Not all of my posts need to be ridiculously long. No, they don’t. NO, THEY DON’T!!! No, YOU shut up! I may be a bit tired… Which is premised by the fact my post is going up at 6:30 pm instead of 6:30 am. Sometimes, the day gets away on me. We do what we can. Enjoy the short bit of inspiration. ☯️
You know, I wrote a post yesterday about how a person’s energy levels tend to be lower during the colder season due to the change in weather and the fact that the average working person is exposed to less sunlight due to the shorter days. And then this morning I found myself just as blah as I was yesterday. And it makes me wonder, is this life now? Waking up and existing in a perpetual state of fatigue, all the time? Some weeks, it certainly feels like it.
Throughout my life, I’ve heard the expression “word hard, play harder,” which is supposed to represent that although it’s important to put a solid effort into one’s work, it’s just as important to put the same effort or more into one’s leisure time. That’s IF you have leisure time. So, what if you don’t? The old adage about working to live and not living to work doesn’t always seem to apply, nowadays.
Typically, I tend to feel as though the weeks are flying by. When Monday morning hits, I wake to an alarm, make lunches, get dressed and ready and blast out the door. I usually like to think that I always hit the ground running, occasional blood sugar issues or mid-week slumps notwithstanding. And although some days seem to feel a bit on the long side, by the time I get home there’s supper followed by household chores and then it’s either a workout (if the energy and motivation is there) coupled with bathing the kids and getting everyone to bed. If we’re lucky, there’s an hour, sometimes two, where we can sit back and watch something on television or read a book. All of this happens prior to the blessed release of one’s head hitting the pillow for what’s ultimately never 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Wash, rinse and repeat until Friday…
Weekends are usually better by virtue of having 8 to 10 hours of one’s day freed up that isn’t spent at work. But having both boys at home at the same time rather nixes that freedom and whatever chores weren’t completed throughout the week need to be taken care of. Nathan is usually pretty good at accompanying me outside if I need to mow the lawn, bring recycling to the depot for deposit or have errands to run. But any “down time” usually involves bringing the boys to a park or taking them outside to play so that they burn off some of the excess energy that all adults are so jealous of. I swear, if I could find a way to bottle Nathan’s energy and take it as a supplement, I’d be downing that shit like tic tacs! But I digress…
My point here, besides passive-aggressively complaining about how busy I am, is that no matter how busy you get, significant effort should be put into ensuring you have some down time for yourself. And to be clear, this can include time with your spouse and family as long as you’re able to relax and let your head cool. I’ve previously written about the importance of having time specifically by yourself. And that’s still true, but the idea in today’s post is that even when it seems like there’s no time to relax, you need to find time to relax. Hand in hand with yesterday’s post, it’s an important way to ensure that one’s energy levels stay consistent and you don’t get overwhelmed. Food for thought… ☯️
We’re slowly starting to creep into that time of year when it takes the sun a bit longer to decide to grace us with its presence. Just a short month ago, I would leave to work just prior to 7 a.m. and the sun would already be blinding me on my transit down the road. However, if I take this morning as an example, I stepped outside and walked to the car and I felt the distinctive chill of the season seep through my layers and the sky was still dark. That first little while that this starts happening can be disconcerting and confusing, especially if you leave work late enough that the sun has already started to go down.
Depending on the environment you’re in throughout your day, this change in season can wreak havoc on your system. And no, I’m not just referring to the presence of pumpkin-spiced everything… I promise I’ll stop picking on those who enjoy those treats eventually; I just need to get a few shots in before the caffeine levels in my blood make me more reasonable. MOVING ON! My point is that some folks are fortunate enough to work in an environment where they can actively see the daylight. Some are not so fortunate and may work in a remote environment or an enclosed office where access to daylight isn’t always possible.
It should come as no surprise that the daylight plays an important role in a person’s health. First and most importantly, access to sunlight helps our bodies to naturally produce Vitamin D. Since I intended this post as an opinion piece and not necessarily an educational one where I’d have to cite sources and shit, I’ll keep it light. But the reality is that Vitamin D is necessary for all sorts of things like good bone health, stronger immune system and certainly not least or last, it helps with managing Diabetes. That last one is a touch important to me, as you might imagine.
Sunlight plays an integral role in the body’s function, including proper sleep patterns and managing your circadian rhythm. That’s your “internal clock,” which helps you to manage getting to sleep and waking up. So you end up feeling all sorts of fucked up, when you wake up for the day and it’s still looking pitch dark outside. Most people don’t have a regular work day where they wake up with the sun streaming through their window while soft violin music plays.
