Lessons from retreat
This last weekend the staff and a good number of Kung Fu students went on our annual retreat at Mt Baldy Zen Center. It was a beautiful, sunny weekend; the weather always seems to cooperate with us, so continued thanks to whoever is in charge of that. We arrived Friday afternoon, set everything up, ate an early dinner and did our first drill. First Lessons We started with a flow drill where
The Best Worst Thing
Last Tuesday I got all four wisdom teeth out. So forgive me if I seem a bit dumber. I was a little scared going into the surgery because it was my first time going under general anesthesia. I was also told about 10 years ago by a surgeon that a nerve was a bit close to one of the teeth and there was a chance it would get severed, leaving me
Life and Death
Practicing Loss The last time I wrote about death was when my mom passed from pancreatic cancer about five years ago. I talked about it being the first time I felt like I really had to deal with hardship and true loss. We practice loss when we meditate, letting go of what we are attached to in the moment, but it’s of course more difficult when we lose a person we
Taking Responsibility Without Blame
In martial arts, we learn how to be a great partner. This means instead of just trying to beat each other, we help by challenging one another and keeping each other safe. In BJJ, when someone taps us, we learn from it. In Tai Chi push hands, when we get pushed, we accept the energy and play with it rather than just resisting. This is something the world—and our country—sorely needs
