the opportunities to NOT interrupt his stories or talk over him when I think he is taking to long to get to the point.   Never realized I was doing this I just thought HE was rude ... its all a matter of perspective I guess.  

Enjoyed my opportunity to participate in the demo,  kind of scary but I didn't embarras myself or Silent River Kung Fu. 

Was in the parade as the back end of a lion which was fun but I was behind Sihing Chesel and he has really long legs so I think our lion looked a little funny with big long strides in the front and frantic catch up steps in the rear. Oh well it was a good time and everyone involved was really great! 

14 of 52 Boot Camp

Sore, tired and rejuvinated that would describe me after attending the bootcamp on the weekend.  The different classes were awesome, really enjoyed the day until about 5 o'clock at which point my cup runneth over and I reached saturation point.  Supper was a nice rest and then Sifu Harrigan finished up with the Military Combatives which if you really want to know about well then maybe you should have been at bootcamp.  Sifu Lindstrom you were totally correct about the muscles that would be sore so I guess I was executing the moves corrrectly because I'm hurting in all the places you said I would.   Personally I have been really busy recently and I have been going thru my kung fu somewhat by rote ... doing it but not with the attention that it deserves, the boot camp brought back my spark so thanks to everyone for their part. 

13 of 52

The last few weeks have been really busy, at work we are in the process of switching accounting packages, what should have been a fairly smooth process has had a number of bumps. 

Dean and I have a dance event coming up the first weekend in June so we have been practicing like crazy ... realized due to the journalling of hours that I spent more time on dancing than I have on my Kung Fu in the last two weeks.  Amazing though I still have kept up on my Kung Fu numbers, what took the hit was my weekly journal (missed 2 weeks) and my healthy diet, for example on Tuesday  I had a dry old piece of cake for breakfast, no lunch, a bag of chips on the way home at 9:30 pm for supper all chased with alot of coffee!  And now I sit here ... a Tim Hortons breakfast sandwich at 10AM and since then lots of coffee.  I am HUNGRY!

12 of 52 Pandamonium

Pandamonium was awesome!   Lots of participation, lots of numbers for those of us in I Ho Chuan, and lots of fun.   I got there at 5 am and had an opportunity to practice my nunchuk form many many times with Mr. Krebs, my tai chi broadsword with Sifu Langner and many reps of Kempo 1,2 &3, spear and stick 1, 2, & 3.  Sihing Robinson kept us motivated by yelling car everytime someone drove past or parked and then pulling off some fancy flying and spinning kicks on the heavy bags.  That man has more juice than the energerizer bunny, he just keeps going and going! 

My hubby arrived just before 8 AM and we set up the tent and the tables outside for the barbeque which was up and running on time for the pancake breakfast at 9 AM.  Sifu Masterson and her volunteers had the whole outdoor thing running beautifully and even the weather cooperated.  

By Tai Chi class at 10 AM my knees were aching badly and I was loosing steam but the class was incredible ... definitely more chaotic than usual so it made it hard to focus ... but hey that’s good practice as well.   A number of us who know the whole tai chi long form ran through the whole thing several times and the energy in the room was smokin!

 It was the most fun I have had in a long time.  I prefer to train with other people ... alone it seems to me that something is missing.  Since my girls have been gone to China (we used to train together) practicing my kung fu became alot more solitary and somewhat two dimensional as a result.   So for me this event was a great experience .  I will see you all there next year!

We had some sad news this week ... my cousin Kim who is 47 passed away.  He was an epiliptic and suffered with grand mal seizures his whole life.  One of those seizures finally did him in.  The hubby and I are driving home and the radio is talking about what would be the title of a biography about the lives of some of the famous people in the world.  Now admitedly they are trying to be funny and picking all kinds of strange titles for some of the more eccentric famous people in the world.   My husband asked me what would be the title of my biography and what popped to mind was a line from a song (it might be the title not sure) 'Lovin Every Minute of It'.   Despite any whinning that I may do, or the struggles that I have faced, in reality my life has been blessed.   One of my personal requirements this year is writing down 5 things to be grateful for everyday,  it really makes you appreciate all the little things that make your life worthwhile.  So Kim I am grateful that you have been in my life for the past 47 years,  I am grateful for the opportunity to understand eplipsy and the impact it can have on life, I am grateful for the opportunity to see a person overcome a challenge like this,  I am grateful for the opportunity to share my grief with others on my blog, and I am grateful that writing this allows me to grieve/cry for someone who is loved and will be missed.

