On the Prowl and China-Dots

Okay, so I know this is going to sound corny coming right out of the gate, but it's happened twice now. While turning, I've been getting this bizarre feeling that doesn't last really long where I can kind of imagine what it would feel like to be a lion (or otherwise predatory cat) prowling around, stalking its prey. It's something of a subtle, thoughtful feeling with all of the glorious underpinnings of being ready to pounce and attack. Looking at it in text, I feel almost more silly admitting it, but I want to be honest about where my training seems to take me. Less bizarre but also of note is that my ribcage seems to be very hard now, almost like rock or something (though I'm not sure I'd go quite that far... I just needed an analogy). It happened to a lesser extent last year, but now it seems rather pronounced. I'm curious if that's an aspect of the "bagua body" I've heard about.

That makes me think.. sometimes I'm glad I feel like such a beginner in this art. I've been working at it for about two years and a half now, and while I feel like I've come along, it seems like the art still expands infinitely in front of me. I'm starting to think that feeling like this is a gift, though, not something to be concerned about. Beginners typically learn new information the quickest, and I haven't the slightest doubt that such a capacity is almost permanently necessary to advance. I think I'll strive to be, in that sense, the consummate beginner. Had I any ego about Yin Style anyway, it only takes about eleven seconds in the presence of He Jinbao to correct that. I try to keep that in mind when I train... there's a long way to go, and even he is serious about the fact that the ancestors in bagua had even higher skill than we can hope for.

As I mentioned a bit of my workout and consider that a function of this journal, I'll comment a bit on it since I am a bit excited about what I consider a decent "four-pillar day." Like usual, I didn't just turn today, though I didn't turn as long as I wanted to. Before I turned, I did strikes and forms, touching on every single one of the twenty-four basic Lion system strikes before I finished, some of which I was glad to review. When I got to turning, I felt great and strong. The shadow of my posture on the ground looked good, and it felt powerful and correct. Unfortunately, an unannounced visitor that would be weirded out and who needs not to be weirded out showed up as I was crossing the half-hour mark, and I dutifully ran away to preserve a slight semblance of normalcy for the people that aren't really involved in my life that come by (but are involved in my wife's business in a client way). So life and turning don't always mesh neatly, but that's alright. We live; we train; we adapt; we get on with it. Personally, I made up for it with additional standing postures and strike work later before going on a quick five-mile walk in a local park with the fam.

Though it's off-topic, I'm kind of excited to see that my readership has expanded from essentially non-existent to something I might jokingly call world-wide appeal, including but not limited to Sweden, Michigan, the Pacific Northwest, New York, ?? in middle America, and last, but uncomfortably not least, Beijing (hi Matt). For several weeks I've been keeping my eyes open for "China-Dots" on my map, and lo, they've begun to appear.

Let's keep this in perspective, though. Maybe soon I'll actually hit ten distinct readers in a day! Here's to dreaming.