Crazy End/Start of the Year

It has been a crazy end to the year and it looks like it will continue for a while. I have been doing some extra work when I have been home and it looks to continue until possibly June or later. This means you will not see me at the Kwoon very much over these next few months.

I will continue to connect via Zoom as much as possible and I will be there in person when I am able to. I remeber back to my grading year and how most of my training was done outside the Kwoon and this is a great opportunity to take what I did back then and improve on it.

See you soonish......, maybe?

No Sun. Bad Mood.

We are in full winter mode up here now (high today was -22) and it is already affectig my mood. We are also down to under 7 hours of daylight a day and we lose 10 more minutes everyday. It's not just the weather but also that and we still have a lot of restrictions up here to hopefully keep Covid free. This means that the gym is still closed and has been for 3 months now, so I am limited by what I can do in my room with just body weight.

l also injured my shoulder last time I was home so that is not helping either. I'm not sure how, but it is very weak right now and I am unable to do certain things like push ups.

It seems like a lot of reasons not to train but it is actually the opposite of that. I have just modified my training to adapt to my current situation. It is a nice distraction and it helps improve my mood. Nothing like some good old fashioned sweat to make you feel better. It's just to bad its not from the sun.

Life in The North

I wanted to share with you guys a picture of my ocean view. Sifu Cosgrove has nothing on me.

I bet you all wish you could step out of your office and have the view that I do. Right?????

Seriously though it has been a somewhat stressful couple of weeks with the situation at work here. To add to this, the weather has started to turn and has already caused the cancellation of 2 flights this week. Im not sure why I think a about these things because there is nothing I can do to change these facts but sometimes I wish I could.

The training is also down because the gym is closed and we are encouraged to stay in our rooms when we are not working unless it is for meals or the washroons. I am grateful for the livestream classes as it helps me stay engaged and focused on my training even when I can't physically train.

Work Chaos

I didn't really want to write about this but after my first week back I felt it was necessary.

The week before I came back to site, they had a fatality at site here. It was not someone I knew pesonally but I had seen him and talked to him here and there. This really affected me because it was a helicopter incident and I have been on the same helicopter in the past. Thinking about that scared me a little because you really don't know what can happen in life

Once I got here, I started on a big project of shipping waste off site on sea lift. We were working 16 hour days at a minimum for the first 8 days. Hence I was not at any of the classes via Zoom. After than many days you tend to get touchy and you feel angry, irritated and stressed. It was a week of not much happening aftyer work and even for the next 2 days after

If that was not enough, we now have a Covid outbreak on site. there have been 7 positive cases so far and 100 close contacts identified. What this means is all these people are or will be flown out as off today and the remaining ones of us will be tested daily for the next 5 days to confirm we are all good.

A lot of things happening but I am still happy because I am alive and healthy. And I have family and friends that I get to see when I am home or through Zoom when I am not.

See you all soon

Goodbye.

I have been trying to figure out the best way to blog about this but have not come up with a great way to word it so i will just put it out there.

My attendaence and activity level in Kung Fu has been been down the last couple of weeks and it's because of where my mind is at. The day before I came home, I found out my grandmother passed away. So on Thursday I went to her wake and it was a very powerful and emotional experience.

I feel like I need to give some backstory her. My grandfather lost his wife when my mom was 14. He met and married a woman from the Alexis First Nation and moved there when my mom was 21. When I was 9, I spent my entire summer on the Reserve at their place. To say I stuck out was an undersatement, but I was never treated differently and I experienced so many great things. I continued to do this until I was 13.

Jump ahead a few years, we moved to a house that borders the reserve so we could be closer to my Grandfather. I continued to see my friends and spend a lot of time there. As the years went on, my Grandfather passed and i started to lose contact with everyone. I would still see them as my mom gained 2 sisters (my aunts) and hence some neices and nephews but it was not as often.

The wake was a powerful experience because of what they do. The traditional drumming and singing was an emotional experience because you could hear feel the sorrow in the music. The ceremony itself with the peace pipe and the circle was something my brother and I were allowed to take part in. Even though it was a relationship through marriage, we are treated no differently than blood relatives. I will miss her and what she has done to make my life better.

Intensity

We have all been asked or will be asked to define intensity as it relates to Kung Fu. There is no simple answer to this and it will be different for all of us. To me intesity is doing something with a purpose. I am not just going through the motions but I have an objective and a set path on how to get there.

There are a few things you can do to try and fake intensity but there is always one tell. The eyes never lie. You must look where you want to go and don't stare at your oppenent but burn a hole through them with your gaze. You have to believe what you are doing and every strike will obliterate whatever is in your path. Have confidenc in your abilities and the intensity will be there.

Open Training

This Saturday marks the return of Open Training and I can't wait. This is one of the greatest opportunities to learn that there are. I always get so much from the day by not only doing but by watching and answering questions.

My main focus will be my 2 weapon forms as I need to take advantage of the space (and the weapons). The best part is that I don't know where it will go from there and that is what I am looking forward to.