Author: Shawn

I am a practitioner of the martial arts and student of the Buddhist faith. I have been a Type 1 Diabetic since I was 4 years old and have been fighting the uphill battle it includes ever since. I enjoy fitness and health and looking for new ways to improve both, as well as examining the many questions of life. Although I have no formal medical training, I have amassed a wealth of knowledge regarding health, Diabetes, martial arts as well as Buddhism and philosophy. My goal is to share this information with the world, and perhaps provide some sarcastic humour along the way. Welcome!

Wisdom From The Most Unlikely Places…

There’s a lot going on in the world, these days… It sucks, because most of us would agree that we would prefer not to have these events happen in our lifetime. It reminds me of my grandfather… He fought on active front lines in Europe during World War II. Unlike many others, he wasn’t drafted, he enlisted. He left his family and his home to go fight oppression, thousands of kilometres from our Canadian shores. He was never nationally recognized, never provided with the honours he deserved but ever loved by his family.

In some ways, a lot of ways, I’m fortunate. Even with everything happening in the world, I won’t get drafted, I’ll never see war and I’ll never experience what my grandfather did. I have him to THANK for that. No one should have to live through any of that. We’ve suffered through a rough couple of years, with COVID-19 bringing the world to a halt, followed by creating a level of chaos my country has rarely seen on its own soil. Now, war rages in Europe and Asia. yes, Russia has a higher percentage of its land in Asia, though we don’t think of Russians as Asians. But I digress…

Before I delve too deeply into current world politics, my point is the image above. I’m one of the few, rare people who have actually read JRR Tolkien’s novels and have experienced the full story. The movies were fantastic but despite their length, they left out a lot of details from the book. One of my favourite is illustrated in the image above. And they do have a scene in Fellowship of the Ring that covers it. Frodo and Gandalf are resting on a landing inside Moria, when Frodo begins speaking about how he wishes the ring had never come to him and how he wishes none of it would have taken place in his lifetime. I can relate.

The scene is made memorable by Gandalf, iconically played by Sir Ian McKellen, explaining that it isn’t up to us to wish that things wouldn’t happen within our lifetime but to make the most of the time we have, regardless of what’s happening within the world. Wise words and from the least likely of sources. As I’ve often said, we most often find our destiny on the road we least thought to travel. Although it’s a weird place to find such wisdom, a fantasy book has provided it. Make the most of the time you have. Food for thought… ☯️

Don’t get Cross, You’ll End Up In Stitches…

Everyone has a specialty… a niche, if you will… Each of us has something that we’re good at, that others may not be quite as good at. or in my case, at ALL! I’ve been watching my wife doing cross-stitch recently and I was distinctly reminded that I don’t have the skill, patience or ability to do what she does. I mean, she takes a piece of cloth and uses needle and fine thread to turn it into a piece of art. I’d have set that thing on fire, fifty ways from Sunday by now! But I digress…

I took the liberty of looking up the history behind cross-stitching, and I came to realize that it’s been a practice for most ancient civilizations, dating back as far as 500 BC. Basically, for as long as there’s been cloth to work with, cross-stitching has been a thing. In ancient China, a woman’s worth was measured by her ability to stitch, especially since she had to stitch clothing and materials for the entire family. In medieval Europe, tapestries and embroideries were all the rage and involved the same stitching skills as modern cross-stitch.

My wife’s current project! Look at all that detail!

Cross-stitching as we know it today was introduced in the late 1890’s and is far more popular than many other mainstream hobbies. In fact, when I grew up, I remember my parents had a framed cross-stitched image of giant mushrooms, which was made using thick yarn. This is a different technique, despite the most popular method being the use of linen and fine threads. It takes an amazing amount of time, patience and precision and fucking up just one stitch can mess up the entire project. Like I said earlier… I’d have destroyed the whole thing with fire long before this point.

