Year of the Sheep

I am some what overwhelmed by what is in front of me for year of the sheep.  I look at what the team has accomplished and what I have accomplished and I feel good about that.  But with everything we should continually get better and improve so I am looking at the year of the sheep and saying I have to do better than I did this year, other wise I will not have seen any improvement year over year.

I do have to remember to do things on a day to day basis and not look at the whole year and what needs to be accomplished.

Puppy and Porcupine

 I came home last night and my two dogs were sitting by the door as normal.  The older dog came to greet me but the younger one stayed out in the distance.  This is very unusual for her as she usually almost jumps in my truck.  I went into the house and the dogs followed.  It wasn't until a few minutes late that I realized what was wrong.  The younger dog had her first encounter with a porcupine. 

I have been taking quills out of dogs for a long time but with a younger dog it is the headlights in the eyes look when they first encounter the porcupine.  After a small wrestling match, a spilled glass of wine and almost knocking over the Christmas tree, I had the quills out and had a very happy and humbled young dog.

There is no point to this story except that I though it was funny.

Coughing and falling

This past week I missed a few classes. Not all but a few. Friday night I pushed hard to make it through the lion dance. I was in a lot of pain but I knew it was not doing any damage. Why?

Well I caught a cold and have barely Been able to sleep because of congestion and coughing.  Wednesday night I took a spill on the ice and fell directly on my back. Fortunately nothing wrong with my back but bruising in the muscles and a lot of pain.

I am not looking for sympathy here,  but in my past I would would stop and wait till everything was better.   Or as we say an excuses.  My thought process has changed.  I need to get to class to continue to learn and I have to get to I Ho Chuan because of the commitment I made to my self  and my team.

The body will heal but the opportunities will not always be there.

Past present and future

One of my mentors told me something a number of years ago.  He said don't dwell on the past it is gone and any thought or worry about it will not change the past. He also said do not worry about the future as it has not happened and what you do today will create the future you want if you focus on today.

So whatever you want in the future will be there, depending on what you do today.

Shaolin Fitness

What a day.  I have not been able to get to Shaolin fitness for two weeks due to work and having to work at my son's hockey tournament. Today we worked on abs. And did we work on abs.   By the end of the class I knew I worked hard.  But what an incredible feeling to work that hard with a great group of people and have a feeling of accomplishment at the end of class.

This class takes my training to a whole new level.  It is unlike any fitness class I have ever taken. Each class is new and completely different from the last. I like all my training but this class really takes my Kung fu experience to a whole other level.

I would like to send a welcome out to other students to come out and give this class a try.  The only thing this class is missing is more people

Mr. Sand
Green Belt

Wow how much I learn

I have been focusing lately on getting my forms stripe for my green belt.  I thought this would be easy seeing I have done Long over 800 times in the last 10 months.  Every time I do it in front of a Sifu I am given feed back on many, many things that are really wrong with my form or small things that need tweeking.

In my past I would get frustrated because after so many times I would think I should have it perfect.  I now think of it as making those small steps towards mastery. 

Continuing to practice and a clear vision will get me to where I want to go.

Work work work

Feeling better now after a few days of the Flu.  Work has been real busy and I havn't been able to get to the kwoon much.  I will have to miss class again tonight because of work.  I am expecting things to settle down after this week then I can resume a more normal weekly schedule.

Rememberance Day

I enjoyed yesterday.  I was able to attend the Rememberance Day ceremony in Onoway.  This day always reminds me of the people I never got to meet in my life.  I lost 4 Great Uncles in WW II and had one uncle shot the morning of the invasion on Juno beach June 6, 1944 (luckily this Uncle survived).  These are people I will never know except from the stories that were spoken to me as a young child.

I got to thinking about the other people from my community who were in the same situation, where family members were lost and they were never able to meet these family members.

