Bama Breeze and the hoary marmot part 2

Well I got back to do some training on Saturday and did it ever feel good.  I am looking forward to be able to attend class more regularly.

I wanted to write this week about seeing things from another's perspective.  To give a bit of background I grew up in the Canadian Rockies.  And yes it was as awesome as it sounds.  It is because of this that I have pursued travel and being outdoors when ever I can.  One special place I think is the most beautiful spot in the world is the Tonquin Valley in Jasper National Park.  I like the area so much I named my little ranch after the Tonquin.  So there is a place called "The Tonquin Valley Ranch"  just a little south of Onoway.

This summer I was able to take my older son and his girlfriend into the Tonquin with me.  It was cool seeing their reactions to the mountians, to Amethyst Lake, to the Cariboo, to the bald Eagles, to the Owls, to everything.  I imagined it was how I reacted to the Valley when I first saw it as a teenager. Sharing what is special to me is a great feeling.

The horse I rode in on was called Alabama, thus I called her Bamma Breeze.  My sons girlfriend took a real liking to the Hoary Marmots that were every where at and above the tree line.

Opportunities

As I walk down the path of life I am constantly presented with opportunities in front of me.  Do I always take the opportunities?  No not always as many times they are not seen as opportunities until after they have passed.  I am more focused than ever to make sure these opportunities are recognized as such when they are presented.  If I am looking for them as such it should make it more easy to identify the opportunities.

Every time I am presented with an opportunity and I take the opportunity. I learn.

From out of chaos comes order

I know it has been a while since I have been around.  I have found that June and July have taken me away from home and work for many reasons.  At the same time I am in the middle of a house renovation.

I am keeping up on my requirements for the most part but have missed a few blogs.  I will have this rectified here going forward.

I remember a saying;   from out of chaos comes order.  That has been my life for the last month.  But a good ride should always be a busy one.  See you at the Kwoon next week.

Buffalo

The other day I had a very clear vision.  The first time I ever had a clear vision I was 19; high up  in the mountains pursing a vision quest.  At that time, after two days, I clearly saw in my mind a coyote walking and playing in the mountains.

This past week I was struggling trying to sleep with many things on my mind.  After about three nights with no rem sleep, it was a vision like I was right there.  I was out on the prairie and a few Buffalo started to go by me then a few more until the horizon was filled with Buffalo.  I had no fear of the Buffalo and they had no fear of me.  It was a very spiritual moment for me.

I am not sure yet what this means to me, but I think it was ment to give me some peace. I think my mind was looking for some calmness.  I think it ment that I should just take things easy and the world will unfold in front of me the way it should.
One of the Cowboy singers I listen too put it this way, much more elegant than I can.

Sit tall in the saddle, hold your head up high 
Keep your eyes fixed where the trail meets the sky 
And live like you ain't afraid to die 
And don't be scared, just enjoy your ride

Chris Ledoux

That is what it is all about

I have to share a cool story.  Being a member of SRKU we are able to experience things that other people do not get to experience.  We as a group are able to go out into the community and are able to make noticeable impacts on peoples lives.

 As I was walking to my car after the parade on Saturday, the traffic was slow and was going along at the same pace I was walking.  An older lady rolled down her window and said Hi to me.  I said Hi back.  It looked like she was being driven by her daughter.  She asked me if I enjoyed the parade.  I said it was a great day.  She then thanked me and  SRKU for making the parade a great event and for our group being a part of it.  I was blown away.  I said "You are welcome, I was glad I could be part of it."

She smiled and the traffic picked up and the car moved on.  I comprehended this for a moment.  Just being there, putting in some effort, we were able to make someones day special. 

For me that is what it is all about. 

Lesson Learned

"One of the best lessons in life is to Master how to remain calm"  Bruce Lee

One of the constant themes in our training is to remain calm.  We are taught this in Knife defense, we are taught this in sparing.  A calm body and mind allows us to be at a heightened level of consciousness.

