March 28, 2016

Our family is one of many impacted this past period by the downturn in the economy. As a generation that has grown up in the absence of much hardship (80’s kid I confess), I have been extremely blessed.  I haven’t seen wars that require conscription, soil that has dried up and blown away for years at a time, political unrest or violence, starvation or excessive poverty. Because of this fact, I often feel guilty at what I take for granted.

In writing on this, I by no means want to belittle the current situation in our province, with the understanding that although our family has seen impact, there are others that have seen two incomes lost, business failures, massive increase in costs and more families dipping well below the poverty line than ever, and I remain very empathetic to those situations.

I am reminded years ago earlier in my training when our family was looking at potentially moving to Grande Prairie for work opportunities.  I approached Master Brinker at the time because walking away from Kung Fu at that point seemed like the most viable option in light of the fact that there was no training facility of Silent River calibre.  Well circumstances have a way of changing, and things always work out in one way or another.  What I remember most was Master Brinker saying that the time away from the Kwoon could be the best thing for my Kung Fu training.  Notice how I said time away from the Kwoon, not time away from Kung Fu training.  At the time I really had a hard time understanding this, but I think after many years I may have a better appreciation for this.  I believe, (and feel free to correct my interpretation in comment!) was that necessity for change and adaptation would in the long run make me a better martial artist.  It would require added effort to make classes via video conference.  Less face to face accountability would mean more self-discipline.  It would require developing a system to be your own critic, and to be more reliant on being self-taught.  I really believe that year in Grande Prairie was monumental in helping adapt with my time in and out of town for the years to follow.

To bring this back to my original thought on current economy, I could regard this past year and a half as turmoil, terror, and the year upcoming as doom and gloom, or I could I approach this with the same positive and wise perspective that was gifted to me years ago.  The fact is the current situation will require some major adjustments to our way of living, but at the end of 2016 I can be sure that we will be streamlined into a more efficient, leaner and meaner, version of our current family.