I really don't have a point here except the tragedy of the state of the world where we are not able to build these relationships because of war and conflict. 

not feeling well

This past week I have not been up to par  I missed most of my regular class either due to work or not feeling well.  I caught a cold and didn't think much of it till I tried to get through class on Saturday.  I realized then how little air I was getting.   Hopefully by end of the week it will be done with.

In the present

Along all paths there is a beginning, the journey and the end.  But where should a person focus their effort. For myself I tend to look at the end or the destination.  My thought process has been flawed. The reason being is if I focus on the destination I don't enjoy or truly participate in the journey.

I have wrote in the past that I was frustrated and had thoughts of quitting kung fu.  I now have taken a new thought perspective on what I am doing with my kung fu training.  Situ Brinker has told us to focus our minds always in the present.   With my focus on the destination I couldn't keep my mind in the present and this was the source of my frustration with my training

I have now started focussing on the present so little victories in my training is my new motivation. I had a few of these little victories or epiphanies  this week.  It was, for me, cathartic.  It reinforced in me the need to keep my mind focused on the present when I am training.. If I do this I should continue to improve and the little victories will take care of getting me to my overall goal or destination.

trying

I have been pulled away with work so much lately I am finding it hard to keep up with training I am going to have to miss training again tonight as work is taking over.  I am still doing ok with my requirements but it is getting harder.  I hate that I have to miss The tournament this weekend.

Connecting the dots

My last Blog came from a point of reflection and frustration.  I could not reconcile the fact that I was working harder but not getting better with my classes, but felt good about my accomplishments in I Ho Chuan.

I found this today and it brought things back into perspective. I am a beginner and I need to fail more before I can progress. It was a good proverbial kick in the rear end

Duality of Consciousness

Engagement

Engagement is what is truly helping me with my I Ho Chuan.  Work is keeping me  busy and Hockey and Football season are under way.  Doing push ups and sit ups is what keeps me going and focusing my mind on I Ho Chuan when there is so much of everything else going on.  If I didn't do my requirements 2 or 3 minutes at a time I know for sure I would be failing in this area.

The guy I work for thinks I am nuts doing push ups in my office throughout the day.  That's ok I don't think I was ever really normal anyway. 

But at the end of the day to do a few reps of Long or Stick feels good as my other requirements are up to date.  

I am now at Approx. 1,050 miles.  This I feel good about.  I have done it by running, walking, yondering (most people call this hiking), biking, paddle boarding, kayaking, and canoeing.

Enjoying classes

Work has been a whirlwind again so not much to write about as most of my thoughts have been focused here .   I will say that I have been enjoying classes as I have missed a few throughout the summer months.

I am constantly amazed at what I learn from the curriculum even though I have done some of the things many times.   Every time we practice in class there are things that are brought up that make so much sense to me, but until they are pointed out I didn't have a clue.  

I guess that is why we need:  repeat, learn, repeat, learn, repeat, learn, ........................................

Forms

I need to focus my thinking on the task at hand.  For me that is still to improve on my forms.  I felt I had progress up to July but am now let confident that I am moving ahead.  I feel that I am regressing. 

I am finding myself being more self critical and I think that is a good thing.   I hope buy the end of October I can have 300 more reps on each of my forms and feel more confident in how they look.  This is my short term goal for the next month and a half and I hope to make sure I accomplish it.

Mental relaxation

There are certain spots in the world where I can completely let go of all the thoughts going on in my head and truly be in the moment.  I was able to be at one of these places this weekend and spent the better part of two hours completely in the moment.  I did not think of the past or the future. 

I concentrated on the sounds around me and stayed in that moment.  I find it amazing when I am able to do this , which is not often, that not only is it mentally relaxing but physically I feel all the soreness leave my body as well.

The work I have ahead of me is  to be able to get into the moment where ever I am, not just at certain spots or places.