One of my business mentors would always tell me that as emotions when up, intellect went down.   I found myself in that situation on Friday.  I was letting the emotions get in the way and was not recognizing that I was allowing myself to let this happen.  Unable to resolve the situation, I took a step back realized what was happening, then went back at the problem.  The emotion gone and a calm body and mind.  I was then able to resolve the situation based on intellect rather than emotion.

Another lesson learned.

5 years and many memories

We are in the middle of a home renovation.  As most people know this gives you a good chance to rid yourself of stuff that you are no longer using or stuff you have accumulated over the years.

What I feel great about is we have been able to give things to neighbors and friends so they can put these items to use.  One of the coolest things we have been able to do is with our old kitchen cabinets.  They were old but had good bones.  We found and elderly couple on a fixed income that needed to put cabinets in their kitchen.  We were able to help them out by giving away the cabinets and had a three way win.  They got some cabinets that they desperately needed and couldn't afford, we were able to get rid of the cabinets with less effort that we could have expended and the cabinets will not go to a land fill. 

The other thing that was cool (I rarely get rid of things) is my wife found 3 old pair of my hiking boots that I had worn out (over the last 5 years) and had not disposed of them.  We talked out the many miles, the many countries and the many memories that those boots have taken me. 

Travel Plans

I have been spend a lot of time over the last month looking at my business and personal travel over the next year or so.  It is going to be busy.  One of the trips I am about 85% sure I will be doing is going to Nicaragua to help build some school rooms.  I don't have it completely done yet.  The best part about this will be that my younger son wants to come as well.  I have never traveled alone with him out side of Canada so I am very excited.  Seeing how people live in other Countries makes us look deep inside ourselves and contemplate our own existence.  At least it does for me.

I am also planning a trip in March with my older son.  We are going to go to Guatemala and climb a few volcanoes.  When I mentioned the trip too him he got real excited.  A few days in the high altitudes and a few days scuba diving will be grand.

Between all of this there will be many trips to Grande Prairie and to Fort McMurray, but hey not every trip is on a beautiful beach or a steamy jungle.

Lost mind

This past monday morning, I woke up and was not in a good spot.  Not sure why but mostly just pressure with many issues I am dealing with at work.

After getting into work things went down hill in a hurry with trying to fix some things then the network went down so we couldn't bill customers.  Then I had to fire an employee for an egregious thing they did in the work place.  That was all before noon.

The afternoon didn't go much better.  At the end of the day all I could think about was going home sitting outside and having a few pops.  But I didn't do that.  That would not change the day I was having.

I really didn't want to go train as my mind was everywhere and not where I wanted it to be. 

What I did was get to the Kwoon.  As soon as I got on the mats my mind got back to being in the moment almost instantly.  I was focused on what I was doing.  Training was the focus.  After two hours on the mats I had a sense of relief.  The focus on the issues I was dealing with were gone.  I worked hard and was tired, but I was back in the moment, where I always want too be.

Todays Random Thoughts

As we head into the warmth of spring my thoughts head to the mountains.  The peace of a high alpine pass.  The sound of a river roaring down the valley.  The sight of a grizzly walking along a distant ridge line. The roar of a mountain thunderstorm in the middle of the afternoon.  A glacial stream dropping down the side of a dark grey mountain with the crystal clear blue shy in the background.  The flap of a beavers tail in a slew along the hiking trail.  A hawk on a thermal rising high into the sky.

Wow it has been a long winter.

This Weeks Focus

The week is progressing, but slow.  I am disappointed in my weapons form.  With the late spring and work not letting me get to the kwoon more I only have about a quarter of the form done.  I will not make it to the next two I Ho Chuan classes, again due to work.  The good news for me is it will be a nice weekend and I will be at open training. 

All my other requirements are coming along quite well.  Push ups sit ups and kicks are progressing well.  Walking is off the charts, biking well, spring, but I am now seeing more ground so that will pick up.  RAK's are coming along fine and I am a little ahead of where I need to be.

This weekends focus is the weapon form then I can focus on getting it presentable.