Art is still very much alive in the world, even though the average person doesn’t recognize it on a daily basis. I’ve been gifted with an affinity for the martial arts but I know some people that would injure themselves far worse than their opponent if they tried to train. I’m in this very boat with cross-stitching. I’ve never even been able to stitch my own crests or patches on my gis or sweaters. My hat’s off to my wife. If she ever believes that she has no patience, I just have to show her the photo above to prove that she does. ☯️

Rain, Rain, Come And Play…

People have this unfortunate tendency to dislike rain. And I get it. It makes the day greyer, brings one’s mood down and prevents doing anything outdoors. But a solid rain also does a number of positive things. For one thing, rain is an important part of plant growth without which, none of us would be here. Outside of that, there’s something therapeutic about hearing a steady drum of falling rain on the roof of the house or against the windows. If one has the time to sit and listen, rainfall can have a similar effect to white noise and can calm and soothe a person after a long day.

A saturated neighbourhood…

The past week has involved a certain level of heat that I usually have difficulty dealing with. I’m the kind of guy who prefers to sweat over freezing or shovelling snow but it’s like I always used to tell some of my co-workers, it’s easier to add on a sweater than do the opposite. You can only remove so many pieces of clothing before it becomes an HR issue. That’s why I’ve always been a bit more comfortable in cooler climates than during extreme heat. And this past week has seen the hottest weather of the summer. It’s made it hard to be outside for anything without having a hard time breathing and turning into a see-through, sweaty mess.

It’s also seen me sleeping in my basement, since our air conditioner can only do so much. But the rain kicked in a bit during the weekend and during the beginning of the week and it’s gone a long way towards cooling things down. It also helps in keeping my shitty lawn watered so I don’t have to do it. Granted, my lawn is only shitty because I have absolutely no ability to grow things and keep them alive, whatsoever. That sounds pretty bad, considering I have two small children. But I digress…

Hopefully the rain helps with that horrible bald patch I haven’t seeded yet

Falling rain is also an excellent aid when taking a nap. Since I’ll be travelling to Saskatoon for my eye injections today, I likely won’t get to indulge in that. Light knows I didn’t get the chance on the day I took these photos. But if one hears the falling rain while lying down and allowing oneself to relax and fall asleep, it can be incredibly centering and therapeutic. One could almost consider that a form of meditation.

Most people tend to dislike and avoid the rain. Having grown up in the Maritimes, right next to the open bay, have allowed me to sit through some AWESOME rain storms coming in from the ocean. That’s probably why I have a bit of a soft spot for the rain. It elicits good memories and calms me. And we all need a little more of that in our lives. And since it cooled the temperature, I was actually able to sleep in my own bed. That sounds like a win/win… ☯️

Sunday, Lazy Sunday…

Keeping yourself moving is an important aspect of life. Not only is it important for one’s health and fitness goals, it’s also important for one’s mental wellbeing as well as Diabetes control. But as much as health & fitness is important, there’s such a thing as too much of a good thing. This is why we have break days when exercising, why we don’t have karate classes seven days a week and why one needs to allow one’s muscles to recover. The funny thing is, even when our fitness goals are on track, taking a break day tends to make us feel lazy.

Last weekend, our home experienced a ridiculous level of summer heat. I won’t complain about that, since I tend to bitch about the cold during the winter… That’s pretty much the definition of humanity, right there. The grass always seems greener during the other season. But the temperatures have made it somewhat difficult to take a full breath while standing outside. We made our way to an outdoor splash pad with the boys on Friday evening, which was wonderful despite the heat. But Saturday saw us running errands in air conditioned environments and retail locations.

Weekends tend to fly by for us, with the majority of our time spent trying to do something fun with our sons coupled with trying to meal plan, exercise and get some much-anticipated television binging in. It tends to make the two days I have off go past as though I were standing still. But once in a while, you need to control the flow of time and simply sit still, which is what we did last Sunday. Sunday morning saw us sleeping in until just shy after 9 am, which is pretty late in my household. My morning started like almost every other, with a cold, 473mL can of caffeine. We started by watching an episode of “The Flash” on Netflix and we had plans to go out and do our weekly groceries.

I threw together a pan of breakfast hash browns mixed with peppers and bacon crumble, seasoned with dill powder and seasoning salts. I make that sound WAY fancier than it actually was. But it’s delicious and has become a staple of our weekends. Once we finished eating and were watching television, my wife and I both agreed that neither one of us wanted to leave the house or run any errands. Given that the temperatures reached the 30’s (Celsius) before the noon hour, it was no surprise that both of us wanted to stay in the relative cool shade of our house. We watched our show for the next few hours until the toddler started showing signs that it was nape time.

