Gatitude For The Season

Hello its me again. On a fine monday morning. This break something different has taken over in my life. Gratitude. I have experienced something only sweet dreams are made of and was able to spend some time with kido. Very grateful for the small amount of time I had with her of Christmas eve. Very grateful for her getting along with her brothers and cousins so nicely. It was a great night. I remember saying to my wife, that, I do not need any presents or gifts, I have received the best gift of all. My kids. It was a short lived time, but, the best gifts of all, I have come to learn are very small. Whether it be in time or in size. So, gratitude was the theme for my Christmas.
    There are people in our paths that, we must deal with, and that maybe we are not very fond of. But, we still give the gift of kindness. Through our speech and actions, we spread kindness. Now, I am not the best at being kind, but, with practice, I have become better at it. One of my monkey goals is to really push myself to practice kindness and actually, really, caring about others. I constantly ask that question when on my heavy bag. Why do I need to be kind when I can kick someone's head off their shoulders. Why should I be nice when I can force my way out of people? That has been on my mind a lot lately. Not sure why, but it is a huge question. Well, I have done the "social experiments" on my own, as in just being nice to people and mentally noting the results. And, I get far more of what I desire through kindness, than with anger. People will do as you ask, if you're screaming mad, just to shut you up, but, there is resentment and anger involved, so, the job is done quickly and not usually professionally. If asked to do something with a tone of caring and kindness is the underlining tone in your voice, people, jump to the occasion and usually surprise you with results.
    Spending all these last few days with family and friends has made me see all the different dynamics, in creating a proper black belt, how I understand them today. This message and view point, will probably change and evolve through time. But today, I see a black belt as a force to be reckoned with in and out of the training halls. I see a black belt as the lighthouse of example on how to tear someone apart. But, I now also see, the other side of a true black belt. Not needing to use their hands to solve a problem, but their words. Those words only come through years of practice, and a commitment to being better than we were yesterday. But, even more than that, a black belt to me is someone, who doesn't need to brag or show off what they can do. They just do it. They do not waste their energy or their movements. They have gone through the ranks and been shown ways to save their energy and motions, and only move when needed. And deeper still, their movements are done instinctively. Movements, without moving. Effortless effort. Like one of my favorite quotes. "Be like water my friends. Water can crash or it can flow. Be water my friends." I know there's more to it, but that's my favorite part.
     For the rest of this year, I will continue on pushing hard for some of my goals. I plan on still crushing the quitting smoking thing. This is way harder than the drugs and alcohol man, holy I tell you what. Kids, don't let me catch you smoking. You thought your old man hit hard.... But, I have come to realise this one thing and its making this fight a lot harder. Our greatest gifts will come once we deserve them. Quitting smoking isn't the gift, its the freedom of life I receive that's the gift. My breath and blood pressure. That's the gift. So, I have a date set again. I'm going to quit again on my specific date. This time, like every other single time, I desire this a lot. I want to quit, like you people want to eat. I see the habits very deeply engrained into my being. I mean I got twenty years in the habit, so I have faced more walls than I ever thought where built. The little habits that I am constantly becoming aware of are wild. Never thought it was so embedded in me. So, wow, I honestly think this is the hardest fight of my life. But, I aint gonna quit quitting.
  
   Weeeeellllllllllll, I got some legos to build and gun wars to have. So, I better let you guys go for now. Thanks for your time.
Mr.Duncan