Dog Pack

I wanted to blog on blogging this week. I have been on a few I Ho Chuan teams. I decided one year to not be on a team to see if the lessons and the discipline I learned were habits. What I learned was I did do push ups I did do sit ups I did pursue my goals. But it was much more difficult without the team. I continued to blog that year as I found it to be one of my best motivators.

What I missed was the interaction in the blog-o-sphere of others who were pursuing mastery. Not hearing about others success and challenges left me in a dark area. Not being on a team of like minded individuals made my journey more difficult

This year with the dog pack (I like that term better than team) I am seeing a high level of blogging interaction. This is huge for me. Hearing about what my pack members are thinking, hearing about the struggles and successes is a huge motivator. It also helps me to learn about my team members when I can’t make class due to work.

I am encouraging the dog pack to continue to blog and if you are not doing it start blogging.  It truely helps with you getting to your goals.  I think it is the biggest motivator for me on my path to mastery.

Let’s go dog pack

And remember to stay in the moment

Punch in the nose

This past week I was having a conversation with a business partner, who is also a friend.  We talked about some of the things we did in our past and whether we regretted doing them.  He had spent the better part of three years building up a company and has since left it but he kept some ownership in the company.  He has since concentrated on his commercial real estate company. 

He spent some time saying if he had focused on his real estate company how much further financially he would be ahead.  I told him that if he did not spend the time building up the other business he would not have gained some of the skills he has now.   I told him it is like getting punched in the nose when you are sparing.  You can feel the pain and not learn from it or you can feel the pain say I don't want that to happen and learn from the experience.  He liked the analogy. 

We both came to the conclusion that no matter what happened in our past as long as we learned from it and incorporated the lessons into our lives we were winning.

A great day

Hello all I hope that all is going well with I Ho Chuan so far.

A couple of days ago I was out and was ahead of an older couple going into  a restaurant.  I waited at the door and held it for them.  The lady thanked me and said I was a fine young gentleman.  I said, "Thanks, my mother raised me right".  She then gave me a hug and said I had a good mother.

That made my day.  Acts of kindness goes both ways

Chapters

Our life is made up of chapters.  Some of them are short, some are long, some are happy and some are sad.  At the end of each chapter leads us to a new chapter to experience.

This week my youngest son ended a chapter is his life.  He played his last minor hockey game. He will now go on to do other things and will probably play at the JR B level or maybe even at the college level.  It is an ending for him but it is also an ending of a chapter for my wife and myself.  We have spent a lot of time in Alberta hockey rinks for the last 16 years (my older son also played hockey).  We both volunteered, myself as a coach and doing the time box and my wife as a manager of teams and working the time box. 

It will be a big adjustment next year wondering what we will do with our weekends as we won't be at the minor hockey rink any more.  That will be a sad time but at the same time it opens up time for us to pursue more of our own interest in being outside and hanging out in the mountains.  I hope the next chapter will be as rewarding as the last chapter.

One Day at a time

I have been chugging along with my requirements for this year.  I am feeling upbeat and on track to have a very good year.  The plans I have to get to my goals are clear and I continue to monitor them on a weekly basis.

What I am finding myself doing more this year than other years, is I am sitting back and watching other people around me closer than I ever have.  Not to judge them but to see if I can learn from them.  I am talking with more people about their successes and what they are doing to get them to reach their goals.  This is where I am learning and am able to incorporate things into my daily life that is helping me get to where I want to go.

Some days it is a little overwhelming, but I step back stop thinking and just "be". At that point all I have to do is my 200 pushups, my 200 sit ups, etc.  The daily amount we need to do is easy and thus the larger goals are easy too as long as we do them one day at a time.

Extraordinary

I saw this and it reminded me of how unique we are in the I Ho Chuan.  We are different we are not like other people.  We are doing some thing that is extraordinary.

Not your thoughts your actions

Many people including myself focus on our thoughts. We believe that our thoughts help with our goals and aspirations. This may seem logical except we all ignore the bad thoughts. We get into a pattern where we focus and say I will concur the world. The next day our thoughts say. It’s ok stay on the couch and watch tv.

