Struggling...why?

When I joined the Snake team I felt that I would have a bit of an advantage this go around as I was part of the UUBT 8 team.  I knew what this was mostly about and I knew what my weaknesses were from last time around.  However I seem to be experiencing those same weaknesses all over again.

                

 The biggest question that I keep asking myself is “why”?  Why am I not where I want to be right now?  Why am I not doing a better job of tracking my daily numbers?  Why haven’t I even started some of my personal requirements?  Why?

                 

When I stop and reflect upon this question, the answer is that I have not dedicated myself to this process fully.  Mastery is something that I truly want but am I prepared to put in the time and effort to truly walk on this path?  The answer that I come up with is no.  I have not prepared myself mentally to walk on this path every day.  So the next obvious question is why have I not mentally prepared myself yet?  I have known for some time that I was going to be part of this team and its not like it was a spur of the moment decision.  I have prior experience as being part of the UBBT 8 team, so why? 

If I am going to be honest with myself and my teammates I would have to say that the reason for this is that I have not taken this opportunity with enough seriousness.  I have treated the process so far as something like “I will get to it when I get to it”.  I have been lazy and not dedicated to the process and the benefits that it will provide.  This attitude is something that I have known for a long time, it is a flaw of my character and I have never admitted it publicly before.  However, now I feel is the time to reach out and admit one of my most flawed characteristics of my character.  This will be the starting point of my improvement not only as a martial artist but also as a human being.  I want this year to be the year that I not only improve as martial artist but also as father, husband, friend.  I humbly ask my teammates to kick my but if you see that I am missing blog entries.  I agree with Master Brinker 100% that if you are not blogging, you are not doing your other requirements.

Ian Repay

Student Of Silent River Kung Fu

Stony Plain, Alberta                       

David Suzuki – The good Doctor isn’t in…

I am not an overly active environmentalist but I do believe in doing my part to lead a healthy and somewhat “green” lifestyle.  I believe in sustainable living and I believe in knowing where my food comes from as much as possible.  I recycle as much as possible and try and reduce my “carbon foot print” as much as possible.Kung Fu has taught me allot about this aspect of my life.  I am much more active now than I have ever been.  However David Suzuki is a hypocrite and lacks humbleness of any kind.  With so many people hanging off his words and his place as a "leader" in the environmental movement, David Suzuki needs to spend some time in our Kwoon.  He would learn a thing or two about ego and humbleness.

As you can tell by now the one thing I have never been of is a fan of David Suzuki.  You can sure tell a lot about a person by the way they respond to being challenged.  Those with courage of conviction and the confidence that comes with real intellect will back their positions and rise to the occasion. Those whose sense of ego is mightier than their strength of character will retreat, resort to insults or not respond altogether.

So when David Suzuki – environmental guru, would-be benevolent dictator and all-around perfect human  – arrived in Ottawa Tuesday evening to tell a church filled with a paying audience what a sustainable future looks like, he shocked his own loyal supporters by aggressively refusing to speak with a Sun News reporter and her cameraman (who’d only arrived after a media release about the event from the Green Party was sent to the national press corps).  David Suzuki didn’t just refuse to speak to the reporter and her camera man. He refused to appear altogether, sending a handful of hostile event organizers to remove them from the premises. They would, eventually, but not before creating a real drama in front of a real audience that exposed the real nature of David Suzuki.

Suzuki never showed his face. The man who believes he leads by example, illuminates inconvenient truths and feels righteously empowered to bring down those he feels do wrong, refuses to be held to account. His critics, he believes, should be silenced.

David Suzuki encourages curiosity, critical thinking, questioning the world around you. Just don’t question him.

Ian Repay
Student of Silent River Kung Fu.
Stony Plain, Alberta.

Chinese New Years Celebration 2013!

This past Saturday was our annual Silent River Kung Fu Chinese New Year’s celebration.  It was an amazing night!  This was the very first time I saw a black belt promotion (didn’t go to last years and the year before there weren’t any promotions) and it was amazing!  The room went almost silent and I think I was holding my breath and didn’t blink the whole time.  That whole time I was thinking to myself that that will be me in a few years; I started to visualize myself kneeling in front of Sifu Brinker and Mast McDonald as well as all of the other Sifu’s and my family.  The road to black belt has been a lot of ups and downs and there will be many more.  However I think the most important thing for me is to visualize the goal and start to see myself in the same place that our two newest black belts were on Saturday night.  

 I am more energized than I have been in a long time just watching the demos put on by both black belts and the I HO Chuan dragon team.  I am part of the Snake Team and I can’t wait to get started!  I can’t wait to be part of the lion dance, can’t wait to perform publicly and contribute to the SRKF family!  It is going to be a great year and we have one of the strongest teams ever!

Congratulations to our two newest black belts Sifu Robinson and Sifu Alana Regier.  You both are amazing and you did an incredible job this past Saturday!

Ian Repay

Student of Silent River Kung Fu

Stony Plain, Alberta.

Follow my journey @ ianrepay.blogspot.com

Chinese New year - Year of the snake

So it begins today in classic Silent River Kung Fu tradition, 1000 sit-ups, 1000 pushups and only 1000 calories in a single day.  I have done this a few times in the past when I was part of the UBBT 8 team and this new years day when I joined this years I Ho Chuan team.  I love doing something like this as it brings my martial arts training into focus.  It prepares me for the New Year with a renewed focus, a renewed list of goals that I am working on accomplishing this coming year.  The other part of celebrating the Chinese new year’s is that I am doing something that most people would never do or never think of doing.  Kung Fu and martial arts training is not easy but extremely rewarding.  I am working toward something (black belt) less than 1% of the population will ever accomplish.

So it begins and I couldn't be happier!


Ian Repay
Student Of Silent River Kung Fu
Follow my journey - http://ianrepay.blogspot.ca/

Nail Yakapov, youth, passion and enthusiasm!

 

There has been lots of talk the day after Nail Yakapov scored the tying goal against the LA Kings.  The “celebration” has been getting a lot of attention from people who have no issue to quite the opposite.  For those who have not seen the celebration please take a few minutes to watch it, it’s pretty amazing.

Now why would I write about this?  What does this have to do with my Kung Fu?  It has everything to do with my Kung Fu in that this young man displayed pure and unbridled emotion.  You can clearly see that he is passionate about the game he loves.  He’s not afraid to show it, he’s not afraid to put himself out there for people to criticize him.  He absolutely loves and is passionate about the game of hockey! 

It is so refreshing to me to see this absolute passion; we seem to have in our culture reduced ourselves to hiding it.  How many of us would wear our passion for life on our sleeve like young Nail did last night?  I doubt many of us could say that we live our lives with this kind of passion or enthusiasm.  And if we did, how many people would notice, how many people could see just by looking at us that we love what we do as much as Nail does?  All too often we don’t allow ourselves to truly become passionate about what we really love about life.  We are more too often worried about what other people will think.  It is unfortunate that we have these sorts of beliefs and society seems to frown upon the outward display of emotion and absolute passion.

Many are going to criticize this young man for his “celebration”.  I commend him for it and hope that he doesn’t lose this passion and enthusiasm for the game he loves.  We could all learn just a little by looking at the face of this young man and seeing the genuine sparkle in his eyes.  He is living his life the way he wants too regardless of what others think, good on you Nail!

Ian Repay

Student Of Silent River Kung Fu

Stony Plain, Alberta.