Sifu Beckett

10 of 52

I learned alot at the I Ho Chuan meeting ... listening to other people talk about their different methods of accomplishing the requirements always makes me aware of how unique people are.  All of us have different situations and priorities that influence how we work our Kung Fu into our daily life.  Some of us are morning people and roll out of bed and before they leave for work they have made serious inroads into getting it done.  Me I do what I can during the day and finish up at night (night owl here).   Not perhaps what Sifu had it mind but hey it works for me. 

For those of us who are hitting a wall when it comes to motivation I think we are all a little down from the weather ... I know I have gotten outside to work on my forms a couple of times but then it snows yet again!  Its kind of depressing I know!  Apparently this weekend April 21st and 22nd is supposed to be in the teens and sunny ... really looking forward to that.  My new neighbors can start wondering what that woman is doing in her backyard with a wooden sword/spear/stick.   I wonder how long it will take them to ask ... its kind of funny. 

9 of 52 Waiting

Its been a weird week, lots of things in limbo ... so I sit here in my office doing things like filing & bookkeeping (HATE bookkeeping), practice my forms, and wait for responses from lawyers, banks, insurance agents, clients, family members, friends etc. I find this kind of thing annoying as I would just like to get 'it' done. However it is good practice for me ... I have been working on 'waiting' for the whole of last year and now into this one. I have to wait for the lead when dancing, wait for other people to make decisions (I have opted out of being the one who plans everything) and wait for other people to finish talking. I know its kind of a strange task to set for yourself but I have come to the realization that I actually prevent other peoples development and growth by butting in and taking over. Along with this goes my tendancy to give advice and verbal commentary on everything ... I am waiting for someone else to talk, so to everyone that needs to practice talking and social skills or just needs someone to listen to them ... I invite you to talk to me and I will practice my 'waiting' and 'listening' (another aspect of waiting) skills.

Sifu Beckett

8 of 52

So I have been consistently using the I Ho Chuan tracking sheet that Sifu Rybak shared with me and its working pretty good.  I  got a little ahead on the situps, a little closer to catching up on the pushups, Sifu Masterson and Kichko sparred with me on Saturday so that number is now 4 not the lowely zero. 

All week I have been dealing with lawyers, bankers, insurance agents and accountants.  Its all to do with the purchase of a commercial condo that we are already settled into and the companies year end which is the end of March.  Unfortunately while in college I did not take lawyerize  and as it is all written by lawyers ... its a foreign language.  I am a well read, reasonably intelligent woman and not only can I not provide an answer I don't even understand most of the questions ... it makes me feel pretty stupid actually which is a downer.

Doing things like my forms and situps etc has been a relief rather than a requirement.  Instead of the phrase 'thank god its friday' TGIF ... I am introducing 'thank god for kungfu'  TG4KFu

Talk to you next week.

7 of 52

So Sifu Rybak emailed me her I Ho Chuan tracking worksheet and I made some modifications to it to suit my requirements and have it saved to my desktop (computer).  I gathered all my stray notebooks and scraps of paper and posted it all to the tracking sheet.  The biggest hole is the sparring, it is currently reading '0'.  Yikes!  Unfortunately I have a previous committment on Thursday nights when most of the I Ho Chuan members get together and work on stuff so I will be bringing my gear to open training on Saturdays,  hopefully someone will be available to spar with.  Sifu Rybak and Sifu Weibe are also going to add sparring to our Monday night after class time. 

Master Brinker told me at the I Ho Chuan meeting that my reluctance/failure to record my daily regeim indicates to him that I am not fully engaged in my training.  So I am taking this to heart and whether or not I actually understand the importance/benefit/relevance of writing everything down I will do it anyway and trust that it will become clear to me.  What has helped with this is Corey's blog.

The girls (Brandi & Melanie) told me about a blog that one of their fellow students (Corey) wrote and in which I found a great deal of relevance.  My insistance on following my own path and determining my own future may actually be holding me back.  It makes you think thats for sure! 

 http://balancedlifeskills.com/home/2011/09/08/concious-conformity.html

6 of 52

So I figured out how to get the picture  on this blog page to fit better ... believe it or not I am the only tech support the company has ... kind of scary huh! 

