Parade

Last year while walking in the Farmers Day parade I was talking to Mr. Kohut and telling him we should have a float in next year's parade. I also talked about it with few more people including Mr. Helm. I was not sure if we would be able to pull it off and getting close to this year's parade it seemed that we are too late with some of the arrangements but joint effort in the last 10 days made a thought come true.

Now this year's parade was special for me. Not because we had a float. Although I think it was well done and made us look great as a school. The parade was special this year because of the preparations before the parade. The evening I spent with Mr. Helm, Mr. Kohut and Mr. Dyble painting and building the weapons' rack, the evening I spent with Mr. Helm trying to figure out how to mount the flags. The morning of the parade were a bunch of the IHC group came together to decorate the float.

This is one of the things I like about the IHC. Coming together as a group to achieve a common goal. I had lots of fun in the parade this year and the main reason was because of the time we spent together before the parade.

Hotshot

Here's a rule I'm trying to implement at work, at home, with Kung Fu, writing this blog - if a hotshot took my place for one day what will he do? Then why can't I do it?

We need to think big and believe in ourselves. Most people can do more than what they think they can. Whenever I start to feel overwhelmed, I would take a minute break and ask my self: "what will the hotshot do?" then once I have the answer, I will proceed with that (and become the hotshot).

I just started to work with this so I can't tell you yet how it is working for me but I feel there is a change in how I approach my life and how I feel about myself.

Collect the Rain

After so many days without any precipitation it is RAINING. Although I would much prefer sunny hot days where I can ride my bike, paddle my kayak, work in the garden or do any other outdoor activity, this rain was needed. The ground was so dry and the lakes level is so low that we need this rain and much more.

It is like our body. We cannot deplete all our reserves without replenishing them once in a while. Sometimes we need a big rainstorm to restore our strength and our engagement. Whatever your rain is, you should make sure you are giving yourself enough time to enjoy it and restock.

where is Poe

Different things happened during Pandamonium this year. For one my kids were more involved. It was nice to see them active inside the Kwoon and outside the Kwoon. All of them had friends from school joining them for parts of the day. What a great way to raise awarness.

The Kung fu panda movie was fun too. It was nice to see so many kids watching together and at the end playing different Kung fu moves. Thank you Sihing Csillag for organizing this and Sifu Playter for the popcorn.

Finally I was able to see Poe. In previous years he always came when I was away...

I though the pandamonium was great. Can we do better? For sure. But it was a great day to share with friends and family. Thanks for everyone who organized or participated. You guys are great!

In-action

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the power of our actions. This week's topic is the same with a twist. I want to talk about the power of our inaction.

When we are are not taking an action, either on purpose or because we just didn't, there is an affect on ourselves, our surrounding. Just like with our actions, the effect can be positive or negative.


Here are few examples:
If I drive down the road and I see one kid pushing another or a group of kids tosses around a kid's bag. I can decide to help the kid or I can decide to ignore. Thinking to my self that it is nothing. Not helping the kid can have a negative effect on him for life.

If I comment and plus one person's blog and I don't comment and plus someone else's blog. Will it affect the person I do not comment on their blog? Possibly. Especially if that person is in need for my feedback and encouragement.

If I see garbage on the street and I don't pick it up. Less people are likely to pick it up and it is just a matter of time before our streets won't look as nice as they do now.


We are lucky to live in a place where we are fortunate to have a home, 3 (or more) meals, education, high morals. All these are not a result of in-action.

I have to make sure that next time I choose to ACT.

One step at a time

It has been challenging in the past couple months to keep progressing. Work is very challenging lately and between work, home, teaching the Advanced BD class and the early morning classes - I felt like harder and harder to progress in the direction I was heading.

And then my back started hurting. I had back issues for at least 10 years and I since I joined Kung Fu my back was never more than OK but few weeks ago it was really bad. It was hurting all the time and limiting what I could do.

Seems like a step back in my training or at least a stand still as I was not practicing my forms or other application for few days. I did however started with some core strengthening exercises recommended by my chiropractor. I hope this is my chance to improve my core strength and to eliminate (or minimize) my back issues.

Not the direction I was heading but it is a direction and as long as I continue to put one leg in-front of the other, I will get there.

Poe

We got Poe from SCARS few years ago. When we had our first meeting with the fostering family, we met in an off-leash park and we could see him kind of in the distance. He was a good looking dog but he would not get close to us.

The fostering person explained to us that Poe has trust issues. He will not get close to people he doesn't know... After some discussion among ourselves, we decided to adopt Poe. It was not an easy task to bring him home as he was very scared and tried to run away.

Couple days after we brought him home, Poe got out of our yard and run away. It was the middle of December. -10 degrees. We started looking for him. We looked in the forested area across our home. But we could not find him. As hours past we expanded our search perimeter. We looked all around our neighborhoods.  After talking with one of our neighbors that claimed they saw a dog running, we focused our search in one area. It was already dark, after more than 8 hours of searching in the cold weather.

I got a call from my wife saying she head a leash rattle in the bushes. It was very dense and getting dark. We could not see anything. I tried going around the other side and we both saw Poe running to the other side of the bushes trying to get away. We were happy we found him but now we had to figure out how to catch him. We brought our other dog, Chralie in order to help out with this operation. At the end after about an hour of trying, we were able to ambush him and catch him. He was freezing cold. I had to carry him all the way home. He was very heavy and I was already exhausted from the day but at the end we got home and were very relieved.  Especially because the temperatures were supposed to drop to -25 the day after.

Now it has been few years since we got Poe. He is still nervous around people and will not come close if there are strangers. But he is doing pretty good with us. He is playful and like being petted. We are very happy to have Poe with us and glad we were able to make a change in his life to the better.