Rhythm, Rest & Restraint

I began this writing from a rental car in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel.  I was waiting for a morning thunderstorm to lighten up enough for me not to be completely drenched just by opening the door.  It was the tenth or eleventh thunderstorm of the week, including the one we landed in.  I have to drive an hour down the highway to Orlando in a few hours and board a plane a couple of hours after that.  I really need for my departure from Florida to be smoother than my arrival.  That requires an extended window between thunderstorms that have seriously cramped the off hours of our week.

All’s been well for morning drop off, but there’s been loud and heavy rain both before and after pick up, daily.  Mother Nature gave Ava and me a short opportunity to stick our feet in wet sand and stroll along the pier yesterday before sending in another beastly wave of clouds.

My girl and I are returning home without having shared a swim, but we did share a healthy dose of quality conversation.  That was most certainly worth a bad week of weather!

After spending five days rising for camp just thirty minutes later than we would for work and school, we’re both more than ready to sleep late and sleep in our own beds (unfortunately, I only have Sunday to do the former).  Creatures of habit that we are, we’re also anxious to get back to our routines.  For Ava, that’s looking ahead to Sunday with her dad; for me, that’s looking ahead to Sunday at the gym.  With a little luck, I’ll have something new to practice after Saturday’s class…assuming that what I tried to beat (rhythmically, that is) into my muscle memory this week doesn’t go on hiatus in front of Sifu.

One of these days I’ll take a break from work that’s actually restful.  That would require leaving the staff at home, of course.  It would likely require restraints of some kind, too. 🙂

 

High-Strung and Never-Ending

A good day on the day job! We had a smooth production of an excellent interview on a book that’s making a wave or two inside the beltway. And it’s not every day I meet a former Supreme Court Justice.

After yet another high-strung day in the never-ending week, taking a night off from kung fu, before Saturday training back in the guan, feels like a wise decision. I won’t be permitted back in Friday night class until June, anyway; I might as well use the continued restriction to my body’s advantage and get some rest. After I grocery shop. And pick up dry cleaning. And drive my boy around…. 🙂

Have a safe Friday night, U.S. friends and readers, and an enjoyable Saturday to those on the other side of the pond!

Relieving the Pressure

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.