It doesn’t matter who we are Jim, Bobby Orr, Col.Chris Hatfield or one of my hero’s Muhammad Ali.  We all get and have negative thought’s. This is normal, this is expected. Our mind is a crazy intricate piece of machinery. It is beyond our ability to understand　

But how we grow and get to where we want is not in our mind.  It is a back and forth between positive and negative. This will never change. 　

The way we move forward to our goals is through action. Action every day will get us to that goal. In my case I am focused on getting my black belt. Believe me I have the positive/negative struggle in my mind every day and sometimes many times a day

What I have learned with my reading and studying is my mind will lie to me. My actions won’t.

I can get up in the morning with the negative thoughts or the positive thoughts neither will make a difference in the day as long as I have action.　

If I do 10 pushups I win and if  do 200 push-ups I really win.

Action wins very day　

An observation from Early February

Not really sure what to write about this week.  Even though work has taken me away from the kwoon alot lately, my training and movement towards my goals is on going.  This I attribute to I Ho Chuan.  A sense of discipline comes along with I Ho CHuan when we look at the requirements and just do them.

Anyway the snow storm last week sure made everything look beautiful.  It was nice seeing the trees covered with light fluffy snow.  Before I headed off to work Saturday I walked around my place and looked at all the snow.  The dogs didn't like to cold but it was nice.

Kick a Thon for Nicaragua 2

A few months ago I wrote about a fund raiser I was involved in where we kicked to raise funds for a school room build in Nicaragua.  My Friends raise over $6,000 for the build and also gathered a bunch of school supplies to bring down to Nicaragua.

They did the build last week and it was good to see some of the pictures from the build.  They left before the rooms were complete but here are a few from the build.

Predestined

I have spent many hours over the last half year struggling with two questions posed to our team by Sifu Brinker in our monthly meetings.  The first is, What kind of a Black Belt do you want to be? and are you in the best shape of your life?

The first question was real difficult.  I never pictured my self as a Black Belt so I didn't have a mental picture of what that would be.  I have thought long and hard about this and I think I know what kind of Black Belt I want to be.  I want to be a Black Belt that helps out in his community.  I want to be a Black Belt that helps out in the countries I visit.  I want to be a Black Belt where my family looks to me for guidance and strength. I want to be a Black Belt that is a mentor to others around me.  I want to be a Black Belt that is as strong physically as I am mentally.  I want to be a Black Belt that is empathetic to all and knows when to jump in and help and knows when to just listen and be there.

I still have alot of work to do to get to a Black Belt but I have confidence now that I can get there.  The I Ho Chuan is the tool to get me there.  All I have to do is embrace the program and do what I am told what to do.  The tools with in the program are the steps to get there.  I will be going into my 4th year of I Ho Chuan this year and I think I know that value of the program now.

As far as if am I am in the best shape of my life? That is easy, No.  By the end of this up coming year of I Ho Chuan I will be.  I am focused on what I want to achieve in the martial arts and becoming strong mentally and physically is one of my goals.  I have made my goal simple, to be able to do 20 pull ups by end of this calendar year.  The plan to get there would take up three or four pages of writing. But by focusing on this goal everyday and following my plan my ability to get to the level I need to get a Black Belt is predestined. 
 

Down Hill Slope

We are on the down hill slope of winter.  The sun is moving higher and higher in the sky.  What a great time of year knowing we will be getting more and more sunshine each day.

After a prolonged bout of the flu/cold I am back and able to train.  After approx. a month I went to my first class and was only able to do about 10 minutes before I had no energy left at all. Within a few days after that I was back to full daily requirements and pitching bales over the past weekend.  It sure feels good to have my strength back and to be able to get back to how I was pre December.


I have a few lofty goals for this year and am very excited to begin my progress to those goals. 

Cree Proverb

I was introduced to this proverb about 15 years ago when I met some people out north of Hinton.  I kept this with me all these years and still think about the people who shared this with me.

Cree Proverb

Realize that we as human beings have been put on this earth for only a short time and that we must use this time to gain wisdom, knowledge, respect and the understanding for all human beings since we are all relatives.