Some Personal Snake Year Expectations

I’m in a different place, quite literally, than all of the I Ho Chuan 2025 Snake Team. I believe that my expectations for this year may overlap with some team members but for the most part my hidden expectations, maybe not so much.

Life changes as we grow. I realize that is not a surprise to anyone who may read this. Some changes are inevitable and we make the choice on the rest.

My 14 years or so at Silent River became a huge part of me. As a matter of fact my wife, two boys and myself, collectively spent 40 years of our lives at the kwoon. When I was in town I was often at the kwoon 3-4 hours per day. A life of extreme imbalance. Silent River was a big part of all of lives; a part of our lives that we were all super engaged in.

As an adult my priorities shifted especially after being married, I really just worked my ass off and became engulfed in Kung Fu. My attendance was not great at Silent River due to working out of town a lot. My work days were 14 to 16 hours a day and some longer. To maintain my Kung Fu while out of town, I focused on my fitness the best I could, tried to practice and mentally retain my curriculum, stay true to what I ingested and worked on my cardio, when and where I could. Running was a great mental release for me and still is today, with a bit of a different approach.

Some of the inevitable changes were directed by my family and myself, but the “other changes” which lead to moving from Stony Plain were tough. It was really our “true home”, for me personally it was the longest geographical area which I had ever laid my hat. This is where the majority of my friends and family are. This is also where my Kung Fu started and where our extended family resided, which our family had grown very attached to. I can so understand Sharida's last blog!

Don’t get me wrong, moving south was not all a setback. Our eldest son lives in Lethbridge with his beautiful wife and child soon to be. Another great stage in Alana’s and my life. However…

One of my expectations this year was to find the friends and family that I personally parted from in 2018…on top of all my other goals of continuance. Lots has changed at Silent River, which is a little sad to me, but I see the different direction it has taken…it’s not a bad one, just different.

Not only do we change, but things change all around us…it can be sad and it can be a reason to rejoice. Change is often required for growth or to stay in tune with the evolutionary surroundings.

It’s time for me to move on and continue to grow. The reality is, it’s not just about me at all, it’s about the all and the intrinsic web of interconnectedness that should be focused on at the kwoon and the world in general…the growth of all as a whole.

I’d like to conclude with, I see a great group in the snake team, a team of diversity and varying strengths and wisdom; hopefully some extraordinary relationships will flourish.

Albert Einstein, wrote “ the true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and sense in which one has attained liberation from the self”.

February 15, 2025

Acts of Kindness recorded - 29,

Push-ups - 2825,

Sit-ups and or equivalents - 3400,

Kilometres (intentional extra mileage) - 118.3

Meditation/ inversion table (min.) - 66,

Stretching/ rolling (min.) - 84,

Sparring/ grappling minutes - 43,

# of forms re-familiarized - 6,

Form reps - 48,

Form time (min.) - 154,

“Mastery” recite (min.) - 33,

Blogs - 4