Catching Wagons… and getting back on

Still having trouble getting back on that wagon. I stopped doing the 200 situps a day and nearly everything else went with it. Still low on my hand form repetition because of concentrating on creating a weapon form, and I know all too well that time is short.

Reasons? Excuses? Hmmm… Been really tired for some reason lately. Yet not ill. Taught a couple afternoons of winter seminar, which always takes a lot out of me. Finally started to feel like I had energy and what did I do? Go work outside in the cold at the farm. Then come back in and shiver under the blankets for a few hours because I couldn’t get warm enough. In fact, that’s where I’m writing my blog right now, while I still try to get warm again. So, my kilometers are ticking along anyway.

Got some meditation in though. Not as much as I want, or should, but actually doing it again is an accomplishment since I’ve been out of the habit for longer than I would like to admit. One of the things I wanted to do with my meditation this year was to be more receptive, to be the empty vessel rather than the already full one. In particular I wanted to do so out in nature. Can’t say that I was particularly mindful of this at the time but it was really enjoyable watching a coyote out in one of the fields today catching mice. Jumping up in the air in order to pounce down on its prey. I don’t know how long I stood just watching that.

It's quite interesting what you can see when you give yourself the chance. Seemingly barren fields, white with snow are turned into highways of life. So many tracks in the snow, showing me signs of the deer that obviously likes the same path that I do, the coyote that used my path for a time to get to the field to hunt for mice, the mice that have scurried for cover across the open snow, and the occasional bird prints that come and go because of the power of flight.

The creek is full of stored energy because the culvert that normally allows the water to pass must be dammed up with ice. The spring doesn’t know this and continues to pump water out of the ground, with little regard for the cold, adding to the volume. I can only hope that the dam thaws before the crossing becomes submerged under water or ice.

Today’s task was coppicing and pollarding willow. The material cut will be used to weave another spiling to prevent erosion of the creek. The larger material can be used for firewood. The dead material is used for mulch and because “a forest grows on a fallen forest”. There’s a limited time to do this because the spring sap will soon be running and it’s hard on the trees to cut them then.

So, not much Kung Fu-ing, per se, but lot’s of working on being receptive.

Numbers:

Pushups/equivalent 105

Situps 2670

Weapon form 140

Hand form 5

RAoK 69

Sparring 130

Kilometers 124

Blogging now 6

Drawing 0

Meditation 5 (6 if you include today’s… observations… ruminations…?)

Great coat still not cut.

Reading list Slowed down on that. Need to get back to it.