Last Saturday was Pandamonium. I love this event. I love everything it stands for. I love watching my kung fu family come together to make a difference in our world. I love the impact it has on the people who choose to participate. I love that the results touch lives all around the world. That's a lot of love for one event....
This was the first year that I had the opportunity to be more involved in this event. I must apologize to my team mates. I was not as involved in the planning and execution of the event as I would have liked to have been. I am the kind of person who likes to jump in and help out and if I say I'm going to do something, I do my best to do just that. The past couple weeks I have been feeling very under the weather between some sort of viral bug and allergies. I had committed to helping with the game and at one point I was even unsure if that would be possible. Last Wednesday, I had almost completely lost my voice. Not really the best situation when you are trying to herd kids through the chaos that is the game... There were many calls out for help on the group and I did not respond. I am sorry for that. I did not want to commit and then let people down. I did show up whenever I felt able to help out. As it turned out, Saturday I was actually feeling pretty good. The game was a blast. I think the kids all had a ton of fun. I was even able to spend some time on the mats in the afternoon. The people who made the most of this opportunity really inspired me and I am looking forward to next year.
For me, one of the highlights to Pandamonium this year was that my parents attended the event for the first time. They have struggled to support our families engagement with kung fu. They have especially struggled this past year with my additional involvement and then my injury. They cannot understand why we would be involved in such an aggressive sport where you teach hitting. I have tried to explain the other side of kung fu, the side that is emphasized at our school. I have tried to explain the empathy, community involvement, the pursuit of mastery, the larger picture that kung fu can be. For people who do not step into the kwoon and experience this, it is hard for them to understand how teaching the physical can be intertwined with the other lessons. They have also struggled with supporting the Pandamonium financially. I'm not sure they thought that the charities were actually benefitting. They felt that it was a ploy to get someone else their tax receipt. There has been a lot of negativity over the years. This past weekend was a significant breakthrough. My biological family had the opportunity to see my kung fu family at their finest. They were able to see the charities and see how grateful they are for the real support that they receive. They were able to see the love that the people in our small community have for one another. My sweet 3 year old nephew played the game with my son and had a blast. The game in all it's chaos shows some of the best of what kung fu has to teach our children. They had the opportunity to see everyone working together and that no one was hitting each other (except with a lot of ice cold water). It was an amazing glimpse for them to see what we all get to experience each day. My hope was that they would walk away from that day feeling differently about kung fu and our families involvement. I believe that did happen. Thank you all for just being your amazing selves!
Here are my YTD totals as of the end of week 14:
Push ups 11,869
Sit ups 12,295
Kempo 98
Staff 181
Sparring 125
KM 243.1
AoK 274
Personal Goals:
Gratitude Journal 290
Piano 26.6 hours
Books finished 7
Daily fruit - 93 days
365 photo challenge - 77 days
Daily journal - 94 days
As I mentioned above, I have really been struggling physically the past couple of weeks. I have still attended classes but have been unable to be at my best. That was most evident last Friday at demo practice. On Wednesday, I chose to miss to class in order to go see the doctor. I had been having chest pain for the week before and felt that it was best to have it checked out by the doctor. He believes that it is a combination of a pulled muscle in my chest combined with a viral infection where I keep coughing and aggravating it further. In light of this, I am pulling back on my push ups for this week in the hopes to let it rest so that I can continue on in this journey without the pain that I have been experiencing. Also, this week I have to opportunity to see the sports medicine doctor at the Glen Sather about my knee. She is the gatekeeper to the surgeon so after Monday, I should perhaps have more information about where my journey is headed next.
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