January 3, 2016

Alright, I am going to admit it.  I can’t stop thinking about my personal goals to be set for the next year of I Ho Chuan.  I know we still have a good length of time in the year of the Sheep, but I just can’t get it out my mind.

I haven’t forgotten that the year of the Sheep has close to two more months.  Don’t get me wrong, I am still fully engaged in knocking off this year’s requirements.  In reflection of past years however, while evaluating what made the successes possible and ways to beat the failures, I have come to the conclusion that 2016 is the year. 

2016 will be the year of tackling the personal goals of past I Ho Chuan years that were not successes.  And there are some doozies.  It will probably mean one of the most challenging I Ho Chuan years I will have taken on.  But I think I am ready.  Bring on 2016, and for those that I missed talking to prior to Jan 1, Happy New year everyone.

December 27, 2015

This Christmas while hanging with family and friends, I was reminded the importance of faith, love, friendship, kindness, forgiveness, empathy, gratefulness. 

So many times I ask why I have been blessed as much as I have.  I have a real hard time understanding why I would deserve the great people and the great opportunities in my life. My meager human attempt to understand it, keeps me pointed to the ideology that good things are the result of good deeds. But that thinking is greatly flawed, noting that my actions and decisions are not even close to equivalent of the blessings in my life.

If not that then, I can only explain it one other way. Grace.  Grace of friends, grace of family, grace of the human race, and according to my faith, the grace of God.

And for that, I will be forever thankful.

Merry Christmas everyone.

December 20, 2015

I have always thought the dragon dance was a very cool part of Silent River.  I have always admired how it had the ability to bring the I Ho Chuan team together.  What I did understand was that the commitment to perform a dragon dance was immense, and discouraged myself from its involvement due to my flaky work schedule.  What I didn’t entirely understand, was the gears behind what makes the dragon dance so potent a team builder.

Over the last couple of practice times, I have had the opportunity to be part of the dragon dance as a fill in.  Truly I am a great test of their empathy, feeling most like a square cog in a Swiss watch, yet at the same time, feeling accepted, and instantly part of the team.

The development of a weapon form over a year of mastery requires many things.  The development of a dragon dance requires the exact same things with one exception. It requires familiarization with its movement, flow, and function. Identifying problems and working to solutions. It requires repetition to develop proficiency and skill.  It causes a stretch of limits and abilities to push out of comfort zones.  The dragon dance however, does this in a team environment, but in a much different way than say it would with a basketball or hockey club.  If a person has a bad day on a hockey team, he ends up playing less minutes and his lack of involvement is rather dilute. 

Alternatively, the link in a dragon dance team is literal.  It takes into account the physiology and abilities of each person.  Tall, short, limber, stiff, injured, healthy all these things taken from every individual get thrown into this melting pot and turn into a dragon soup that has its own flavour as a result of its ingredients. 

The experience this far has been really exceptional. The team’s patience, kindness and willingness to help advance my abilities are unbelievable.  My hesitation to get involved vaporized in about 10 minutes after hopping into the dragon.  I would like to thank all of you for that.  It truly is what has made this team exceptional.  

December 13, 2015

Nothing is a bigger test of your current perspective dial setting than a Canadian winter. While so many Canadians board planes to hot destinations, or snowbird the winter season away, it makes me wonder how Canadians get a reputation as cold dwelling snow lovers. 

For a number of years my winter perspective was in a drastic need of adjustment.  Rather than embracing what the season had to offer, I was anxiously looking for the onset of spring.  Well this year I have re-embraced my fondness for winter.

This year has already proved to be an awesome start to the winter season.  Snowball fights, backyard winter forts, tobogganing, skiing.  All those things that make winter as diverse a season as you can get.  Nowhere on the planet can you find four distinct seasons offering so many opportunities as you can in Alberta, and I for one, am very grateful for that.

December 6, 2015

The best things in life are free.  But do we truly get that? 

One of the great inventors of our time, Dean Kamen said “The ideal would be a machine that has no size, no cost, never breaks down, is available wherever you need it all the time, free.  That will never happen, there is a very pervasive but naïve assumption that aid means you give things away.  If you give things away with this mythical idea that it should have no cost, it will end up demonstrating that it will have no value.” From the documentary, Slingshot.

