April's Impediments

Training has been sparse again lately. Working toward this exam and grading inordinate numbers of papers has taken the priority again. I long for a time when it's either not April or when my Aprils don't swamp me so much. In fact, I wish my career was one that allowed me the freedom, in April, to take time off from work in order to possibly even travel to China for the annual YSB intensive. For now, though, I'll have to be content with having a modest income and plenty of time to train in the summers. Being a teacher has its perks, but the price is that during the school year, there is very little in the way of reasons that would allow someone to take almost three weeks off of work. Fortunately, though I'm not sure what, I feel as though I achieved something mathematical today, and so I'm not compelled to do any more math tonight. A good meditation and perhaps qigong session is in order, I think.

Still, I've found some time for training. After a short get-together on Saturday to explore some applications of techniques, I decided that it is high time that I start to develop the shocking force, which sounds mystical but isn't, at least not at my level. I've noticed that my left side seems to do reasonably well with it, but my right side, for lack of a nicer term, blows. Being right-handed, that seems odd, but so are many things when we decide to investigate ourselves carefully. I need to study it more carefully from what materials I have and practice diligently. I keep hearing the repeated admonishments of He Jinbao in my head: "...practice is the way to get there."

Yesterday was unique in that I found almost twenty minutes on the circle, despite having double-dug a long row and a half of what will be a nice, and hopefully bountiful, garden. Shoveling and hauling soil and sod for two hours really cuts into the ability to hold the arms up in the vicious Lion System posture, and so there were no marathons being turned in my muddy yard yesterday.

Oh yes... the mud... April is excellent here in the South, when the Nature we're blasting doesn't try to kill us, for week-long rains. This past week was one of those weeks, and though we really need the water, it did keep me off of my lovely outdoor circle. I turned some inside, but it's just not the same. Not that I mind circling in the rain... it's the mud I don't like, mostly for the mess but also for the slipping.

Oh... April's impediments. April showers, though, as they say, bring May flowers, but analogies about my training blooming or coming into flower all sound kind of wimpy. Oh well... they can't all be winners.