Sunday was one of those days that needed about six more hours in it for me to finish all that I needed to do. After the cooking, the house care, the hard drive clean out, the download of the latest video shot for work, the logging of that video, the bill paying and the balancing of the checkbook, there was no time for meaningful stretching, much less a little Pa Chi practice or watching the Sing Yi tutorial video that my boy emailed to me. Sunday is usually the one guaranteed break from kung fu, the rejuvenation day; but I like it much better when that’s by choice rather than dictated by other priorities. I had actually planned on getting a little kicking combination practice in, and it didn’t happen.
Maybe it was just the powers of the universe doing for me what I couldn’t do for myself: relieving the pressure on an often kung-fu-performance-obsessed brain and filling it with other items of life that are almost as challenging. With a tough week and month ahead of training necessities that can’t easily be met, maybe I did it to myself for distraction. There were only two items on Sunday’s to-do list that aren’t normally on every Sunday’s list. They turned out to be more time-consuming than I anticipated, but still, I’m pretty good at multitasking. It usually comes at the expense of sleep, but getting a ton accomplished in a day is pretty typical.
So I have to conclude that the part of me that knew I needed a break was stronger than the part that usually thinks a break is a waste of time. Sometimes you just have to say thank you to whatever it is that makes you take care of yourself when you weren’t intending to.
To the powers of the universe, thank you.
Middle-Aged Martial Arts Mom 
January 27th, 2014 at 4:45 am
Have you read Zen in the Martial Arts, by Joe Hyams. I heartily recommend it. There is some great advice in there, some of which is about making sure you have a day to do nothing, or as close to it as you can. Whilst my training has slowed down, I really appreciate having every Sunday available to do whatever comes along, and spend time with my partner doing garden jobs and so forth. I find that if every day has something planned, one way or another, its just too much. I kept that up for years and years, and now Sundays are great.
January 27th, 2014 at 8:33 am
Thanks, Jase. I’ll bump that one up to the top of my reading list. Thanks for continuing to follow. I appreciate your insight.