WE ARE MOVING!!!

Hello everyone!  I am writing this to inform you that as of today, I am moving 'Journey of the Pookysan' to Wordpress.  The new address of this blog will be:

pookysanjourney.wordpress.com

There are many great features of this site, but a few that I like are:

1. Email Notifications of Posts: this allows people to follow the blog without becoming a member of Wordpress.  After signing up on the right side of the page, you will get an email with new posts, pictures, and video when they are posted.  I think this is GREAT!!

2. Great mobile support!!  You can now keep up to date of all of the fun on your mobile device in a format that does not hurt your eyes!  Take a look at the blog on your phone or iPad and you will be pleased at what you see.  I know I was.

Anyway, take a look and be sure to sign up for Email Notifications on the right side of the page.  Be on the look out for new post, videos, pictures, and more fun to come!!

Push Hands

Tonight in Tai Chi class we worked onPush Hand techniques.  I like working on these skills for many reasons.  For one, you get to work with a partner.  Sometimes you just need to compare your skills to others in order to understand what you have to work on.  We practiced something called "Sticky Hands". It is a technique that makes you listen and feel your partner's movements.  This is an interesting exercise because it really forces you to have a connection with your partner in order to follow their movements without any tension.  It is easy with some and hard with others.  I had one person today just fight the technique the entire time we worked together.  I am not really sure why, but you could certainly feel it in his energy.  The last thing we did in class was apparently a light form of Push Hands called Chun Yi (spelling optional).  This is where you try to knock your partner off balance while you face each other in the forward bow stance.  I had two partners with this.  One was a guy in his 20's that gave me a run for my money.  I had to resort to pulling him off balance, which I am not sure was what I was suppose to do, but worked non-the-less.  If I was not suppose to do this, I apologize now.  However, I will take Age and Treachery over Youth and Skill any day.

The last partner I had was our own Boot Camp Buddy Diane.  Unfortunately Diane and I were not an equal match.  She did get me off balance once or twice while we tried to find our rhythm, but I am afraid I won the round by pushing her to the ground.  Now she says that I pushed her launched her across the room, but that is not entirely true.  I just pushed her enough that it was hard for her to catch her balance.  On a good note, she fell well, which is something not everyone can do without injury.  Anyway, I know my days are numbered.  Diane will get me back eventually.  I will just have to make sure that it isn't any time soon. :oP

Catching Up

Well I have been away from the blog for a bit.  Things have been a bit crazy.  Since I have been gone I have had a birthday, went through my second Father's Day, and have made the leap to Black Shirt at The Peaceful Dragon.

My birthday was great, but low key.  It was on a Tuesday so I had to go to Boot Camp.  I chose to help paint the inside great room instead of going outside and sweating in the summer humidity.  Or go head first down the side of the embankment again.  Long story, but for those who were not there to see it first hand; I was running after a kick ball in order to catch it before it entered the ditch, but suddenly realized that the edge of the ditch went straight down rather than tapering off at a slight angle.  Needless to say I was picking blackberry thorns out of my butt that night for a while.

Anyway,  Nanna came down last weekend to celebrate my birthday/Father's Day.  It was a great time watching the baby boy play with the Nanna.  He is so rat blasted cute, it isn't even funny.  I want to thank everyone who contributed to my birthday/Father's Day.  I pre-ordered my new iPhone 4 the day after my birthday (June 16), but then was told that I would receive it until JULY 15-19 because of the high demand.   Even though that is a full month to wait for my glorious new phone, it is still better than waiting for hours in some line with Mac Geeks.  Not even Mac Geeks, it is more Tech Geeks.  I sometimes think I am bad about how geeky I get with new toys, but the last time I waited in line for 3 hours at the Apple Store for the  iPhone 3G before going to Jamaica I thought I would have to seriously have an intervention for some of the people around me.  I just did not want to take the chance of loosing my place in line.  Just not worth it.

As for my other life (work), I am still learning what I don't know.  I don't talk much about my work because I do not want that to be the focus of my life again, which it was for far too long.  Since I have made the switch to another company, I have the glorious job of being the "New Guy", which is something that I am not accustomed to.  But, not to worry.  I am getting acclimated to my new surroundings and am learning quite a lot, very quickly.  My training is kin to trying to take a sip of water from a fire house positioned 3" from your face, full open.  You'll get something, but you sure ain't goin' get all of it the first time out.  I just have to remember that it will take time to be totally self sufficient.  Also, they didn't hire me because I have the answer.  They hired me because I have the potential to find AN answer.  So that is my mantra so far.

So that is about it so far.  I am slowly getting into other classes at TPD.  I do not want to rush into more class and be totally depleted through out my week.  However, it is good to be a Black Shirt.  I never knew 15 min more of a class could hurt so much.

That's it for me right now.  I'll catch up with ZSBC stuff over the next few days.  We have covered some good stuff that I can't wait to get posted.  Talk at you later!!