We put Alexander down for a nap and provided Nathan with something to keep him busy for a couple of hours and we retired for what I can only describe as an afternoon siesta. And it. Was. Glorious. I write about the importance and benefits of napping on frequent occasions but I would be lying if I said that I get to do it, every weekend. But we indulged in about two hours of napping and I awoke at about 4:20 (insert weed jokes, here). We enjoyed a cold supper of ready-made chicken, cheese and dip. It was a wonderful day of doing next to nothing.

We all need a day like that, once in a while. I can admit that I stepped out briefly to grab milk, bread and some necessities for the week but I did nothing besides that. I originally had plans to knock out 40 or 50 kilometres on the bike but I’m not into peddling in high summer temperatures. The end result is that we got a day’s rest and got to be lazy, which is perfectly okay. Everyone needs to do that, sometimes. It was wonderful and I think I needed that. Between the heat and the fact that I once again go for eye injections tomorrow, it was a nice change of pace. Once in a while, you just gotta have a lazy day… ☯️

All Kneel Before The Mighty Caffeine…

Considering I haven’t properly gotten a decent dose of caffeine into my system yet, I may seem a little testy while writing this post. Sometimes I wonder how different life would be, had I not tried caffeine for the first time, way back when. I guess it wouldn’t have made much of a difference since I likely would have gotten around to it eventually. Caffeine is one of those staples of normal, adult life. But as with all things in life, there is some good and bad to caffeine. And we’re going to discuss some of it, here.

How does caffeine work and why do we use it to wake up in the mornings? In simple terms, caffeine works by stimulating certain parts of the brain that tell you you’re tired, as well as stimulating the central nervous system and blood pressure. people who consume heavy amounts of caffeine may need greater and greater amounts of caffeine to experience the same effects, It doesn’t ACTUALLY wake you up or make you less tired; it simply blocks the neuro-receptors telling you that you are.

Considering some of the effects of caffeine, namely the effects on the heart and blood pressure, it’s important to remember that these things can have an effect on blood sugars and Diabetes control, as well. And considering that caffeine can dehydrate you and acts as a diuretic, all of these factors need to be considered if you’re trying to maintain good Diabetic control.

So, how much caffeine is too much caffeine? This is an important question, despite the fact that many people tend to ignore it. If you visit Health Canada’s website (sorry, I don’t have the link for it), they recommend that a healthy person should limit their caffeine intake to no more than 400 mg of caffeine per day. The key aspect here is “healthy adult.” It could be less than that number for people who already have heart issues, blood pressure issues or may be pregnant.

All of this is also extremely suggestive, since different people will have different sensitivities to caffeine and how quickly they might metabolize it. And let’s consider that 400 milligrams of caffeine is what’s found in about three 8-ounce cups of regular coffee. I know some people who get through an entire pot of coffee every morning. When you get into the realm of energy drinks, such as I do, one usual, 473 mL can of energy drink will have about 160 mg of caffeine. This means that having two cans in one day has you touching the ceiling of your daily limit.

However, when one factors in the Taurine, Ginseng and Guarana included in the drink, which all act as stimulants, it makes an energy drink significantly stronger than your average cup of coffee. And since it’s summer time, one must also remember that an energy drink won’t slake your thirst if out in the sun. In fact, it may very well dehydrate you further.

At the end of the day, caffeine consumption is not a bad thing as long as one is able to enjoy it in moderation and bear some of these concerns in mind. Energy drinks aren’t any worse than drinking coffee. Just keep an eye on your caffeine levels and overall consumption. And for the love of the light, if you don’t drink energy drinks but you see someone who is, there’s no need to comment on it! Keep that shit to yourself! I think I need that coffee, now. Excuse me…☯️

Let’s Get Nuts…

Ahh, nuts… Is there ever to be a more perfect snack? Before everyone floods my comments section, let me be clear that I’m only half serious. Nuts are a great snack, an easy way to take the tinge off one’s hunger and can help on certain levels of health. Unfortunately, if you buy them in bulk they can be a pain in the ass due to the required shelling. If you buy them already shelled, they cost half a fortune.