So I did something to my neck/upper shoulders and my push ups are suffereing as a result.  You know how when you work your muscles they will start to ache and if you continue they will feel like they are burning.   Well I was pulling off 30 real push ups and the rest were getting done from the knees better than before but not awesome.  So I don't know what I did but after about 10 real pushups the muscles jump directly to the burn feeling ... my neice who is a physiotherapist said not good ...  so I have stepped back on the real and am trying to be content with 10 and the rest done from the knees.  Bummer!  I was feeling a bit smug about how well it was going.  Its the one step forward and two steps back situation. 

I got a whole bunch of things done ... the ziplinning, managing emotions understress course, the alpha mind course, and my auditor recertification program.  The recertification was tough because I have to repeat it every three years and the 'Smidlap Company' (made up not real) has not improved its safety program from the last however many times I audited it. 

Because I broke a toe while in Hawaii and my foot swelled up pretty bad I was unable to do the snorkeling which is a serious drag because I learned how to swim last year just so I could do that. 

I am trying to take the successes and failures in stride and not let everything stress me out this year.  As a list maker and do er type of person I found the I Ho Chuan requirements last year made me crazy.  I was up ... I was down.  I was ahead ... I was behind.  It seemed I could not get everything done and still do my job and have a smidgen of a life left.  I was always frantic trying to get one thing or another caught up to the requirements.  And as far as writing things down ... well it was pathetic.  This year so far my progress is better although some things are still happening in starts a spurts.  Looking forward to seeing my team mates on Saturday at the meeting maybe they will have some insights to offer.

5 of 52

So its a pretty cool picture ... can't figure out how to make it more reasonably sized ... tips would be great.  The girls emailed me this from their camera so that I can brag about it.   We did 7 ziplines ... this was the longest and the highest ... there is a massive amount of space before you reach dirt underneath me.  The weird thing is that I though I was afraid of heights, it turns out however that I am afraid of falling.  If I don't believe there is a risk of falling then the height does not bother me.   A fine but significant line ... at my age I think I know my strenghts and weaknesses.  Apparently I am not as smart as I think I am!

4 of 52

So last night during pushups and situps I was watching the 'Nature of Things'  with one of my favorite people David Suzuki.  David and his daughter were doing a cross canada tour of  'Sustainable Urban Intiatives' through various cities in Canada.  It was an awesome reflection on Canadians ... despite the federal mindset, REAL CANADIANS were involved with sustainable buildings,  urban farming, alternate fuel sources, and recycling (Edmonton shines in this area).   The majority of this is driven by young people, the future of Canada is changing... people with the heart and time to make sure that what has been started continues far into the future. 

Not only do these concepts work in theory but the applications are effective economically as well, which can be a deciding factor in whether the concept 'takes' or not.   These intiatives create jobs, improves quality of life in urban centres (80% of the population lives in urban centres) and provides locally grown food for a significant number of people.  As all these young people continue to brainstorm and invent new ways of sustainable living these and new concepts will become integrated into society.  Sure it will take a generation ... however if we keep careful watch on big business and governing bodies with their sociopathic tendancies we CAN change things.  

On another note ... I know lots of people and a friend brought this to my attention ...
___________________________________________________________________________________
Internet law expert Michael Geist recently revealed that behind-the-scenes, Big Media is pushing for powers that include website blocking⁴, Internet termination for unproven allegations of infringement⁵, and huge threats for sites that host user-generated content (like YouTube)⁶ in addition to the “most restrictive digital lock provisions in the world,”⁷ which are already in Bill C-11.

This approach is backwards: it suffocates online choice and it’s patently unfair.

It's time for policy makers to stop listening to megacorporate lobbyists and work to put Canada on the map as a leader in Internet openness and affordability.

Tell the Prime Minister and the Industry Minister to say no to the Internet lockdown before it's too late.

http://openmedia.ca/lockdown
____________________________________________________________________________________

Its something to think about and investigate ... 

Regards
Sifu Beckett

3 of 52

Paper Mache and Kung Fu

So I had an insight driving home from class on Friday night. Studying Kung Fu is a life long paper mache project! First you start with a wire frame which translates into basic techniques, stances, how to kick and punch, things like that. Practice and study is how you layer the glue and paper onto your wire frame to make it stronger and take on shape. Still though you have a very rough, lumpy looking art project. The finishing touches require that elusive concept of realism and requires the eye for detail that Sifu talks about all the time. So now each piece of paper is applied with a great deal of thought and patience, water or straight glue (tears and sweat) is used to smooth out rough edges and lumps that have appeared.