Long Paddle

Today I started and completed one of my I Ho Chuan goals.  It was to Paddle board from the North end of Lac Ste Anne to the South end.  When I started the wind was up heavily and I was not sure I should head out but I had a back up plan if the waves got to high.   I started out paddling west in order to get to the most nothern point on the lake, it was about 300 metres from where I put in. 

Let me tell you that was the toughest 300 hundred metres i have ever paddled, straight into the wind and very little progress.  I thought this is going to be a long long day.  Once I reached the northern most point I turned south with the wing not quite behind me but with favorable conditions. 

The paddle started to become pleasurable and very zen like.  I was  surfing down waves that were anywhere between a foot and two feet high, but alot of fun.  I only saw three boats on the lake all day so it was like the lake belonged to me and this goal became my own.

When I got to the south end of the lake and got out of the water my legs were a burning but I felt such a sense of accomplishment.  I have owned a paddle board for two summers now and the longest paddle I had ever done was approx 3 km on a calm lake. 

I will definitely look for more challenges on the paddle board but will wait a few days for my muscles to get back to normal.

End of August

As the end of August approaches I see myself looking forward to what fall and winter will bring.

I am looking for a more structured days and to be able to focus more on my training.  I found that everything was great and going well right up to the end of July then with family commitments and other work commitments my training was cut in about half.  I am back on track now and do hope that thing get more consistnt again like the first 6 months of I Ho Chuan.

Golf and consistency

Well I did something I have not done in a long time.  I went golfing.  I used to play the game a lot when I was in university as I worked at a golf course in the summer.  I was sometimes able to get in 36 holes in a day.  Because I was able to play so much I was able to get my game down to a 15 handicap.

Now  I don't golf much at all except at night in the back yard shooting balls out in to my field at my ranch. I was golfing with family and friend for my brothers stag party and I was golfing with my two boys.  My older boy was hitting a few good shots but was inconsistent.  He hit a great tee shot of about 280 yards and he said to me "I wish I could be that consistent all the time".  I told him he could but with golf and most things in life you have to practice.  I told him if you really like the game and want to improve you need to be doing it consistently and on a regular basis.  That is the key to see improvement in any sport or in anything that you want to accomplish in life.

Just like in Kung Fu, consistency.


 Mr Sand

What we have accomplished

I had a chance to talk with one of my best friends yesterday.  We don't get to talk that often due to his work schedule which takes him all around the world. 

We talked about our families and how things were going.  It put into perspective that I really need to focus on the people close to me.  He was having some issues with his older son who is about a year younger than my older son.  The good news is the issues they were having were able to be worked out so he now has a better relationship with his son. 

I told him about the I ho Chuan team that I am part of and what we are trying to accomplish.  Having been on the Horse team for over 6 months I think I am taking for granted what an incredible challenge we took on.  As I was describing to him what the requirements are he was dumbfounded.  He couldn't believe that anyone would take on such a challenge.   He wished me luck on getting to my goals and was amazed at what I accomplished to this point.  It made me realize that we are doing something extra ordinary with the horse team.

Work

This was a frustrating week for me at work. More problems than I can count.  I found myself reverting to my old patterns of behaviour. I was lashing out at people.  What I did find is I quickly recognized this behaviour and took time to centre myself.

No matter what happens in the day how good or bad it is my decision how I react.  I am the only person that can determine if it is a good day or bad day.




Mr Sand

Just a thought

No real reason for this but I do find this saying interesting.

Changing

In my education (I am talking about education not school) over my life I have learned that to make permanent  change you need to do something within 48 hours of learning something new and then do it at least 21 times to make it a permanent change in your life.  (Although it takes more than 21 times for the more difficult things).  I have this is true in business, relationships, sports and in personal improvement.

I have been debriefing boot camp this morning.  I have a large bruise on my right shine, a bruise on my upper left bicep, extremely sore shoulders and finding it tough to bend.  In my mind last night on the drive home I thought why do I do this to myself.  This morning with sober thought and a good night sleep I came to an answer.  I want to improve myself.  And having working on myself over the years the real permanent change has been due to implementing hard changes and working on them constantly.