As with all things in life, there’s good and bad to everything but nuts are pretty good, overall. I’ve recently taken a habit of keeping a few bags of varied nuts at the office and at home. They’re incredibly handy when hunger strikes and mealtime is a fair ways away, or you brought very little and feel you may need to supplement. Let’s examine a few reasons why you should include nuts in your diet, shall we?

The nuts at my office (the non-living ones)

According to an article posted by HealthLine.com (I know, I haven’t quoted them in forever), there are a number of benefits to consuming nuts including but not limited to the inclusion of plenty of nutrients, fibre and antioxidants. The article suggest that the consumption of nuts can also help lower cholesterol and could potentially aid with weight loss.

This doesn’t mean you can sit and binge on an entire bag of salted peanuts at your leisure and expect to lose weight. One needs to bear in mind the increase in sodium intake. If possible, get your nuts salt-free. As with all things in life, a little bit doesn’t hurt. You just can’t overdo it and that previously-mentioned weight loss will only happen if one includes healthy lifestyle choices, such as proper diet and exercise. But I digress.

The big thing for me is the inclusion of fibre. Fibre is an important staple of a healthy diet because you need it for proper gut health, muscle repair and helps you to feel fuller for longer, reducing the portion of your meal and helping with weight loss. While the average adult should be consuming the higher end of 30 grams of fibre or more per day, a small serving of peanuts will give you a few grams of that total and help you along. Not bad, indeed.

The nice thing with nuts is there are tons of varieties and they can be used in many different ways. They can be used as butters (duh, peanut butter), tossed on top of your favourite salad or in your smoothie for a little added crunch or simply eaten by the handful. Just remember what I said… Although they’re better for you than eating a bag of chips or candy, moderation is still key. And if you enjoy some of the flavoured varieties, keep an eye on that sodium count. Now, let’s get nuts! ☯️

Better Days Are Not So Far Away…

Despite our efforts to avoid them, we all have bad days. Typically and for the most part, we suffer through them, deal with them and let them pass after a good night’s sleep. Remember I said that; it will apply later on in the post. But most people will actively do whatever they can to avoid bad days, despite the fact that they’re essentially unavoidable and a part of life.

Last week, I experience one of the worst “bad days” that I can recall in quite some time. What exactly happened to make it a bad day is not important (and I don’t need to come off like a snowflake for my woes) so much as how I dealt with it. Given everything I’ve been through in my life, I’ve prided myself on being able to maintain healthy tools to manage my emotions, more specifically anger. Please note that I said “manage” my anger and not control or suppress it.

Suppressing or bottling up one’s anger is a little like shaking a bottle of carbonated soda (something Nathan loves to do). Although the bottle will hold the soda, pressure will continue to build and gather until eventually the cap will pop and that pressure will explode outward, saturating everyone and everything near it. Anger is very much the same; if you don’t have a healthy outlet for it, it will eventually build up enough pressure to eventually burst and affect one’s entire environment.

Unless someone is close enough to me to have been told this fact, people believe I maintain my calm because I study the Buddha Dharma when in reality, I study to Buddha Dharma to help calm me. The difference is important because like any other living person, I feel and experience the entire spectrum of emotions and they affect me very much in the same way as anyone else. But it’s how I choose to deal with these negative emotions that’s important.

Just to be clear, anger, sadness and any other emotion labeled as “negative” still has a purpose, even if we dislike them and don’t assume so. Much like feeling fear let’s us known that we are potentially in danger, anger and disappointment tell us something about ourselves and the situation we’re facing that we may not have been aware of, otherwise. It doesn’t mean it isn’t normal to dislike being on those situations or that something shouldn’t be done about them. Cue the advice…

Meditation can be a fantastic way to help alleviate the effects of negative emotions. By entering oneself and allowing oneself to calm, breathe and focus on the lighter things, anger will often seem to lose its strength. This may not always be the case and may not work for everybody. But it’s definitely a good starting point. Finding the time and space to do this can be challenging, but never impossible.

