Knight of Pentacles

 Nothing much to report this week.  I dropped my husband off on Friday for a 4 week stint out of town, so I'm single-momming it until he gets back.  I'm taking the opportunity to try to get really organized: meal plans, schedules, etc.  My parents are brilliant and stepping up, but there may be some impact on my attendance. I was having a conversation with a friend the other day, she's been going through alcohol addiction recovery.  She said something really interesting to me, something along the lines of:  "I had to re-acquaint myself with myself.  Suddenly, I didn't have my crutch to get me through difficult moments.  So, it felt like I was really meeting myself for the first time." It got me thinking about some of the crutches I use.  And how those crutches may be holding me back.  Now, I've learned from bitter experience that making drastic changes to my habits usually leads to impractical results.  But if I continue with the little tweaks, those resul

For sit ups and push ups, I've been doing things a bit differently this year.  I had started a late last lunar year with doing 25 push ups and sit ups first thing in the morning.  So that, no matter what, I always had at least 25 push ups and sit ups EVERY day. This has continued, and I'm proud of the fact that there has not been ONE day where I've missed doing it.   Secondly, I've been focusing on doing FULL push ups.  Every time.  I'll set an alarm, and when it goes off I'll drop down and do 10, full, straight leg push ups, and then sit ups.  Comparatively, last year, I was doing 25 modified push ups against the counter for every set.  And the push ups are getting easier.  The sit ups have never been an issue for me, so I've been concentrating more on keeping my heels on the ground, and my back straight. I guess I've been focusing on quality over quanitity, while slowly ramping up the quantity. Also, after Aviva mentioned it at the last meeting, I deci

 I had to laugh when Sifu Rybak described all of us going "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" as the Beta Form presentation class came up.  That's exactly how I felt.  I had worked very hard to memorize my form. I watched the videos over and over.  I wrote down the movements, broke them into sections, agonized over limb placement and turning directions.  Right up until I had to get ready to come to class, I was practicing, sweating, stabbing my poor fridge over and over. And when I got up on stage to present, I got 7 moves in and then my mind went completely blank.  You know how I know it was 7 moves?  Because move #8 is that pain-in-the ass that I had been stuck on last week.   But that's ok.  I have the full form, and can even go through the whole thing without prompts, sometimes.  So, now, I just need to do it 999 more times. On a side note, I did not realize that in our school we have to voice the actions in Hsieh Chien  EVERY TIME.  But I've made my boat, so I wi

The questions were asked on Thursday: "Why did you sign up for Kung Fu?" "Why did you stay?" The first question is easy: I want to be a badass.  I want to be able to do kicks and flips just like Michelle Yeoh.  I want to gain personal grace and tranquility.  That part will probably never change. Why did I stay?  I'm not going to lie, it hasn't always been easy.  There were times, especially at the beginning when I didn't know anyone, where anxiety would make it very hard to go to class. And there were many times where I would drive to the school, and be too scared or stressed out to get out of the car and go in. But the original motive stuck with me, and the more I got to know the people and the school and the IDEALS of the school, the more I realized that this is a place that had the power to do good, not just for me, but for everyone.   And so, I stuck with it.  And I made friends, and I got more consistent with my attendance.  I joined the I Ho Chuan

I've been struggling with my butterfly sword form.  It's kind of silly, because I found a video of a form from a Wing Chun school in Toronto, and I liked the look of the form, and it was short and seemed simple enough.   "This will be easy to learn, and then easy to practice" Oh, foolish Kat.   Having not done a lot of weapon forms, I underestimated how hard it would be for me to learn this one.  Especially because I was just watching a video, and didn't have a teacher who could break down certain movements, or who I could direct questions to.  I did find another video from the same school from the opposite angle, but it's been a slog. There was one particular movement that was just really hurting my brain.  I tried breaking down the arm movements from the leg movements, but I just couldn't seem to crack it.  Then I remembered Sihing (M) Ward talking about the youtube channel Sifu Kuttle, and how he had a bunch of videos breaking down movements specificall