I am not where I want to be as a person or a martial artist but as long as I work on it each day I am achieving what I want to accomplish:  to become better than I was yesterday.

I appreciate all the effort that all the Sifu's and participants put into boot camp as it made it an incredible day in my life,


Mr. Sand

Nice days of summer

I spent the day today doing a lot of things.  I was able to go and run in the morning with my dogs. By the way puppies don't understand forward. It was a warm run but so awesome being in the bush and listening to and seeing the creatures.  Nature is the pressure release valve for me.

I then spent the better part of the day getting the trailer together before we take off to jasper for a couple of  weeks. I am looking forward to morning runs and afternoons paddling in the local lakes. A day in the mountains beats, well almost anything.

In the evening we spent some time soaking in the pool. Warm relaxing except when the kids are splashing you. All in all a great day.

The evening is calm as I write this on the deck. I do like this time of year in canada. Too bad it only lasts for a few weeks each year.


http://jimsand11.blogspot.ca


Mr Sand

Heading off on Vacation in a few days

I will be headed out on vacation shortly but wanted to put an update on my progress.  I am still having issues with my right hamstring and the advice I have been given is to keep stretching to try and lengthen it.  I will continue to do that but so far from January I have seen a little progress but not much.

Of the personal goals I set for myself I am at 1 of 4 and expect to get another one complete while I am on vacation


Numbers

PU 25,210 out of 50,000
Sit ups 25,430 out of 50,000
Long 494 out of 1,000
Stick 1 and 2  560 out of 1,000
Sparing 345 out of 1,000
KM 1,096 out of 1,600
AOK 430 out of 1,000






Mr Sand

Future goals

An interesting day for me.  My older boy  is finished high school and he is on his next part of his journey in life.  He left on a trip for Cuba on Friday and I broke down saying good by to him.  I think it was because he is now on the path to his future and where that will take him.

 I know he has goals and wants to create something for him in life I am excited to see what he can accomplish.

Good day in the Kwoon 250 pu 280 sit ups 22 reps long 25 reps of stick 1 and 2.  10 km 4 AOK  I think a very  positive I Ho Chian meeting and the evening with my dogs

When I hear about other peoples struggles it inspires me because as a community when it is brought out in the open we can all help.




Mr Sand

Where am I at

I am a month away from the mid term point of I Ho Chuan Year of the Horse.  I have been asking myself am I accomplishing the things that I wanted to accomplish.

In looking at my log I am at or near where I should be on all my numbers except for Sparring.  I am going to resolve that by getting to more San Shau classes.

With my personal goals I have hit one of them.  One of my goals was to reconnect with 5 people from my past.  I have been successful with this.

Two of my other goals I expect to get done by the end of August. 

I still have to memorize Mastery, I am planning on working on this over the next three months to get this accomplished.

I am feeling better about my weapon form and my hand form.  My biggest hurdles are I have are to stay calm, breath and to lengthen out my stances.  If anyone sees me not lengthening out my stances feel free to throw something at me as a reminder.

I am feeling good about where I am at but know I still have a long way to go.  I am no longer focused on the over all numbers but am focusing on improving on something every day.


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Mr Sand

What next?

I had one of those once in a life time experiences yesterday.  My older son came up to me and said dad tomorrow is the last day I will ever go to High School.  I though for something profound to say to him and could only come up with "congratulations, how do you feel about it?"  I think he saw if for what it is a new start on where his journey in life will take him.  He is looking forward to a trip to Cuba next week and starting out to go and work for a year before he goes to post secondary.

Endings and new beginnings are good for a person.  It gives a sense of accomplishment and the excitement of something new and  unknown.  It open up possibilities in ones mind.