Go Wash Your Bowl

Participating in the Peaceful Dragon entails more than just going to class.  Each month there is a lesson that is sent out via email.  These lessons are geared to enhance your understanding of the Shaolin studies and principles that we do not have time to go over during our normal class sessions.  So there's homework that is due every month.  Nothing strenuous, but it provides a great insight into the core teachings that you can apply to your everyday life.  Here I thought homework would stop when I got my other degree. Oh well...life goes on...

While reading this month's lesson, I particularly enjoyed a chinese parable that was at the heart of the first lesson:

A young student arrived at the Temple, anxious to embark on the training that would lead him to enlightenment. Upon being introduced to the master, the student proclaimed, “I have just entered the monastery, ready to learn. Please teach me.”

The master asked him, “Have you eaten your breakfast?” 

“Yes,” replied the student, “I just finished.” 

“Then go wash your bowl,” replied the master.

Now at fist glance I thought, "boy this master needs an attitude adjustment."  But after reading the rest of the lesson and working on the homework assignment I began to realize the lesson that the Master was trying to convey.  In every new adventure our imagination tends to paint a picture that we will be elevated immediately to the highest level of the activity and will always have a great time.  We so often forget that, to get the to highest level of anything, there will be a great deal of time devoted to mundane (sometimes boring) tasks that we don't think are particularly fun, but are needed to teach us important skills along the way.  We students need to understand that we must take every task and apply what we have learned in order to get the most out of living.  The experiences in life are here to help us learn and become more intricately woven within the fabric of existence.  Now washing dishes does not seem to be the most enlightening activity, but understanding how a clean and organized environment can help reduce stress and elevate your mood is worth its weight in gold.

I am starting to understand that every activity, task, and relationship, that is set before us is a time to learn and experience what it is to be human.  Maybe these chinese monks where on to something!   

the Path of the Black Shirt

Well I did it. Last Thursday I made the leap into being a Black Shirt at the Peaceful Dragon.  It is a big thing for me to tell you the truth.  It is my commitment of not only learning a Martial Art again, but it also signifies my commitment to my weight loss goal.  It will be cool to get into sparring and to finally get into learning weapons.  It was cool though to get my first class as a Back Shirt taught by Sifu.  We were sweating by the end of that class with quads that burned.

I am excited to see what is to come.  You never know.  I may start competing again if I don't get beat up too bad in practice.

What is Normal Eating?

This is something that was given to us during our ZSBC meeting this week:

"Normal eating is going to the table hungry and eating until you are satisfied.  It is being able to chose food you like and eat it and truly get enough of it - not just stop eating because you think you should.  Normal eating is being able to give some thought to your food selection so you get nutritious food, but not being so wary and restrictive that you miss out on enjoyable food.  Normal eating is giving yourself permission to eat sometimes because you are happy, sad, or bored, or just because it feels good.  Normal eating is three meals a day, or four, or five, or it can be choosing to much along the way.  It is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow, or it is eating more now because they taste so wonderful.  Normal eating is overeating at times, feeling stuffed and uncomfortable.  And it can be undereating at times and wishing you had more.  Normal eating is trusting your body to make up for your mistakes in eating.  Normal eating takes up some of your time and attention, but keeps its place as only one important area of your life.  

In short, normal eating is flexible.  It varies in response to your hunger, your schedule, your proximity to food, and your feelings." (Ellyn Satter, 1998)

So what does this say to you?  To me, this is a gift of forgiveness.  This helps me understand that "normal eating" isn't some impossibly unattainable state of being.  "Normal eating" is what we do to survive.  It accommodates special occasions and whims of fancy.  It does not cover dieting, for dieting is an unnatural way of sustaining life to attain a state of being that can be achieve through "normal eating".  As I learn more and more about what it takes to eat normally, I find it is exactly what I have been doing except for two big differences: 1) portion sizes; 2) food choices.  I have found that super sizing meals may be economical if you compare the quantity of food you get for the money. However, do you really need more food? Also, the food that you should eat defies pretty much everything that Americans are bribed, coerced, and programed to accept as food.  When it comes down to it, the ingredients to your meal should be readily available in nature.  I am very sure that herds of Big Macs are not running wild among the plains somewhere.  If there were, there would be safaris run by Ronald McDonald from the back of his Range Rover.  Can you really see Ronald McDonald with an Elephant Gun?

In short, it tells me that eating is first and foremost needed to sustain life. However, eating should be enjoyed and relished as an experience.

So, what does "normal eating" mean to you?

It's a Small World After All

Tuesday night in ZSBC, Anna told me she saw the post on my blog about MCPO Ballard’s Building Dedication. It turns out that she was part of a Navy JROTC program during her High School career also.  The strange thing is that she was part of the York, SC program and I was part of the Summerville, SC program.  That means that we competed in the same drill meets and rifle matches and participated in the same field trips at the same time and never knew each other.  That is just weird.  We probably met loads of times and just never made a friendship.  It is interesting how you can share certain events with people when you were younger and never strike up a friendship until you are older and in a different part of the country.  It definitely is a small world after all.