Through the wire, To the limit, even through the fire

Through the wire, To the limit, even through the fire

Last night I went out with a group of friends to celebrate my boy Evan's 31st birthday.
I haven't been out in while, so though I was mentally and physically exhausted I was happy to be out and about socailizing and catching up with folks.



Martials arts
writing
teaching
life...always looking for a way to improve, to do it better
--evlviong...(mark)
pushing forward
Without struggle there is no progress
seek growth not comfort

health is wealth

Now and Then

With the new year, with change in the air, I wonder how much I have ALREADY changed since last year. To figure this out, I read through blogs starting with the most recent and moving back time, paying close attention to changing tone and attitude from one blog to another.

6 month ago, I believed I was done fighting... hanging up my gloves and focusing on academic pursuits, shifting gears focusing on another art (writing and teaching this art).

Funny, 6 months later and I'm training for fight and STILL passionate as ever towards my many passions: martial arts, writing, surfing and teaching/learning/teaching (education is process for both students and teacher).

So maybe I haven't changed much at all!?
I'm focused on NOT focusing on just one art.

I changed my mind about changing! haha

THAT blog from 6 months ago I was all nostalgic, but now I'm more excited about tomorrow. Though Summer must end, it DOES come back again the next year.

The seasons with ourselves are something to pay attetnion to.

For kicks, here's the blog from 6 months ago RE-posted.


Thursday, August 7, 2008
Transitions
My Summer is slowly fading...

Back to work in less than a week.

My Summer is slowly fading...

2 days ago I made an excruciatingly difficult decision to drop out of a fight that I'd been training for for a little over a month because:

chronic and multiple injuries (body isn't as young and reslient as it once was)...
and I realize these injuries have affected me psycologically and emotionally as well as physiologically.

My Summer is slowly fading...

I understand I'm not a dinosaur facing imminent extinction, but I do feel-- worn from wear, rusty, like a relic from another era defining it's self in modern times.


I've stop sulking (I think) and am moving forward. Let us carry on. I'm dusting myself off, and transitioning to another way of being.

My friend, trainer, fellow fighter and in many ways a mentor, wrote to me:

"stop considering yourself too old. you're only old if you think there's not much more to learn. keep looking at life just how you see this mess we call the fight game, and it will always turnout the way you want it..win or lose. "

In "the fight game" we fighters adapt to any given situation, we are disciplined, we care about our "art" as much as a writer, painter, actor what have you.

In the fight game we adapt...

we adapt to different opponents, we adapt to the changing seasons, and I am fiding out now that we even adapt to changes with in ourselves.

And we fight for passion, not glory, we fight because we love "being" the art, performing the art, living the art.

And with all that said, I am hanging up my gloves and focusing on academic pursuits. I am shifting gears focusing on another art.

Look at me in the middle of nostalgia for "the fight game", and also excited for graduate school. transitions...

My summer is slowly fading, but hey! There's Indian Summer in the Fall! and...it's always summer somewhere on the globe! haha

Flipping Coins

You ever get so wrapped up in your own life, you forget the rest of the world?

I lost my job
I lost a lot of money
I'm bored
I'm not where I want to be

What ever gripes we all have about our lives...

Or on the other side of the coin, you are so caught up in world affairs, that you forget to reflect on your own life?

Oh, the people in (insert the country of your choice here)
They are being exploited, opressed etc. etc
The injustice in ______________
That politican is so wrong...


I think it's important to see one with in the other. Make connections.

I suffer,
the world suffers,
we suffer.

We are part of a community, whether we are aware of it or not.


When you are emotionally troubled, it's easy to focus on your pain, but let's not forget that there are others WORSE of than you: emotionally and physically. So...

Wow, this is going in a direction I hoped it wouldn't...its starting to sound cliche'

ah well...



Flipping coins. Go back and forth between both, blurring the divisions we sometimes create, them and me....

Flipping coins in the air and...

on the drop of a dime...the 10 cent piece hits the ground and spins... society, me, the world, me...

better yet, the spinning causes you to focus on the two sides melting into one another, you as a part of the world, the world reflected in your life.

OK tangent coming up:

But "drop of a dime," what did/does that really mean? Remember when everyone didn't have cell phones? If you wanted to talk to someone you'd have to drop 2 dimes into a pay phone.

Or does that phrase mean something more general: the moment money is offered, you'll do what ever it takes to get it.

Let's just says it shows immediacy. ahorita in spanish. ngayon in tagalog.

anyway...I don't feel like ranting anymore...

I still think blogs are so interesting. I guess I use it as therapy, just to get out whatever is on my mind, whether it's positive, negative or pointless!

Sometimes I miss simply putting pen to paper and writing my thoughts with no one, but myself in mind...

There's this great line from Dave Egger's about giving up anonymity for access... I don't remember where I read it or what it was exactly referring to, but it relates to blogs and the internet...

ah whatevs...