For all the reasons I’ve described above and much more, it’s important to take some preventative steps to ensure the colder weather doesn’t get you down into the dumps. Once you’re in the groove, these steps can become overall good daily habits. Here are a couple of things you can do to try and ensure you keep your energy levels on the up-and-up:
1. Starts Your Morning With Exercise.
This is the best one, and something I wish I had more drive to maintain. I will FULLY admit that I’m terrible at doing anything, first thing in the morning, other than reaching for some caffeine. But doing exercise first thing in the morning gets you or blood flowing and oxygenated and will help you to hit the ground running far better than any cup of coffee you may grab. My wife is an absolute champion at this, usually starting her morning with a rigorous exercise routine she follows. During the pandemic winter, I used to walk my spin to the bus stop then walk anywhere from 5 to 10 kilometres. The result was the cold air woke me up and brutalized me before facing my day.
2. Drink Some Water.
I’m a huge fan of caffeine for a variety of reasons. So I can’t honestly say with a straight face that I do this one, but there are studies that show that gulping down a glass of water first thing in the morning will jump start your system and help to wake you up. I have no idea if it works or not, since I guzzle caffeine minutes after waking. And don’t ask me what studies I’m talking about. I don’t have enough caffeine to remember where I read them…
3. Get Outside And Take A Walk.
If you don’t work in an environment where you can see the sun, then go to where you can access it. Get some fresh air, take a walk and get some natural light on your body (and no, I’m not condoning stripping down and sunbathing while at work). Twice a day, I’ll take fifteen minutes to take a short walk outside, get some air and move around a bit. It makes all the difference and helps greatly with productivity. Most jobs entitle you to breaks throughout the day, so you should take advantage of them.
4. Control Your Blood Sugars.
It’s obvious that you should be doing this anyway, but maintaining balanced blood sugars will help keep your overall energy levels up. Nothing saps your energy faster than having an extreme high or low, followed by balancing it out. I don’t know about the rest of you, but that usually leaves me feeling like all I want to do is sleep. Keeping your blood sugar levels balanced is not only a good idea for Diabetics in general, it can go a long way towards keeping you energized and moving throughout the day. Especially when in conjunction with everything else on this list.
There you have it. I’m no genius and none of this is reinventing the wheel, it’s simply common sense. But not everyone thinks about these things so maybe this will spark some ideas for the cold weather ahead. Especially here in Saskatchewan, the morning blahs tend to hit all that much harder once there’s snow on the ground and the weather reaches -50 degrees Celsius. That almost guarantees wanting to stay curled up in bed, despite whatever steps you may take. But life happens and facing the day is a necessity. May as well try to make it a energized and motivated as possible. ☯️
I consider myself to be a pretty straight-forward kind of guy. In general, I know what I like and I know where to get it. When I find something I like, I prefer knowing that I can obtain something I like year ‘round, which is why the concept of things like pumpkin spiced items only showing up when the leaves change colour and Halloween is imminent. But I digress…
The true purpose of today’s rant is to address something mentioned in that last sentence. That is to say, leaves. Autumn has the potential to be the best season. The morning air is crisp and cool, the need for constant air conditioning in the house is lessened/eliminated and I don’t find myself in a constant state of sweating anymore. certainly not least is the fact that kids have gone back to school, which provides an element of silence for a number fo hours in the house (not that I get to enjoy it, since I’m at work all day).
One would even be inclined to say that autumn is better than the winter, since there‘s no snow to contend with. There is, however, another insidious monster to deal with: the falling leaves. It’s odd how some of the things people find the most beautiful require the most work. “Oh, the falling snow is SO beautiful…” Yeah, until you need to spend an hour at 5 in the morning shovelling it out from in front of your car. “Oh, I just LOVE the colour of the falling leaves…” Again, it may look “pretty,” but your back and shoulders sure pay the price of having to clean up that “pretty” stuff…
That’s how I capped off my weekend. The photo above is the pile I accumulated in my front yard after raking it, yesterday. I was supposed to be assisted by an energetic 6-year old, who decided at the last minute to go play with friends instead of helping his old dad. Kids! I started immediately after breakfast and had Nathan flip-flop twice on whether he wanted to be involved or not. In the end, I wound up raking and collecting the entire back yard on my own. I was lucky enough to have one of those metal racks that holds a plastic bag in place, so I was able to pick up and dump leaves into the bag on my own.
