This year I am finding myself mired in a whirlwind of time consuming
activities or you could call them responsibilities. Whichever way you look at
it, it has been interfering with my engagement with my Kung Fu. I am finding
this troubling since in the past Kung Fu came first and everything else could
wait. Well I think “everything else” is tired of waiting and is now demanding
that I take notice of it. I need to find true balance in my life to insure that
the things I love to do are sustainable and I think this year will be a good
test on whether I can make it that happen or not.
The beginning of this year’s I Ho Chuan has been a challenging
one for me least to say. I went into it with reserves on whether or not I was
making the right choice by being part of the team, knowing that I would not be
able to be part of all of the commitments that goes allow with being on such a
team as the I Ho Chuan. What makes this year different then all of the other
years that I have been part of this team is that in March I took on the position
as President of OFGA a large organization of over 700 members. This was not
supposed to happen until 2016 when I was planning on taking two years away from
the I Ho Chuan to assume the role of President, but that was not to be. It all
changed when the now Past-President’s wife was diagnosed with brain cancer in
2014 and went through surgery, and is still going through chemo therapy at this
time, he needed to step down as President before his term was up. It has been
tough missing meetings because of my duties as the President has interfered; I
hope that I have made the right changes and will only have to miss one more team
meeting which is the next one on May 9th.
It seems like this year is my year of challenges and growth.
I will find my way to still be part of the team even if it is not in the way I envisioned
it to be.
Heading into a busy time right now. Between work, Kung Fu and and taking on a greater responsibilities at the OFGA. I am finding my time is being stretched to the point that somethings will have to wait at times to get completed. My strategy going into this, is one of patients, and priorities. I know that I am going to miss out attending some of my classes, but knowing that as long as I keep practicing I will continue to progress and stay engaged. And setting priorities will allow me to full fill my comments without placing undue stress upon myself.
At the beginning of each year that I have participated in
the I Ho Chuan Mastery project, it feels like I have a breather in a sense. But
I know that this feeling is false, it could not be farther from the truth. I
have a new set of forms to master, all of the mandatory goals have been reset
to “0”, and some new and challenging personal goals have been added. There is
so much to accomplish, it’s a good thing this program runs for a full year. It
is not a restart, it’s a continuation.
Tonight was our first I Ho Chuan class for the Sheep team, and it was also an official class which made it a wonderful way to start off our fridays classes. As I looked around at all of the people on the team, I saw new faces along some faces from the horse team. All of them where energetic and where fully focus on the paths they have set for them selves for this year. I wish all of them the best on their journey and success towards mastery. I am proud and feel truly blessed to be able to train next to everyone on the Sheep team.
The Year of the horse has ended. It will be another 12 years
before the Year of the Horse occurs again. I hope everyone’s journey towards
mastery has been one full of learning. Here is to a New Year the Year of the
Sheep, and may it be an even better one.
A failure is not failure if you can learn from it. Take that
failure analyze it, come to a conclusion of what has caused it to be a failure,
and change what you did or did not do, so that it can becomes a success in the
future. A failure is only a failure if you choose not to learn from it.
Everyone has things to do, and everyone is busy, some more then others. So we must all choose on what gets done by setting priorities. If something in our lives has a low priority it will most likely be the thing that gets put off to the side to be done later, and the ones that have a high priority will happen right away. Only us as individuals can choose and set what priority each of the things in our lives have. Some times it can become a juggling act, and we must do the best we can to try to accomplish everything. And there are times when we fail. Those are the times a person must look at and see if things could have been done differently, and if so learn from it.
Two out of the last three Lion Dance Practices I have experienced
an asthma attack. Given the Lion Dance
is strenuous on my lungs, but with medication I have been able to strive off the
asthma attacks. But lately I am having less success. Both times an asthma
attack has occurred have been during the evening practices, and I am thinking
there has to be another contributing trigger to them, since it has not happen
at every practice. I keep playing back the events of each day trying to figure out
what I had encounter, ate, or did that was different then on the days I did not
have an asthma attack. I need to figure this out.
As Chinese New Year draws closer, we start to ramp up the
practice days to prepare for our banquet where we celebrate the Chinese New Yew
and the promotion of our newest Black Belts. At this time our practices are
three time a week, as we get closer and closer to our banquet date we will add
to the practice days until it feels like we are practicing every day of the
week, which we very well could be. This is one of my favorite times of the
year, spending days upon days, and hours upon hours with like-minded individual’s
preparing for one goal “Perfection”, or just not to make fools out of ourselves
on the day of the banquet. Either way a person looks at it, it will be an experience
that is worth every ounce of their effort that they have given.
So time passes on, whether on not a person notices. Time does not care if we are busy, or we are not ready, it not going to wait for any of us. It is going to to continue with what is does best, “Time Passes”.
We must make the best of what time has given us and not let opportunities pass by. We must take a chance and learn what we can, for that opportunity may never come by again. We must also remember to give back what we have learn’t when an opportunity presents its self, for that opportunity may never come by again.
Vacation is over and sadly I am back at work this week. Over
the holiday’s I was able to enjoy adding to my daily routine a 10am forms
practice, which I am really missing as this week progresses. I found a great benefit
in practicing my forms in the morning then at my usual evening times. It had
become a time where I could center myself and prepare for the day ahead. I find
practicing forms a kind of meditation, where I can get lost in the movements
and let the worries of my daily life wash away, leaving me feeling refreshed
and vitalized, ready to take on what life has to throw at me.