Physical fitness is also an important aspect. Pushing yourself through a rigorous workout that can include martial arts or just hitting a good ol’ fashion punching bag can go a long way towards cooling the intense heat that your anger may have created within your soul. Even something that isn’t intense, like taking a walk, getting some fresh air and being alone with your own thoughts can be quite effective.

Sometimes there just isn’t anything that can be done and you have to just ride it out. This can be tough, especially if you’re already angry and you have to be in the same environment as loved ones and that anger become clear and obvious to them. An important step is not to bottle it up and isolate yourself. Letting those loved ones know WHY you’re angry is not only important towards making sure they know it isn’t directed at them but also pursues potential means of help as they could say or do something to provide relief from that anger.

Ultimately, sometimes all one can do is call it a day, hit the sack and get a solid night’s sleep in order to recharge one’s batteries and let one’s soul reset. This is what I did. Once I recognize I simply had no life left in me to deal with the day, I kissed my wife goodnight and let my head hit the pillow. In keeping with the mood I was in, a strong thunderstorm raged through most of the night. The next day was a new day with new challenges so I was grateful for having gotten the extra rest. Anger is a normal part of life. The idea isn’t to avoid it and the important thing is how you DEAL with it; and deal with it, you must. ☯️

What Binds Us…

Opening yourself up to others can be one of the most difficult things one can do. Especially in modern times, when people tend to try and get to know each other through virtual means before even meeting in person. When I was growing up, making a connection with someone meant actually meeting them face-to-face, introducing yourself and talking to them. Friends, associates and intimate relationships were forged this way.

These days, people meet dates online, join chat rooms and see each other for the first time through the digital frontier. Where spotting someone from across the room in a coffee shop and smiling at them would have been a first steps twenty years ago is basically considered creepy today, despite the fact that you genuinely never know who you’re meeting online until you see them in person, often with disappointment. In fact, there are entire shows about that very thing that you can watch.

Why am I bringing this up? Well, because as living creatures, there’s an energy that binds us all. That energy is called “connection,” and it’s something one can only truly accomplish by being physically present in the moment with another person. As one could no doubt agree, the problem with the online world is that you can be “connected” with thousands of people but still feel completely isolated and alone.

“Connection is the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.”

– Brene Brown

Being connection with someone else is more than physically being somewhere with them. There also has to be a trust, a comfort level, an ability to know that no matter what you say or do, that person won’t walk away from you or judge you. This isn’t an easy thing, especially in light of the modern world’s propensity to be overly sensitive and offended by everything. But a good baseline to know if you’ve made a solid connection with someone is to ask yourself if you would be comfortable doing something in front of them that you would usually only do alone. If the answer is yes, you can have confidence that some trust has been developed; at least to a certain degree.

Connections are important. Humans were never meant to be solitary, isolationist creatures. Even those who often claim they prefer to be alone still need others to one extent or another. And while that need is very real, making connections and building trust are integral parts of ensuring one’s wellbeing and health. Food for thought…☯️

“Roger” That…

Hey, I totally get it… It’s 2022 and everyone is tethered to their electronic conveniences on some way, shape or form… I’m no exception; I have my smart phone on me almost at all times and certainly never leave home without it. And there’s no denying that the advancement of technology has made Diabetes control far superior to what it was in 1982 when I was first diagnosed. But, do we take it too far? Are we too dependent? It all depends on who you ask…

As a father, I think the use of electronics has run rampant in society and it’s infiltrated my household. Getting my 7-year old through a full day without touching his device or his Nintendo Switch is a miracle akin to parting the Red Sea. Some of that is my bad, having introduced him to the colourful, moving pictures of an iPad when he was just an infant. And why not? It’s the way of the world, right? Unlike how it was when I was a kid, playing outside and occupying my mind solely on the strength of one’s imagination… Maybe I would have had more friends if I had been limited to social media as a kid. But I digress…

Having one’s nose buried in electronics has SO become the way of the world, it’s almost no longer considered a social taboo to have your smart device in front of your face when at a table with others. I’m reminded of a conference I recently attended, where the people at the table (there were about 8 of us) introduced ourselves and chatted for all of about a full minute. As I was looking around the room, I didn’t realize it right away but everyone at my table had retreated to their respective screens. It almost made me feel bad for leaving my phone in my pocket. Almost.