I wasn’t so lucky in the front yard, however. Without the protection of the fence and trees, there was JUST enough of a breeze to keep the bag from staying secured to the rack. Every time I collected a handful of leaves, the bag slipped from the rack and I’d have no way to place the leaves in the bag. Fun. Finally, I called it quits and left the pile on the front lawn. I’ll go back to it, once I know I’ll have some help to collect the leaves or there’s no wind and I can effectively use my metal rack.
In my mind, the coming of colder weather means sipping hot coffee while writing/reading. But I guess there’s no real happy medium. Mowing lawns has you sweating in the summer. Shovelling snow has you freezing in the winter and you have leaves to deal with in the fall and yard clean-up in the spring. That’s the beauty of home ownership; it’s never boring! Now, if only my basement renovations could be done… ☯️
I’ve spent the past week writing about a short, four-question interview I’ve been providing to a lot of the key people from my karate background. If you haven’t been reading these posts, they’ve included a surrogate brother, friends and colleagues. The list has by no means been exhaustive, and there are a number of key people who simply haven’t responded, as of yet. Not least of these is Sensei. But as I’ve been transferring these answers from whatever messaging platform I’ve received them to the blog, it’s dawned on me that i should likely take a moment to answer these questions myself. Here we go:
I was also significantly bullied. I was always a bit of the “different” kid in every class I attended. And I’m not talking about the modern, “snowflake” version of bullying where people’s feelings get hurt. I used to be cornered by three of the school’s “popular” hockey players, where they’d take turns punching and kicking me until I either passed out or someone came along to help. I once had an instance where a bunch of guys grabbed me and threw me into the gym showers, fully clothed. I spent the rest of the afternoon going to classes, soaking wet. The icing on the cake was having busted my face and lips on the tile flooring when I landed.
For all those reasons, I chose to step into a karate dojo and begin training in karate. I needed to improve my health, increase my chance of surviving long enough to experience life and I needed a way to properly defend myself as I had learned from a young age that the strong will often prey upon the weak.
2. When did you join karate?
I would have joined karate in 1989, when I was about 10 years old. I was introduced to Sensei through Guillaume, whom you would have read about here.
3. How many years have you been training and are you still doing so?
At this point, this year marks 33 years of studying Uechi Ryu karate. It’s been a bit of a bittersweet journey, since my departure from my home Province means that I haven’t grown and progressed to the point I would have liked. If I’m being honest with myself (and with my readers), there may have been times where I’ve taken a “break” but I’ve truly never stopped.
4. What have you gained/hope to gain from karate?
I think the first and most important thing I gained from karate is perspective. People join the martial arts for different reasons, some good, some bad. Within a matter of months, my insulin resistance improved, my blood sugars started to regulate and I started to get into shape (much to the amazement of my doctors. Once my health started to improve, I began working on being able to defend myself. Since I was somewhat certain that taking my health in hand had accomplished what my doctors seemed unwilling or unable to do, now I had to make certain I could walk confidently without having my peers take advantage of me or harm me.
It all came to a head for me when I had one of my bullies try to come at me with a pocket knife. It sounds like something out of a bad movie but unlike a bad movie, it wasn’t a long, drawn out affair involving dodging and weaving, knives flashing as high-octane music played in the background. It was all of ten seconds; five seconds for him to come at me and sink the blade into my wrist and five seconds of my throwing him and breaking one of his bones. The irony is that once we received medical attention and the smoke had cleared, I was sent home for a week for “starting a fight.” No one stood up to explain I hadn’t started it. Que sera.
I tell this story as something I gained from karate because it provides two very important details to my story. The first is that I learned quickly that I wasn’t proud of what I had done and was frightened beyond reason. Fighting someone who means to do you harm is a scary thing. But more over, I learned that I wanted nothing to do with harming others. This is where the Buddhist aspect of me kicked in, believe it or not. It was in my teen years that I recognized the existence of suffering and my need to try and eliminate it from my own life, well before I had even started studying Zen.
By the time those different aspects of my youth had been addressed, I found myself in an existential black hole. Now that I had ensured my improved health and self-protection, I needed to discover who I was as a person and what mark I wanted to make on the world. Most of the years that followed involved trying things and trying to discover my inner self. I eventually did, but I also discovered that once I started I couldn’t stop. I’ve been doing karate and martial arts in general, ever since.
By the time I reached adulthood, I had gained/developed discipline, motivation, focus, strength, concentration and the drive and ambition to accomplish anything. More than that, I joined a fellowship that would stay with me for the rest of my life. The people I’ve met, places I’ve been and the dedicated students I’ve trained/trained with are all counted among the most important of things that I’ve gained from the martial arts. Even now, being as far from home as I am, those connections remain intact.
