Month: January 2014

Lucky You(s)

by Living Wherever We Are, posted in Embracing Uncertainty, Travel

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The past few weeks have been moving slowly at first and now faster than one can imagine.  We love Mike Lee the new owner of our precious Academy (PAMA) and have spent lots of time and energy assisting him in getting the new place spiffy and ready for the official public Open House celebration and Rick has continued to instruct through January. Yes, the business was sold in December but days have been filled with settling up the business and tax matters, organizing our personal matters to take place in our absence, and finally packing for a jaunt starting out in a foreign country.  The new PAMA is settling in and my family and myself are getting ready to set out.

We are setting off this Sunday (to parts disclosed on my next blog – bye-bye snow!).  With all of the lead-time before our outward journey began we have graciously received an outpouring of love and well wishes for our future endeavors.   Truly – the Love You Make is Equal to the Love You Take. We have had a few, very few people say Well Must Be Nice guised in a statement of “Lucky You” – no well wishes added.

This journey has very little to do with Luck but lots to do about the choices that we make in life and the courage to follow through on those choices. Now this is where the peaceful warrior and the hero come into play as the great Joseph Campbell would say. A hero is not just someone who saves someone’s life nor is a warrior a person that runs around fighting all the time. A hero is someone who goes beyond where others may go to bring something back for the good of others as well as for themselves, but the hero needs the warrior to keep up this tough journey whatever it may be. Now, people may say so what is so tough about taking time off and traveling.  If it wasn’t in one sense tough and different from what most people as a family would do, then many more people would do it.

There is a commercial on HGTV it says… “You don’t have to be rich to move to Hawaii you just have to want it”.  And that’s what it is really about, if you want it badly enough you will find a way. Rick began his hero’s journey way back when he was 18 and determined against all odds to learn the art of Bruce Lee, a story to be shared at a later date. Overcoming many, many obstacles and ups and downs he persevered.  Because of that determination thousands of students have benefited over the years.   That is the mindset of the peaceful warrior, and a hero’s journey. Another quote that we love is “This is your world shape it or someone else will” by Gary Lew.  Lucky?  Well, we very well may hit the lottery but no such luck yet.  Blessed?  Hell yes!  Rick, 20 years my senior began working at the age of 13, I began at the age of 15 and we both have been completely self-sufficient our whole adult lives.  Our strong will served and will continue to serve us well.

As those who are business owners know, in a service-based industry and something you are passionate about, your heart and soul are poured into every crevasse. These adventures we are about to partake in are not only about “fun” but to allow us the freedom that owning a business did not provide.  The freedom from everyday life, to open our minds and explore ourselves on a deeper level and truly understand what shifts we need and want to make in ourselves and how to contribute to the world in a larger way.  There are even parts of our journey that will allow us to assist and work with others along the way.

So to all those reading, thank you for the well wishes and love.  Wishing you all your own internal and external explorations and the courage to live and dream on a grand scale.  Also, for the “Lucky You(s)” I wish you love and even more valor because feelings of jealousy are no more than a mask for fear.

It is fitting that the Open House for PAMA at the new location will be this Saturday, February 1st, and we leave early in the AM on Sunday.  Both are setting out on their paths.

Bags Packed!
Bags Packed!

“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”  – Buddha

Coloring Beyond the Lines

by Living Wherever We Are, posted in Embracing Uncertainty, Life Lessons, Travel, US Travel

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Honestly, it is not effortless for me to watch as the crayon unabashedly entwines and encircles the page, using the word strays would be a huge understatement.  It has been a genuine conscious effort on my part, as a Type A personality, to fight the urge to correct, interject, direct, or even model what society considers a flawless coloring sheet.  You know – seamless completion, limited white space, and of course appropriate colors for each space, although in this age pink hair is applicable. My daughter is almost 3 ½ and her pages have looked the same for years now and she loves it and with great fervor and zest she creates her masterpiece.  Now, we are not these types of coddling parents that say how you should not hurt the child’s feelings or make them feel un-special.  Simply put, we refuse to narrow her possibilities.

This blog will not be taken up to alternatively boast about our daughter’s heighted intellect and other benchmarked accomplishments, all of which quantitatively mean a minuet amount in the long run.   The connection between this topic and our current life premise is distinct.  One motive of why we have chosen our path is to be an exemplar on living beyond the lines and how, by doing so, our child is learning skills infinitely more valuable than staying inside the black ink creating secondhand art.

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Opening her horizons and ours this week we went on another brief jaunt to NYC.   Our application is awaiting the creation of the Amazing Race +1, which not only includes a couple but also a child.  (Although, by the looks of some families in airports that might be considered child abuse.)  Nonetheless, we are golden and ready to collect our $1 Million.  Train, taxi, subway, and bus plus riding on mom’s back as we hoof it through the streets all within the first 6 hours.  All smiles and belting out her own original songs about New York.  Ah, unique art in its purest form – a child’s voice!

Honoring the Past and Embracing the Future

by Living Wherever We Are, posted in Embracing Uncertainty

As I was about to pull out of 14 Farber Road to attend the first PAMA classes at the new location, I started to tear up.  Those tears were quickly replaced with a chuckle as our daughter, also a Beatles fan, began humming the oh so fitting tune… What goes on in your heart, what goes on in your mind.

The Green Room
The After

To provide some perspective, I left my parents house when I was 17, this week I departed 14 Farber Road for the last time just short of 16 of my adult years.  Comparable to when I moved out of my parents’ house I don’t have reservations that it was the proper decision but a piece of my heart, rightfully so, is subject to be tugged by those memories.

The Gold Room

Looking back, the events and emotions that took place within those walls will far greater exceed the physical necessity for the building but, after all, I literally grew up in that martial arts haven.  Like many who have joined Princeton Academy of Martial Arts (PAMA) over the years, I entered naïvely having never explored the deeper depths of my soul.  Martial Arts, if practiced in a mindful, spiritual practice will chew up your ego and spit you out.  That is why many people could not handle the intensity of Sifu Rick and the training.  I am a strong-willed person and back in the day he made me cry several times (not in public mind you).  Although I came back, many times I saw others leave and not return because the training can mirror back to you deep fears and shatter images one has and cannot bear to scrutinize.  But for me, after going through some personal life trials, it was time to be real with myself.

The Weight Room

The importance of Martial Arts, on the deeper level as it is trained at PAMA, is about truly examining and knowing yourself, not your enemies or perceived enemies.  Martial arts took on a significant role my life, being drawn closer to it while many internal transformations took place that prompted me to change my world.  PAMA was my sanctuary and many times I found refuge within those walls, especially when I felt that the outside world could not comprehend what revolutions were going on within.

The Art Gallery

Through the years, I have been blessed with many close friendships and lots of love from my fellow training partners, instructors, and my students.  Many memorable people, to many to mention, have stood with me as I experienced blood and sweat, broken bones and lifted spirits.  I thank each of them for their support, camaraderie, and laughs.  Of course fate and our love for Martial Arts brought Rick and I together many years ago and ironically, together made the choice to sell the business and take the next step of our journey elsewhere.

The Pro-Shop

If someone had asked me 16 years ago, where I thought martial arts could lead me I would have never been able to imagine my place in the world today as a Martial Artist and a Warrior.   I am enthralled that I found martial arts and ecstatic that I found myself.  As our new journey now truly begins, we welcome it with arms wide open and with the Warriors’ approach saying “YES!” to life and the path ahead.

STAY TUNED!