Canada recently suffered a telecommunications services disruption that rocked everyone’s respective world. If it weren’t for the inconvenience of no debit card use, I would have been mildly entertained by the state of people’s panic. I also would have been oblivious. It last a day, two at most, with all debit systems in the country inoperable for the time in question. Some areas were affected differently. For example, my mother claims that New Brunswick had no actual internet coverage during this time, which I think is hilarious since she doesn’t use the internet or even own a computer.

The effects were illuminating, from a societal standpoint. It was amazing to see how people were panicking and unable to function without the almighty invisible signal that governs their lives. I totally see the irony in the fact that I’m making light of this while drafting this post on a wireless device and if I were more committed to my imposed childhood school of faith, I might make comment about how people are hellbent on craving the comfort of an invisible force they can’t see, touch or feel but can’t live without. I think there was a book written about that once… Oh, the irony!

Don’t get me wrong; if I suddenly had absolutely no internet available to me, indefinitely, I’d likely piss and moan on a cosmic scale. What I get a kick out of is how society has become so utterly dependent on the need for our technology that we’re slowly forgetting what remains of our humanity. can’t watch your streaming service? Read a book, take a walk, sit outside in the sun. Play with your kids (considering they’re suffering the loss as well). I love me my games and daily challenges but there’s more to life than the digital frontier. Maybe it’s time some of us started remembering that. Food for thought… ☯️

Tighten That Belt…

I was busy re-arranging my home office last weekend and happened to clear everything from on top of my barrack boxes. For those who may not know, barrack boxes are large, foot-locker style boxes used to store clothing and personal effects while going through basic training. In this context, I had the boxes issues to me while I was a cadet for six months at the RCMP Academy. I kept the boxes and they’ve served me well over the past decade and a half for storing certain belongings that either I don’t want damaged or can’t have out in the open.

Once I had cleared off the stuff I had sitting on top of the boxes. I decided to explore them and take a little walk down memory lane. I found photographs, weapons of varying sizes and types and most of all… I found my karate belts. All of them! Nathan walked over while I had them spread out and I could see he was confused by the display before. “Dad, why do you have so many karate belts?” Why indeed, son… Why indeed…?

All the belts to have adorned my waist since 1989

I could get into the whole history of belt ranks and how they came to be, but I want this to be a light-hearted, nostalgic post. I’ll keep it simple by saying that the coloured belt system was introduced in Japan by Master Jigoro Kano, founder of Judo. He noted that some systems used ranking systems and adopted the belt ranking system as his own, which has become the standard in Japanese martial arts and all over the world.

If we look at the photo above, it’s a bit deceiving in that I did not wear all of these belts consistently through the years. In fact, the third belt from the left is my original white belt (if you couldn’t guess from the yellowing). The very first white belt is one I got with a replacement gi. The second one is a belt I borrowed from Sensei when I was at the rank it shows and had forgotten my belt at home. He didn’t want it back so I held onto it.

Unlike other systems with multiple belt colours, you may notice that there are only four belt colours present. The average student begins with a white belt, of course. Over the first couple of years, they acquire a green stripe for reaching certain milestones. When they’ve reached a key point and are ready to test for green belt, they get a solid green bar as seen on the third belt. once they graduate to the rank of green belt, they‘ll train at this level for a couple of years, depending on the student. When they reach a certain skill level and are ready to test for brown belt, they get a solid brown bar as seen on the green belt above.

From there, a number of years will elapse with the students training consistently. Black stripes will be awarded based on skill, much as it was during the white belt rankings. After the third black stripe, the student will express their desire to test for black belt; there is no black bar. And of course, once the student passes black belt, rankings are no longer shown (depending on the style, some will show gold bars for individual dan rankings).

I get a kick out of how my brown belt has soaked up so much blood, sweat and tears that it’s faded to a colour almost matching the green belt. That’s both entertaining and gross. But there’s Uechi’s belt system in a nutshell. I’ve kept all of my belts because they show me the journey I’ve been on and where my martial arts road is leading. And they make neat souvenirs and conversation started with my son. ☯️