In closing, I’m going to ask a question of myself that I didn’t provide to the others. Maybe I should have. That question simply this: what does the future hold for me? When I look back at everything I’ve been through in my 33 years of karate, I acknowledge that I wouldn’t be alive today, had it not been for my training. That applies both to my personal and professional life. Karate continues to flow through my daily life in almost every aspect. I don’t have a crystal ball and I don’t know what the future may hold.
I’m inclined to believe that my days of training hard for hours on end may be dwindling away. These days, you can find me training as a guest of the Regina Institute of Kempo Karate. The great, white hope is that eventually my sons will snap out of it and choose to step into the martial arts world, as well. My youngest is certainly showing some affinity to it. At the end of my journey, passing on this knowledge to my children will be the final step I take as I lay down my belt for the last time. ☯️
All my life, I’ve heard the expression, “When one door closes, another door opens…” It’s meant to lead one to believe that even when an opportunity passes you by or you don’t succeed at something, there will always be something else on the road ahead. Except there isn’t. It’s important to grab opportunity by the horns when it comes knocking on your particular door. I’ve also heard another expression that says, “When one door closes, re-open that bitch. That’s how doors work.”
You shouldn’t let opportunity pass you by based on current circumstances or current world events. No matter what you may be thinking or going through, your future is worth sacrificing a little. If opportunity presents itself to do something that will benefit you, your family and your future, you should take steps towards trying to make things work, even when it doesn’t align perfectly with everything you may hope to see happen in your life. The problem is that you’ll always encounter situations where there will be opposition.
“You Either Die A Hero, Or You Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become The Villain…”
Harvey Dent (Two-Face), The Dark Knight
Life doesn’t care about your plan. That’s why it’s so important to take advantage of reasonable opportunities that may present themselves unexpectedly. We don’t always expect these changes. In fact, they sometimes present themselves in the most unexpected ways imaginable. If you choose to ignore those opportunities, shame on you. One must keep one’s eyes open for such opportunities. It’s one thing if you make the conscious choice to ignore such opportunities. But when said opportunities can benefit your overall life and family, you PROBABLY shouldn’t ignore it.
This is a pretty short post and I’m being a little more reflective than educational this morning. But such is life. Sometimes, certain things just bring it out of me. Don’t stop because of a closed door. Your pride and “rights” aren’t worth a secure future. Make certain that the choices you make are what required for the overall betterment of your life; not what you believe you should be fighting for in the moment. Wish I could be specific about what I’m getting at. It’s just something some folks need to figure out on their own. Food for thought… ☯️
In today’s volume of my personal chronicles, we look at someone whom I’ve known for over thirty years. Our history goes all the way back to before either of us was born. Our families have known each other for the two generations that preceded us, and she and I grew up living on the same street. As we grew into adolescence, we not only became friends and built the most solid group of friends one could possibly ask for, we were also a couple for many years.
When my martial arts training kicked into high gear, MJ started joining me to classes. She developed great skill and was usually a challenging opponent during sparring. If you remember Volume 2 about JL that was posted just a few days ago, he could tell you without a doubt. She’s the only one I’ve ever seen to drop him to the ground during sparring. I’m not saying it never happened before or since; I’m just saying it was the only time I ever saw it. These days, MJ is extremely busy raising her children. Here’s what she had to say:
I have to say, I definitely like the answer to the first question best. I’ll be the first one to admit that I was a significant handful to deal with during my teen years. But i can certainly be grateful that my youthful stubbornness helped MJ to find some benefit to everything we trained in. Everyone’s reasons for joining karate may be different. And everyone’s outcome may be different. the key point is to make a positive out of it. ☯️
Today’s volume of the Uechi Chronicles is near and dear to me, because it involves someone that’s been an important influence and shoulder to lean on throughout my youth. Guillaume is my Sensei’s son and having basically been raised and grown up around Sensei’s home, Guillaume and I had the opportunity to develop a life-long friendship that’s endured despite years of time and distance. He and I have been friends through all of the important firsts in our lives and I’ve forgotten more stories about us than I can remember.
I first starting spending time with Guillaume when I was around 10-years old. I went over to Sensei’s house and Guillaume thought it would be a good idea to use his home chemistry set to create an explosive. You know how those kids’ sets always say the chemicals are basically harmless? Guillaume proved them wrong! As we grew older, we started to get into all sorts of bad pastimes , such as gun fights with pellet guns, sparring and beating the shit out of each other in public places and being an all-around bad influence on each other.
