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.