Best Laid Plans

Here's a valuable lesson I've learned over the past two weeks: do it now (whatever it is that needs to be done) because you have no idea what's going to get in your way even 5 minutes from now. Of course, I've learned this lesson the hard way, in case you were wondering. While it is a good idea to plan to do certain things regularly putting them off until that mythical "later" is a bad idea... "later" never comes...it's like the end of the rainbow. All that free time I keep wishing for is a pipe dream.

Finals are a few weeks away and the date to grading looms closer and closer. Right now I just have to keep telling myself that all it takes now is discipline. I've worked hard to get where I am, I just have to keep it up at this point.

Have a good week everyone, keep it up!

Andrea Prince

Numbers

Training is going well.  Last week was a physically demanding week for conditioning, strength, and endurance training which was great.  This week for me is all about attaining numbers related to push ups, sit ups, and forms.  I will be away for 5 days starting Friday and know that I will be doing little training during this short vacation.  Have a great week!!

Allan Gamble
Student Member
Silent River Kung Fu, Stony Plain, Alberta

Blowing the dust off

This past weekend, I had the gift of attending a ladies retreat through my church. Its been awhile since I've attended to anything spiritual and I confess I was definitely dry. It was nice to come away from everything, yes even kungfu, and as our leader put it, 'blow the dust off our souls.' I know part of this journey is spiritual as well as physical and mental; I tend to get caught  up with the physical to my determent sometimes. One 'nugget' I took away from this weekend was there is no perfect balance in life--we're not standing still. We need to have rhythm. And to see how we're doing, we need to pay attention to it. Now whether you're jazz, reggai or other...thats up to you:)
Krysta Lowery Silent River kungfu student UBBT

Sigh

I am feeling lost this week as my family is dealing with some personal issues. I hope we can resolve them soon as it takes away from your energy and your focus. That’s all for now.

Kevin Lindstrom
Silent River Kung Fu
Onoway, Alberta, Canada
UBBT 8

Take the public path, I dare you!

It is easy to say that you will travel your journey publicly, it is quite another to do it. It means sharing all your trial as well as your triumphs. It is not as easy as it sounds.
I struggle with my nerves, when I get nervous, I say things that are uncharacteristic and I do things that I am unaware of. I am not even sure if I can explain this very well. My main goal this year is to get a handle on my nerves. This means that I will be able to perform in situations where I am really nervous (such as the black belt test). My plan is to put myself in situations where I am uncomfortable and nervous and try to perform. This week there was some action to my plan and it was pretty scarey. I decided that I needed to break some boards in front of a whole bunch of people. Sounds like a great idea, not so easy to put into practice. The busiest time at the kwoon is between classes, so that was the time that I chose. Two very cool things happened that night; one - I managed to focus on only the task at hand and not on all the people watching and two - I learned that I am not performing as well as I could be and narrowed down what I should be working on. The next thing that I did was volunteer to be in a demonstration for our school. This, I figure, was another good way to test the nerves, be able to perform my form in public. This turned out not too bad as well, I am pretty sure that I got through the whole form, it wasn't my best performance but I learned more about how I move when I am nervous.
All in all a good but hard week. I will continue to share my journey, even the hardest parts to the best of my ability.
Robyn Kichko
Silent River Kung Fu
Stony Plain, AB, Canada

Where I am at

It was Spring Break for the kids last week, so there weren’t any children’s classes. I decided to stay home for the four days that we normally have kids class, and spent time with my kids instead. It was a needed break.

I thought it might impact my training, as I am not the best when it comes down to working out at home. But I got some forms in, and my mind actually feels a little fresher.

We performed our first demo of the year yesterday at the local trade show, and it turned out really great. We had many belt levels perform, a lion dance and kids do their thing as well. I love demos, as they continually give me something to work towards, and I feel that by taking part, I can impact my mental training, my physical training and those training around me. I think passion is infectious, and by taking our martial arts into the world (not excluding our community work), we are infecting those around us with it.

It felt good to be out there. And congrats to all those that performed yesterday. You guys did fantastic!

Smile :) !!!???

This last week has been spent training for and focusing on the weekend Trade Show demonstration of which I was performing my broadsword form at. I love my broadsword and get right into the form when do it. After one of our practices, one of my team mates asked if I would do a favor for him after the demo. The requested favor was to perform my broadsword form smiling. !!!!!???!?!?!!?!!!?!?!

Ok, to me that request made just as much sense as it would be to frost a chocolate cake with sauerkraut. In my disbelief, I asked the obvious question: "why???" His answer was that I always look so grumpy when doing my forms. (I have intense eyes that can see through a person when I'm in action). For the record, I'm far from grumpy when I am doing my form, I'm very much enjoying it. When I am doing my forms aren't I supposed to be in the moment of action, actually being the part in my mind? At least that's what I learned in acting classes. I will mention that the last time the team mate commented on me not smiling I whacked myself in the ankle with my spear.

However I must say that my team mate has a point. What would my flow, movements, expression, and aura be like if I were smiling (toss in any other expression) during my form? It's worth exploring because who knows what I will discover when I do? Right now when I think of me in broadsword form, showing my pearly whites brings one word to mind: psychopath having that grin of delight as I'm slicing someone to ribbons. However, I could be (and am willing to be) wrong on this one. Exploring the facial expressions while doing my forms could bring a whole new dimension to my performance. So, what the heck, why not play around and see what happens?

One thing for sure is that I will honor my team mate's request of doing my broadsword form with an honest smile and yes, in his presence. But alas, I have requested a favor of my team mate: perform his forms, especially weapons, without smiling. Checkmate.

Sherri Donohue
Silent River Kung Fu, Stony Plain, Alberta