What’s interesting about Guillaume’s story is that unlike most others, he didn’t join karate by choice. As Sensei’s first-born son, he was basically pushed into it. Although Guillaume is significantly skilled and capable in the martial arts, the forced obligation to be in karate soured him on continuing on into his adult years. As a result, he rarely practices anymore. This is to the detriment of the martial arts world as well as himself and other students who could benefit from his potential teachings.
He now lives in a small city called Bathurst, which is roughly an hour’s drive away from our home town. We still chat on the rare occasion but like most people, life and familial obligations have made it so that we don’t have as much contact as we used to. I last saw in him in late 2019, when I was travelling through New Brunswick on work-related matters. He currently operates as a self-employed acupuncturist and has been building his own house for some time. Despite this busy schedule, he took the time to answer my questions. Here’s what he had to say:
It’s an interesting perspective and as some of you may recall, I’ve written and posted videos on the perils of forcing one’s children into the martial arts. Karate is an important journey; one that needs to be made based on one’s choice. This is why despite my preference, I’ve never forced Nathan into karate. He doesn’t seem particularly interested in anything other than wrestling in general, as a game. There’s hope for Alex, though. So who knows? Guillaume has the honour of having been Sensei’s first graduated black belt. Despite the reasons behind, I believe that leaving karate behind is an impossibility. Aspects of it still permeate his soul. ☯️
To be honest, i never keep much of a close eye on how many followers my blog has accumulated. I have the benefit of writing for very different reasons than gathering a follower-ship, so the numbers tend to creep up for a significant amount of time without my realizing it. That’s why I was a little surprised to check my stats through the WordPress app (highly recommended if you’re a WordPress user, FYI) and noticed that I was sitting at 400 followers!
And yes, you’ve read that right. Since starting this blog, I’ve written 953 posts, with a continuous streak of 560 days. This means I’ve posted for 560 days in a row without missing a day. And that’s the current count, so that number will continue to grow unless I get lazy and skip a day. But I don’t see that happening. But anyway, it’s a short and sweet post today but I wanted to share the accomplishment. Y’all keep reading ’em. I’ll keep writing ’em. ☯️
Here we go with another instalment of The Uechi Chronicles, where I provide interview answers I’ve gathered from some of my longer-standing karate colleagues. I’ve actually started accumulating a number of responses, so there’ll be a few of these coming out. It’s interesting to see the different perspectives, opinions and reasons behind why all these people chose to join the martial arts and in some cases, were forced into the martial arts.
In this post, I’ll be providing JL’s answers. JL is a friend of mine from back in New Brunswick, who ironically lives and works here in Regina. A few years younger than I, I first met JL while visiting his Sensei’s dojo. His Sensei happened to be a student of my Sensei, and she had opened a dojo of her own. Since we had recently dropped from three classes a week to two, I decided to supplement my training by working out in JL’s dojo on Fridays. Since the class was entirely comprised of new students, everyone was a white belt, save for the Sensei and myself.
This being the case, when the class formed up I took the front spot to the right, which is where the most-senior belt is to stand. Turns out that this was the spot JL was accustomed to standing, despite being ranked the same as everyone else. When he walked up to the front, he confronted me and asked, “What the hell are you doing, that’s my spot!” I remember thinking I couldn’t decide whether I should laugh or punch him, but the Sensei recognized the situation and eased it for all parties concerned.
Despite that rocky start, JL would go on to be one of my oldest friends. We would train in karate together, go on to pursue the same career and despite the massive size of our country, somehow managed to inadvertently end up in the same area. Life has progressed in such a way that we don’t get to see much of each other anymore, despite living so close to each other. But we still get the opportunity to grab the occasional coffee and catch up. And that’s more than a lot of people have. Despite his busy schedule, he managed to eke out some answer for me. Here they are:
His answers were short, succinct and less detailed than Ricky’s. But this is a good opportunity to point out that it’s never too late. I’ve had students start karate from day 1 in their 50’s and have gone on to build skill and precision and become avid martial artists. I, myself, worked through two years of college WHILE training regularly in karate. As the old saying goes, where there’s a will, there’s a way. I anticipate that once the renovations are done in my basement, I’ll be setting up a home dojo. JL, if you’re reading this, here’s and open invitation to come train for free. Hell, since I have a punching bag and a garage, that invitation is effective immediately! ☯️
The Blogging Buddhist 