A long week

This week was a different week from the usual. I spent the entire week as a student taking a technical course at the U of A. It posed a few challenges since I haven’t had to battle the drive into the city for many a year and really never missed that. More importantly I had to adapt my time to train over the course of the week. Initially the course was a little earlier in the morning, but through the consensus of the class, the group decided to bump it back an hour. Now again I’m not a morning person (still don’t know why I teach so early) but it was a blessing for me. This allowed me to get in an hour of training before class which helped kick start the day for me. The other oddity was meals for the day. I could buy lunch for each day and it would be covered by my work, yet I decided like I always do to bring my own lunch. I was the only one in the course that did this and spent each lunch break eating and then walking around the campus. My instructor thought I was quite odd (he was from the east) bringing my own lunch since I could buy whatever I wish, but again those places never appealed to me. Anyways, after he joked about where my carrot sticks were and I told him in my backpack he stopped the shaking of his head. Choices, we all make them and watching the group around me, a few were making the wrong ones. A few of my classmates were heavily overweight drinking big gulps of pop and just asking to become a diabetic. Yup long week on the brain, but at least it was fuelled by some fruit and veggies to carry me through. Sifu Bryant

A Father's Day

The person I am has been shaped so much by my father. He has taught me so many valuable lesson’s over my life there isn’t enough words to start to describe all that has been passed on. This day now obviously has new meaning to myself in that I am a father times two and look to pass my wisdom onto them as my father did and his father before him. It is easy to see the parallel at our school, and again it is our privilege and duty to embrace this knowledge and pass this onto our future students both young and old. Today is only a day like any other, it loses meaning if we do not recognize the profound difference we can make it one person’s life. Happy Father’s Day to all. “Never put off to tomorrow what you can do today.” Albert Bryant Sifu Bryant

Act of kindness

I had been looking to do some spring cleaning the past few weeks and this morning I spent it cleaning out my closet. Now we all have those shirts, sweaters and so on we have kept for years, you know the ones that are three sizes too big that you got for a present from your relatives. The kind you could never bring yourself to wear since you and your significant other could both fit in it together. Well they all finally were sent to the Goodwill to be hopefully put to better use than hanging in my closet. My wife's purging was a whole lot easier, something about she will never weigh as much as a small truck and so there would never be a use for that again. We have donated quite a bit to our local Goodwill the past few years and definitely was a great start to the day. Sifu Bryant

It's all routine

Now well into the year I keep thinking about routine. My guess is that everyone undergoing this test has had to adjust their routine as the weeks go by. The reason I keep thinking about it is because it can be a hard thing to adjust for some people. We all have our daily routine and when we want to change our routine it can be a struggle, the brain and body just keeps trying to go back to the old routine and can fight the new. For me now it has become abnormal when my new routine is disrupted in the slightest but again this is the other part of the test - adaptability. Tonight I went out for a bike ride along the paths of Spruce Grove which I love. It was a great clear evening and quiet as can be. I love to bike through the city as it helps me clear my head; it’s like an active meditation for me. Over the years I have spent a lot of time along these paths walking, running and biking; every corner of every path has a story to tell. As I was riding through my block we have large item pickup coming up and I counted four pieces of exercise equipment sitting on various front driveways to be given away or taken away, guess for some routine is hard to change. Sifu Bryant