Experience

Hey Yo! Good Sunday people. How's it cracking today?  So far so good here.  Both boys are off on sleep overs and so yesterday was quiet. Too quiet.  Dad doesn't like his Cubs away from home.  But, hey, they want to go have fun with their buddies and such, so, have fun kids.
   Monday, I went and got my dragon tattoo outline done in Calgary.  It's awesome! I love it.  The dragons head is over my heart and his tail is down on the wrist.  He's huge. Five and a half hours of chair time just do the outline.  It was another of those unknown situations. I had not seen the template before driving down there.  I spoke to Chiwon, the artist, once since booking my times. And I wasn't worried once. I wanted to see it, but, I knew it was going to be kick ass, no matter what. There is an artist here in Stoney plain I normally go to, and I get killer rates out of him as well.  But, this guy in Calgary, specializes in oriental artwork. He's from Korea and focuses on black and white realism tattoos.  I checked his stuff out online and man alive, is he a talented artist.  So, I chose the specialist over the really good artist.  A fair amount more expensive, and time consuming, but, the differences are already standing out.  Less then a week old and the tattoo is pealing. Which in my experience, is awesome. The sooner the peeling starts, the better the tattoo.  Heal time is everything.  And I haven't found one scab.  Not one, which is another sign of very talented hands. But, it's just the outline too, so we will see in two months, what happens with the shading!  I am a smidch worried about the shading, as this tatto, is big and there's lots of tender spots. Like the collar bone, or the nipple. Or my personal favorite, the armpit!! Awesome. Can't wait for the shading in there! But as Chiwon so elegantly put it, "It's all about the experience, Will" as he digs in the armpit!! Hahaha. Ouch!
   So there's that and here is this. My boys want to do different sports this year. My oldest boy is set on scouts and my youngest isn't too sure of what he wants to do yet.  From the sounds of things there is still hope of him taking Kung fu classes with me.  They were a little worried to tell me about not wanting to do Kung fu, and I'm like, shoot boys, this is your life. You can try all sorts of things if you want to.  Don't feel obligated to keep doing something if you want to try something different.  Make sure your commitments are wrapped up, then you can move on. The question is, is this. How much is this going to affect me and my training? Probably a lot. But, with that being said. I can still keep doing what I'm doing and continue to maintain, my skill set and take classes when I can again. See, I can not make my wife deal with the kids sports all the time, and go and do my thing all the time. That's unfair to her.  She has goals and ambitions as well.  And who am I to say, my goals are greater than hers? So, sacrifices on both parts will be the only way we can continue to build our awesome family up.  I wish everyone involved has success and a good time at doing what they are going to do.
   So, embrace the change and embrace the challenge to modify my life so, I can still keep training, working, dading and husbanding, like a champ.  It's what we do here folks.  We learn from trial and error, to find out what works best for us for the day or the week, and continue to build on those successes.  And guaranteed, things are going to change and twist sporadically or a lot. It's hard to say what's going to happen all the time.  It's up to me to meet everything with the right mind frame and thinking unbiased ly to the situation at hand.  Am I still going to achieve black belt? You can bet your last dollar that's going to happen, maybe just not when I want it. Or maybe so, it's really hard to say what's going to happen here. As long as the end goals are in sight and I'm on the right path, that's all that matters.  I did say to myself, that no matter what, I'm still obtaining my goals. Only on the big guys schedule, not mine!
   And finally I want to finish here. With the boot camp just wrapping up, and seeing everyone's blogs on it, I was brought back to the memories of last years boot camp and the different meditations we were taught. I admit, I haven't gotten in as much meditation as I have wanted to this summer. But, last night, I was dead heading some of my Calendulas. Which is a flower I recommend to all here. Because its colourful and smells great! And the flower is harvested, dried and mixed in teas, for relaxing and mental calming affects. They are great! But, anyhow, I'm in the garden dead heading and then I'm off in la-la land. Staring deeply into the flower heads. I allowed my mind to get lost in the smells and just smiling.  And I come back to reality thinking about Thich Nhat Hanh and his words on the dandelion having my smile. I applied that to the garden of dill and calendula and sunflowers! You know, this garden has a smile like nothing I have seen! Smiling is contagious. So I'm smiling back at the flowers and they are smiling at me and for a few moments I had this complete feeling of euphoria ripping though me. What a great time!

Well it's time to have mini donuts and dish out power slams and pile drivers! Boom "Big Bad Dad" Boom.  Insert wrestling pose. That's my stage name in the Living Room Federation!! I'm currently heavy weight champ! No big deal.

Have a nice day
Mr.Duncan