Essentially you create yourself into a martial artist ... no two are alike ... each journey is unique. And the best part! You are never really done ... you add the magic of the six harmonies to give your project life ... the skill of teaching ... so you can share your knowledge and experience ... the gift of leadership/mentoring so you can contribute to the evolution of another human being.

Does it get any better ... it might ... after all the author is not done yet!

Sifu Terry Beckett

2 of 52

So my girls have made it back to their school in China, not without some serious hassle in Hong Kong getting their visa's and passports lined up for another year but they got back on the 1st of February. They tell me that the internet is down at the school so I'm not sure if we will be talking by next Wednesday but I hope so.

I got a cold probably thanks to the airplane travel but I have been sick this week and struggling to keep up my committments. Doing my situps and pushups 30 at a time rather than the usual marathon but still getting most everything done.

I have my Alpha Mind Training refresher course this weekend (one of my I Ho Chuan committments) and the next and will miss Tai Chi for the next two weeks and the I Ho Chuan meeting on Saturday which is a drag but I am not the person scheduling the program so I don't get much say.

Today I am grateful to be alive and breathing through my nose although I still sound like a frog.

Sick and grouchy so I will sign off and hope you all have a great week.

1 of 52

Lots of cool things went down at this years Chinese New Year & Black Belt Promotion Event and I must admit this is one was hugely relevant to me personally.  Alot of the people promoted are people I have trained with and admired for a long time.  Congrats to all.

Dean, Brandi, Melanie and I had a great time in Kauai ... I got the zipline done and it was terrifying and exciting and fun.  Did not get the snorkeling done due to the fact that I broke some bones in my left foot and it swelled up and turned black & blue and I couldn't get anything on the foot except flipflops ... so I am going to have to figure out how to re-arrange for snorkeling. 

Attended a seminar for "Managing Emotions and Thriving Under Pressure"  on Friday which was totally cool and I learned lots of stuff ... in addition I got a whole bunch of reading materials and workbooks so I can continue to learn and improve.  Note:  have not raised my voice this week ... chewing out of employees was done in an even tone and without as much stresss and anxiety on my part... might be partially because I was still all mellow and relaxed from vacation I guess we will find out as the year goes on.  So as a result the jar on my desk sits empty ($10 if I raise my voice or get angry).

I am still struggling with writing things down and have asked my husband to ask me at the end of the day if I have documented my stuff.   I hope to make this a total habit so I don't need a reminder it will be like brushing my teeth ... just something you do before you go to bed.

Really enjoying the graditude journal ... 5 things to be grateful for everyday.  Makes you realize how blessed you are ... even if the day has been stressful or things are not going entirely as planned.

Talk to you next week.

1st for 2012

I have been implementing my new requirements for 2012 into my daily schedule ... again settling into a routine with some different stuff.  Its been fun switching some things up and I am really looking forward to the new I Ho Chuan format and working on some different forms ... nothing against the form I worked on last year.  Planning for the 1000 rounds of sparring is the most challenging and I will be taking advantage of open training and anyone that is willing to spar on Saturdays.   Same as last year actually documenting all this stuff is the hardest part,  its not that I don't do alot of this stuff its that I fail to record it.   I am a technical writer from way back and you think it would be a piece of cake but not so far!  One of my requirements is to reduce the amount of plastic in my home ... so the first thing I did is an inventory ... there is a massive amount of plastic in my house and its in the kitchen!  Food and plastic seem to go hand in hand.  It comes in plastic, you cook it and then save the leftovers in plastic and then you dispose of it in plastic.  Yikes!  Think about this ... the entire inside of the fridge is plastic, all the food storage containers, grocery bags, cling wrap, ziploc bags, freezer bags, grocery bags that become garbage bags.  I am being overwhelmed by yogurt containers alone!  I had already started with reusing glass jars for left overs and had to call my sister on how to use glass jars to store food in the freezer without breaking them.  I am currently looking for a source for wax coated containers and or freezer wrap ... will let you know what I find. 

On Monday Dean and the girls and I are going to Kauai for a two week vacation before the girls have to head back to China ... its going to be awesome.  A couple of my personal goals will be completed there ... first the zip line which the girls have been trying to get me to do for a long time.  I may be wearing 'depends' but it will get done.  The second thing is snorkeling ... its been on the books for awhile as well.  Last year I learned how to swim and got alot of practice in thanks to my I Ho Chuan requirements and now I am going to put that skill to the test in the pacific ocean.  Wish me luck!