As a father all I can do at this point is to hope his mother and I did all we could to give him the skills to go forth and become successful in the terms that are important to him. I know what I believe success to be but he will have to determine that on his own.


https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3619186576514605530#editor/target=post;postID=5020305570808460611

Mr. Sand

The last philosophical blog for awhile

As we get older some of the constants in our lives change, go away or sometime simply don't mean anything to us.  Is this good or bad?  I don't think so it is just life and has been happening for tens of thousands of years.  But when these changes happen it can feel like we have nothing and nowhere to go.

We strive to find meaning and hope eventually we can understand these changes. Some of us handle it on our own and some look out to the people around us.  All we can hope is we were taught the tools in our life to be able to deal with this change.

I guess I can feel confidant that I had the guidance in my life to be able to deal with most things.  I thank those that gave me the the right moral compass.




Mr Sand

Many questions

As we travel through life do we stop to ask ourselves the bigger questions?  Do we focus on the business of our lives and accomplishing or doing things rather than trying to understand what is it all about.

Are we here due to some cosmic chain of events that have no real meaning or is there a guiding force?  Is this force based on a set of universal laws or is there a divine guide that has created all that is around us.

There are times in my life where I ask these questions and am perplexed with the overwhelming possibilities.  If there one right answer?  Or is the understanding of the universe and all that is around us beyond the capacity for a single human to comprehend?

I have struggled with these questions my whole life.  At times religion has been a focus for me.  At other times science.  Then there are times that I think it truly is just a big cosmic coincidence.  The beauty of the world and the people around me will keeping me struggling with this.

We just had the 70 anniversary of the d day invasion. That was a time in the world where there was a lot of evil and many of us had our family members go and do horrific duties to try and rid the world of  this evil. Many of us lost these members of our families to help others out.

Have our forefathers been able to get rid of the evil in our world, or has our generation been able to rid the world of evil?  Sadly I conclude that we have not been able to.   Evil comes in many forms: In people, in institutions, in disease, in nature and in thought ideologies.  Should we throw up our hands and say it can't be done.  I believe that the more evil we see the more we need to go and try and rid the world of that evil. Will we always succeed? Unfortunately not, but we need to continue to work on getting rid of evil.

At some point in my life I hope I get to a comfortable understanding of why I have consciousnesses but in the mean time I will focus on being a good person to my family my community and the world around me.

Mr. sand

keeping on track

I am caught up in an extremely busy week with work family and doing volunteer work.  I cant remember being this busy in a long time.

What is keeping me on track is my training.  It is good to know that with everything else training is a refuge and a place to calm the mind.

I am glad I have discovered this and have learned the importance of consistency.



Mr. Sand

Finding the path

I have now internalized some things that prior to now have only been words.  To grow and get better I need to immerse myself in what I am doing.  My tendency is to sit on the sidelines and look in rather than getting on the field and getting involved. 

I am analytical and like to make decisions based on Fact.  There are some times where facts are not what is needed but a desire to change your self and things around you.  Because of that a decision to do or not do something has to be made a more primitive level below the consciousness level.  I have read that  this is at  the  primitive level within ones brain.  This is the area of the brain that protects us from danger.  An example would be that if you are crossing a road to look to see if a car is coming.  One does not consciously make this decision to wait till the car passes but does so at a primitive or instinctual level.  This part of the brain has allowed us as a species to survive.

It is this level of the brain that also holds us back when we are wanting to get out of our comfort zone.  To gain mastery one must go above and beyond the ordinary, on a constant basis.  It is the primitive area of our brain that holds us back because the ordinary is comfortable, it is easy and most importantly it is safe.  Most people have self doubt but some know how to quite that self doubt that originates in the primitive part of the brain.  I am working to control the primitive part of my brain and not let it control me.  This way I can move forward on the path to mastery.

Engagement in my study of Kung Fu is what I need to do.  After this past weekend at Pandamonium I now understand the meaning of engagement.  I understand beyond the words and have seen some great examples by students and Sifu's at our Kwoon what engagement really means.

Mr Sand