A really Canadian Moment

I had a moment on saturday that tells me I am living in the moment more and more.  This has been a challenge for me,  but when I see things and are able to reflect on them at the moment I see them, I know I am in the moment.

I had got tickets for the Battle of Alberta Game on Saturday night for my youngest son.  He is a Calgary Fan and my older son is an Edmonton Fan.  As a family we all decided to go to the game together.  Before going to the game, we had to stop to pick up some hockey equipment for my younger son who had grown out of some of his equipment. (this is nothing new to people who have kids in sports)

We stopped in at Pro Hockey life and were talking with a few of the sales reps and getting the sizing right.   I saw over in the skate section an older gentleman in his 70's and was curious so I took a closer look.  This gentleman was in the store with his wife and they were buying her a new pair of skates.  Most times I would be wrapped up in my own world and would miss the beauty of this moment.

I thought what an awesome thing, as I imagined the two people out skating together on a rink or pond somewhere out in the country.  These are two older people who are enjoying life, and in their 70's, are buying new skates to enjoy time together.

I reflected a little more on what I saw and decided I am going to buy my wife a new pair of skates for her seventieth birthday.

Today's Thought

I  have taken some time off between Christmas and this past weekend.  I am glad to see that my shoulder seems to be behaving better although my knee still does not feel to be 100%.

I keep plugging away at 20 pushups at a time and my shoulder seems to think that is OK.  I will keep it up for another week then start increasing reps.

What I am beginning to understand is there is no end to training, so I cant guide my training to a point in time.  I have to see it as an improvement over what I did yesterday.  If I am better today than I was yesterday then I am getting to my goals and moving towards mastery.

Not playing with the Monkey

I have been quite lucky.  Since I began training at SRKF. My body has been quite healthy. A few years ago I had a small tear in my hamstring that took a bit to heal but relatively healthy. That is until the last two months. Something is wrong in my shoulder and in my knee, both on my right side.

Way back when I played hockey and skied daily I was always healthy. Because of the I never had to modify anything in my training. What I am happy about is even though I am compensating for the soreness my training has never been at this level. I feel that because I have to compensate I am thinking more about training and areas that I need work on(by the way it is a lot).

I have to equate this level of training to being fortunate enough to be in I Ho  Chuan. What I have received out of I Ho Chuan cannot be underestimated.

Having said the above, I have made the choice this year not to join the monkey team.  One reason is I will be tied up in a project this summer that will take a great deal of my time.  But the more important reason is;  I want to know that what I have learned in I Ho Chuan, I will continue on in my day to day life. Have I picked up and permanently changed my behaviours so that I am continually working towards mastery? This year will be my test. I am eagerly looking forward too it but know I will miss being on the monkey team

Rest assured I will be back for the Rooster team.

Playing with the pencils

As we were working on the dragon dance on Saturday I personally had  number of moments of confusion  I believe it was due to a few changes that were made to the dance in the past week.  As I was not there for those practices I felt a little lost. 

But I was enjoying what was going on as everyone around me was enjoying themselves as we worked through the dance.  I almost burst out laughing as a line from Alro Guthries song Alice's Restaurant came into my head:

But we had fun filling out the forms and playing with the pencils on the bench there.

Perspective

I have been contemplating. We all have goals in life.  I have discovered in the past year that my main goal is to be happy.  Sounds simple but is is.  Maybe for some it is, but not for me.  It does not take long sometimes to forget my goal and begin worrying about lesser things that don't get me to my goal.

As a team we have been talking about this all year.  How do we stay engaged.  Being happy in my life means I have to be engaged at all times and focused on what i want.  Happiness.


I helped out one of my employees today.  She is a very good natured person who is always a pleasure to be around.  She had some problems with a customer who was treating her quite bad.  She was upset and after she explained to me the situation, I asked her, "If you get upset with what happened are you not the one who looses?"  She immediately got a smile on her face and said "yes".  I was able to put someone else's poor behavior in perspective for her.  (I won't lie,  seeing her smile made my day)

Today's thoughts

We are three and a bit weeks away to the shortest day of the year.  I for one am upbeat about this because then the days start to get longer again.  This year in I Ho Chuan has been challenging.  I have had a harder time this year than last year with the physical requirements we need to accomplish. Having said that, from a mental or spiritual perspective I don't think I have been more alive in my life.

I am spending more time in thought.  And I mean true thought.  Challenging my preconceived view of the world.  Has the body of knowledge I have accumulated over my lifetime served me well?  Am I interpreting things around me from preconceived thoughts or am I critically looking at things and formulating opinions and my thought processes on true knowledge?  I am not sure I have a factual answer, but because I am challenging my own though process, I am headed in the right direction.

I have found that with true deep thinking that i am drawn closer to and stay in the moment. Happiness is believed to be found in the moment, and my overriding goal in life is to be happy, so being in the moment is where I need to be.

Paddle Board the Atlantic?

OK we all look at the world around us and define challenges in our own frame of reference.  That is good but we have to be careful not to limit that challenge to our frame of reference.

The reason I say this is because last week I read a story of something I thought would be impossible.  Nicolas Jarossay is planning on Paddle Boarding across the Atlantic.  He is planning on leaving  Cape Verde in early January and will be aiming to make landfall in the Caribbean.  He expects this to take approximately 3 months.  He has built a specially designed paddle board when he has a cone on the front where he will sleep.  He is doing this crossing unsupported and has to bring all his supplies with him.

Now to me, this raises the bar when I am looking at a challenge.  We are only limited by our thoughts and the constraints that we impose upon ourselves. 

I wish Nicolas a safe journey.