Sometimes, things need to take a piece of us before we realize the value added.  If we received the physical wellbeing, added confidence, and all the spill offs of the approach to mastery without giving anything of ourselves, we likely would not see the value in what we obtained.  What this means is, yes, there is a price to success in whatever you do, but it is in that sacrifice that the true value of the achievement is realized. That is common human nature.

We are crazy creatures.  Our brain seems to want to attach a sacrifice to every experience in order to give the experience value.  Take for example spending time with your kids.  Does the experience seem a little sweeter when you have put off work in order to spend that time.  Knowing you gave something up, has somehow made the time more valuable.

Take a lottery winner as another example.  Within a year, most winners would not rate there life enjoyment greater than prior to the winnings.  I think this is demonstrated because monetary freedom removes much need for sacrifice.  Remove the catalyst (sacrifice) and they lose value to life experience.

I am not sure if it healthy to be that way.  I really believe if we become more aware of the miracles that happen each day in our life, and the mind boggling probabilities that have come together for these miracles to happen, we would require less sacrifice to see the true value of our lives. Perhaps we might even recognize the sacrifice to be a miracle in itself, and to add value to the experience from a different perspective. 

For example we may gain an appreciation for the time spent away from the Kwoon for work as valuable, rather than toilsome.  From this perspective, stripping away our conventional view of value, we multiply our recognition of miracles in our life tenfold.

How we value the things most important in our life, has great implication on the value of our life. 

November 29, 2015

In light of the most recent festival of trees and the looming Christmas season, I thought it most appropriate today to discuss the Christmas tree.  As a forester I find it discouraging that arguments against this tradition are most often fed with a great deal of misinformation.

It goes without saying that cutting a tree results in negative consequence to our earth, but let me put forward an argument that just may lead you to dawn the axe this Christmas season.

Most people are not aware that the majority of Christmas trees are harvested from Christmas tree farms.  They are grown for one purpose, and one purpose only.  Young trees are NOT harvested from forested land base similar to that of the current timber industry.  In the absence of a Christmas tree demand, this land in the majority of circumstances would be utilized for other commercial crops.

For seven plus years then, we have a crop of juvenile trees that are cleaning the air, stabilizing soil, and sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.  A crop that in the absence of the Christmas tree tradition, would never have existed. Trees are recycled in organic fashion through chipping and mulching and utilized for mulch and pathways.

When our family brings a real tree into our home, it becomes the center of attention.  It brings a peace and relaxation during a season that has all but forgot that. It reminds us of the importance of our forests, the bond we share with nature and our responsibility to protect it.  

November 22, 2015

I am sitting in a subway when over the intercom I hear “Sheep train approaching, on route to Monkey station”.  I look down the barren tube where the tracks gently fade away into the darkness, and hear the howling whisper of the approaching LRT. In no time the train breaks from the tube of darkness and whistles on by where I am standing next to the tracks. I take a studder step back as I didn’t quite visualize the velocity of this Sheep train, my hair blowing in all directions mere feet from the behemoth. She is cruising, with more velocity than I could have ever imagined.  This train however, isn’t stopping.  It keeps on flying by and every second more of its length disappears beyond view.  My option is clear, if I am ever going to get to the next station, I need to move fast and make the leap.

So here I am, same as most years.  The winter has punched my work in the guts with a cold icy fist.  Work is down for the count for another year.  And here I look at a speeding train trying to figure out how on earth I am going to board this baby and fulfill my goals of the I Ho Chuan.  There is no doubt the intimidation of re-engaging with a team firing on all cylinders is very intense. I have to push out the thought that perhaps a team so well engaged just might not need me at all. 

But it is no different than any other year.  I rely on the training I have done in exile, take the time I have left and put my everything into it from this point forward.  As always I ask the team in advance to please be patient with me while I get caught up with everything.  This week I have some wrap up commitments for work, unfortunately cannot make the demo for Saturday but will be back at it full force start of December. I look forward to boarding the speeding train with you all and flying on through to the next Kung Fu station.