And than, it’s is today! Well, another week in the books. It’s been a great week, for me. Kung Fu is coming more and more. I’m finding, when I go off into my little world and train, man, it’s like a fog gets lifted from my head. I’ll train throughout the day and achieve some good numbers, but, I really like training at night. You know, when, people are flipping on the news or settling down for the night, this guy will find another gear and push. A few nights it’s been 1030-11 at night and I’m working on this or that. Checking this stance, working on these blocks, trying ever so diligently to get my strikes back up to speed. Side note, I’m almost breaking three strikes per second. It’s been a goal for myself to place four punches in and around the one second mark. Not just three punches thrown out there and hoping for the best, oh no no no. Three meaningful purposely placed punches, with the forth coming in like the tsar bomb!! Hmmmm, I love it. I really really do.
So, with the above noise going on, let’s take a ride in this guys mind! Hahaha. Hold on! This week, besides the physical breakthroughs I’ve had, I have hit a couple of mental aspects spots in my training. What I mean, is I’m training, trying hard, listening to my Sifu’s words and knowledge. I was kinda confused about Da Mu Hsing and just how a few things have been changed around a bit. So, instead of sitting in my head, asking myself, who doesn’t know the answers, I started poking and prodding Sifu during a one on one. I received a very good response about why things in forms have changed. To keep flow and help us stay grounded. Okay, sounds good. Now, that I have that knowledge, the form makes so much more sense, and techniques are like, don’t you remember us will? How could you have forgotten about us? Man, and I’m like, honestly, myself was no longer a priority and well, I let you go. Sorry, but I’m gonna refine this and make things right. I start with Asking for help with hand forms. And than practice.
Now, here’s the cool thing. I asked one question. I received some great feedback. Once that feedback was absorbed and made sense of, I had more questions. Well, what about this and that and over there?
Now, in a few days of reflection, listening and trusting in my teachers, it’s like, I have been shown some magical book, with all this knowledge in there, that I can take and use and build some really cool Kung fu with. That book is my teachers, my Sifus. Our Sifus. These people who have committed their lives to this art form and all they ask, is that I give everything I can every day to our shared passion. Sifu Brinker has all this buried in his head. He has this, literal guide to success built into him, it seems. He makes Kung fu look easy, and I try what he does on screen, and I near ko myself throwing those techniques around. You feel kinda silly and bashful, maybe I won’t do that again. Then you hear our leader in the meeting, say things like, I’ve made 100million mistakes, and I try to make it so others only make 99million mistakes. So, if I’m paying attention and not afraid to step out of me, this will eventually become “simple” for me as well. Not simply follow the leader, no. Take what I’ve been given and turn it into mine! Respect traditions and own what I present. For I am not any of you and none of you are me. Thank goodness, I don’t think SRKF could take two or more of me.....haha!
I’m asking questions, I’m building a relationship with my team. I’m focusing on what matters in my life. I’m zeroing in on the pathway to success. I have my little lamp that comes with me on my littl journey and that lamp gets a little brighter each day I ask for help and train. Purposeful training. Sustainable training. Paying attention to the fine details in my body. The aches, go away. The pains, push through. The frustrations, release them into the heavy bag. The days I feel like not doing nothing, better make a phone call and ask some questions. But also, noting and taking care of what’s sore and hurting. There’s a difference between injuries and just being sore, and when I listen carefully to me, and pay attention to what I’m doing, the “injuries” are mere excuses for me to be weak and let excuses rule! Been there, done that, it sucked. Not again. I think back to my punk ironworker days. Nothing to do? Go sweep, go stack the dunnage, go sort bolts, there’s always something to do, it’s not just hanging steel! No more excuses Will.....
I’m a firm believer Kung Fu, is a gift that was given to me. I can’t count how many full circles away and back into SRKF do I need to do, before I realize, this is home. This is my group, these are the people I care about. This is where I want to spend my time. Do you remember when I celebrated 5 yrs sobriety? Maybe not. I most certainly do. Anyhow, I remember, it was almost exactly five years to the day. I will never forget. I could have done so much to celebrate. People wanted to have lunch and dinner with me. People where calling me to congratulate my accomplishment. My day was being swallowed up with others. Honesty, I didn’t know how to take the praise and deal with the accomplishments. I just didn’t know how to take the day. I was stressed about relapsing. That was a real scary thing for me. So you know what I did? You will in a moment. I just grabbed my Kung fu gear, turned my phone off and went and spent as much time as I could in the Kwoon that Saturday. Quite honestly, it was only myself and Sifu Playter that day. I just stood in front of our Alter and tried real hard to appreciate everything there. I knew I had a gift in my hands. That day Sifu Playter and I turned out some awesome techniques. Touched on sparring, worked some punches. He was building
his articulating stick form and I was building a stick form. Honestly, my stick form would have never been as cool as it was without Sifu Playter on that day. And it has become one of the most important days in my training.
For no other reason, than on that day, I made a subconscious decision. I didn’t realize until later. On that day, I chose to rebuild and try my darnest to try life again through an ancient art form, over self-destructive tendencies.
That decision has stayed with me always. To the point, i have a full dragon tattoo from my wrist over my shoulder and to my heart. Whenever I think this sucks, I’m not getting anywhere, I should just quit... I take a moment, look at my dragon and think, my journey has never been a straight line, why should things get easy today? Come on now!
This is probably gonna sound off, but well, that’s what I am, so this dragon that lives inside of me has fought like hell to stay noticed. I’ve seen him so many times in dreams and in my meditations. I’ve literally smelt his aroma. Sometimes, I catch soft whiffs of him deep in training. I have felt his breeze against my skin and clothing in the middle of heavy bag work. Since I started training again with silent River, he’s not letting up on me. Almost every single night he’s with me. Every day I see him. Every sunrise and sunset I catch a glimpse of this dragon, IF I’m paying attention. Haha, I know how this sounds, This isn’t some life long hallucination trip, I don’t think. It’s not like I’m seeing dragons fly around my living room. it’s the examples he presents and courage he shows to me. Simply the little things that are presented for me. Pay attention to the little things.
Anyhow, that’s a fair bit of babbling. Chew on that one for a while!!
Thanks for your time
Mr.Duncan
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