POW!

We're coming up on the last month of UBBT 7, man did time fly by for me this year.
Last week Silent River had our annual sweatfest for money, otherwise known as pandamonium. It's a great excuse to get creative and get everyone sweating in new ways. One thing about this event is that there are always students who shine and really inspire you to try harder. I had the chance to help out in the adult beginner class the night they did their Pandamonium. It was set up as a circuit with stations and we rotated after a certain amount of time. I just stayed at the pushups and situps station and did them all class, great catch up for me. What impressed me the most is the students who have the hardest time doing this stuff, but put more into it than a lot of advanced students. It's the people who have passion for what they're doing and aren't afraid to struggle that always inspire others the most. I hope I never stop trying things because I think someone else might think I look stupid. I hope I always remember that my struggles might inspire someone else, just as others do to me. UBBT is supposed to be a struggle, it's the ULTIMATE BLACK BELT TEST after all. If you've fallen off the wagon, it doesn't mean you can't get back on as many times as you want, heck I do it about 4 times a week. I am going to finish this year with a bang!

small things

I think everyone who is a part of the UBBT team has the 1000 acts of kindness as a requirement. We all know how good it feels to do an act of kindness for someone, even if that person doesn't know it was you. We all know how good it feels to be the one receiving an act of kindness, it makes you want to do something good in turn. How about an act of unkindness? What do you want to do when someone treats you badly, or cuts you off in traffic? You probably feel like round housing them to the head, or maybe a quick take down with a nice finishing reverse to the face. OK maybe that's harsh, but it doesn't make you want to do something kind for them, it makes you want to do something unkind. I feel like for every act of kindness that's paying its way forward around the world there are hundreds more acts of unkindness paying their way forward too. There is a woman who works at the deli where I shop and she is always cheerful and goes out of her way to give good service. One day there was a woman in front of me who treated her condescendingly and was very rude to her for no reason. When it was my turn the normally cheerful woman was grumpy and short with me. How many times have we done the same thing. Something happens to you that makes you mad and you snap at your kids or spouse or even friends for something you normally wouldn't. Although it will probably be hard the first few times, I encourage everyone to take every opportunity you can to repay and act of unkindness with an act of kindness. You can stop that bullet matrix style. Just say no, and pluck it out of the air and now it's lost it's power. You never know what has happened to someone, why certain things happen, but we can make the world a better place, or someones world better with such small actions.

mental organizing

I have started to write and deleted everything about 3 times now. Why is journaling so hard? If this was something I was writing privately I would vent like crazy and it would make no sense to anyone but me. I guess I am being forced to organize my thoughts when I journal publicly. I'm going to go with a list about whats floating around in my head the past few days.

1. working at an emergency vet clinic is really cool, except when there is 3 critical animals and you don't know where anything is and are therefore useless to help people do their job, which is my job.
2. I have a friend with a mental illness and he is causing a huge amount of stress in my life and I don't know what to do about it.
3. I got my worst test mark last week and even though it was an 82% I could have done better and I can't stop kicking myself about it.
4. reading this list, I realize I am focusing on the negative this week.

ok, so there are things that are done, there are things that are out of my control, and things that will get better. Breathe in, breathe out, now move forward.

veggie month

Yesterday was the beginning of my one month vegetarian challenge. So far it's been really easy, but we're only 2 days in so we'll see how it goes. I really don't anticipate too many challenges, as about half of the meals we eat are already vegetarian. I always thought that some of the meat substitutes out there sounded and looked like they were unfit for human consumption, but I was pleasantly surprised tonight when we made veggie lasagna. We decided if someone had served it to us and we didn't know that it had no meat in it we wouldn't have been able to tell. The kids said they wanted to participate fully and not eat lunch meat at school, so the whole family is in. I'll be keeping track of how I feel this month and if there are changes in energy etc. Happy eating everyone.