Enjoy the Present

The last few weeks have been especially full — work deadlines, a system upgrade, the Kung Fu banquet preparation — and somewhere in the middle, I was off sick.

When life gets busy, we push through and promise to slow down later. But there’s always another deadline waiting, another commitment needed. That mindset is quietly wishing time away.

I often find myself looking ahead to next week, tomorrow, even the next hour. Before I know it, those moments are gone — and I only remember fragments. I’ve been living in a “once this is over” state.

    Once the system upgrade is done.
    Once I feel better.
    Once the banquet is finished.

But “once this is over” is a dangerous place to live. I am wishing my life away.

So tonight, I spent 30 minutes meditating — not planning, not solving. Just sitting and appreciating where I am right now.

In Kung Fu, we train to be present — in our stance, in our breath, in each movement. The same applies to life. Appreciate the past. Prepare for the future. But live mostly in the present.

As the Snake team prepares for a busy banquet day tomorrow, take time to remember all we have done during the year and be grateful for where we are today.

Tomorrow will go fast.
    So stop.
    Breathe.
    Enjoy it.

    We’ve got this!

Thanks for a great year, team!

Progress Isn’t Always Loud

This week, life was loud. Work demanded more than I expected, and my training didn’t look the way I wanted it to. I managed an exercise class and a couple of kung fu classes, but it didn’t feel like enough. Still, what I did get done mattered. It reminded me that training isn’t just something we do when life is calm — it’s something we need most when life is anything but.

I’ve learned that progress doesn’t always come from perfect weeks. Sometimes it comes from showing up tired, distracted, or limited, and choosing to train anyway. Even on a reduced schedule, moving my body and practicing kung fu helped reset my focus and reconnect me with why I train in the first place.

I always keep an open mind when receiving feedback on my forms. Growth requires listening, even when the answers aren’t obvious. When Sihing Shira Csillag asked about my movement in my weapon form, I explained that I had modified it to fit within a time limit. In doing so, I had sacrificed movement and flow. Her perspective helped me see the form differently — not as something constrained by time, but as something that could still breathe, still communicate, and still be kung fu.

With that shift in mindset, I was able to make adjustments that feel more intentional and expressive. My hope is that these changes will translate better to the audience while remaining true to the art itself.

So even though this wasn’t a great training week by traditional standards, it was still a meaningful one. I trained. I learned. I adapted. And I moved forward. Some weeks progress is loud and obvious — other weeks, it’s quiet. But it’s still progress, and I’m further ahead than I was last week.

Closing the Year of the Snake: Moving toward the Horse.

 As we move into the final weeks of the Year of the Snake, there’s a natural pull toward reflection. The Snake is a year of internal work—quiet strength, patience, shedding old layers—and this year has delivered exactly that. Growth has shown up not just physically through training, but mentally and spiritually as well. Foundations have been strengthened, awareness has deepened, and habits have evolved.

With the Year of the Horse approaching, the energy begins to shift. Where the Snake teaches us to refine and internalize, the Horse asks us to move forward with confidence and momentum. Preparation now matters. What we carry into the new year will shape how freely and powerfully we run.

At the end of this month, I’ll be stepping into a Self-Care course that includes meditation, journaling, and somatic mobility. It feels perfectly timed—an opportunity to integrate everything learned this year and to reset the nervous system before the pace increases. Self-care isn’t separate from Kung Fu; it’s part of the practice. How we recover, reflect, and regulate directly impacts how we move and show up.

The coming weeks will be busy with demo preparation. There’s a focused intensity to this phase—polishing details, refining timing, and committing movements fully to memory. The Buddha is finally coming together, and now the work shifts to precision: memorizing demo song start and stop times, syncing movement with sound, and trusting the training.

This is the bridge between years—the quiet discipline of the Snake giving way to the forward drive of the Horse. The work continues, but the direction is clear. Train with intention. Care for the body and mind. Finish the year strong, and step into the next one ready to move.

NUMBERS

Pushups (modified): 12160

Situps (modified):  9020

Sparring: 95

KMs: 1738

AOKs: 1560

Blogs: 46

Mastery byu Stuart Emery:  Complete

Relationship Mend Status:  Complete

Da Mu Hsing: 340

Weapon Form: 225

Germain: 5580

Meditation: 1905

Tai Chi: 1865

Decluttering: 780

Yoga, Stretching, Exercise:  1900