Rebuilding Connections

The other day, my students and I went to visit an old friend of mine, Master Mark Preader. He operates a West Coast World Martial Arts school in Hollister, and he was kind enough to open his school to us in order to share a sweaty workout with both old and new friends. (Thanks KJN Mark!)

I've been making a concerted effort to reconnect with people who have been a part of my martial arts journey. In this case, I would have never met Mark were it not for visits like this, because we trained at different schools under different instructors. It warms my heart to be able to share experiences like this with my students, especially because mine were so valuable to me.

For a while, I had lost sight of this. When I was operating my school, I became mired in the day-to-day work (my lack of business mastery at the time) and I began to withdraw from the larger martial arts community, including all of the friends that I had made along the way. As I became more proficient with the business, I had formed a habit of keeping to myself.

In the past few years, I've come to realize just how much I've needed to reconnect. It inspires me to push for excellence because I see the different ways that my friends and peers have created excellence in their lives, and it broadens my perspective. It also inspires me to become more compassionate and understanding, since everyone's journey has been unique and full of their own challenges and victories.

Most importantly, it's reminded me of the value of my connections because they've all been a part of making me who I am today, and also because building bridges to link people is far more useful than building walls to separate them.

Time Out For What Matters

I visited my cousin in the hospital today. She's begun treatment for Type-B large cell lymphoma, and it's tricky because she's also six months pregnant. Today, I set aside plans and made sure to stop by to comfort her and to help her pass the time as she waits in bed for the stream of medical personnel to perform tests and observe her reactions.

She's in good spirits, and for this, I'm glad. However, I think a part of me also realized that I often get too caught up in my daily routines and forget to share time with family and friends. Holidays, weddings, illness, and funerals shouldn't be the only times that I see my relatives.

In my own process of developing myself, I need to expand my awareness and my consciousness in layers. This begins with myself and expands outwards. I cannot skip layers of social consciousness and claim that I'm some kind of role model, if all I've done is to support noble causes by sacrificing quality connections with family and friends, or by ignoring my responsibilities at work, etc. I need to balance all of these things.

I need to evaluate the way I prioritize my time so that I can begin to share more time with those who are closest to me. That's what this boils down to.

Update 6/7: My cousin was discharged from the hospital today. She gets to go home. Yay!