Smiles

One thing I’ve noticed this year more so than most is when I do my acts of kindness. I say good morning here, hold a door open there and I then document and carry on with my day. What I have to say is the impact it has with my day to day encounters. Sometimes these acts easily present themselves but what I’ve taken away from this is when you are mentally aware to perform acts of kindness you find other opportunities along the way. I’ll help a co-worker  carry something inside, I’ll go out of my way to thank someone for doing a great job at work, I’ll thank my wife for dinner (that’s called adding to the emotional bank account by the way) and so on. Guess it all starts to become second nature and the more you do the easier it becomes, just keep smilin’.

Sifu Bryant
Silent River Kung Fu

Finding the time

Another great weather weekend, nice to enjoy the hot days that still feel like summer. Saturday was a great dragon practise, hope more of our team can come out and take part in the fun. Would be really nice if we could have a double dragon dance for our New Year performance which I think is so doable. I have really gotten back into a groove with my routine these past few days which is nice. Was a long week last week with work and a funeral so getting back into my structured system is a great feeling. Any time I’m off a day I always come back to my set routine and know I probably deviated from it at some point. We spoke at our meeting about structure and the more you plan your day the easier your life can become, by not seeing it as a restraint or a weight above your head, you will find it as a blessing to squeeze more out of your day you never thought you had. Hope to see everyone on the mats.

Sifu Bryant
Silent River Kung Fu

Fall

Starting to feel like fall now, leaves are changing or even falling off trees already. Each day I try to get my running or bike riding in outdoors since let’s face it who knows how many weeks we have left for the fall, we had snow by mid-October last year I think – yikes. Sucks I missed the performance this morning, figured we made it right on time but unfortunately the performance was bumped up. Would have been nice to perform a little later since most runners were still coming in over that time and more could see the dance. Watched the video and you guys all did great, well done!

Sifu Bryant
Silent River Kung Fu

Lost momentum

Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. I had planned on being out to the Kwoon Wednesday night to help with reno’s, take part in our dragon dance and so on for the week, guess life had other plans. Tuesday night I lost my uncle who I had just written about the previous week. He was doing great and even chatted with my parents that night, and then he went just like that. To say this week was busy was an understatement of epic proportions. School starts tomorrow and I am doing three full time positions at the moment working very late each night, I didn’t even take a moment to myself until today to kind of let things soak in. I’ll be honest; I worked out Wednesday morning and nothing since. I haven’t even touched my broadsword in a week. Guess my energy level is a little low; I feel bad about not helping with everything going on at the Kwoon but know there is only so many places I can be at once. I am still in shock about my uncle; we had just talked days before. He was truly an interesting and loving man. You name it he did it – flew planes, was the mayor for three terms, ran a successful car dealership, played the guitar, collected antiques, was a member of the Shriners and the Freemasons the list goes on and on. As the year begins anew I hope I can get back into a routine quickly, it’s the one thing that will help me feel normal again.

Sifu Bryant

Silent River Kung Fu