Attention!

Last night, after a string of non-stop humidity-filled days, the temperature in Temple was, dare I say it, almost tolerable, when I arrived with a few minutes to spare. I changed quickly and spotted some people I hadn't seen at training in a while, which energized me.

I seemed to be cruising along (well, not feeling like I was gonna pass out) until Shifu barked at me to move to the other side, to even out the line. It jolted me into tengkong fanyao, and I tried to be sharper.

Then, when we got into lines to do yiluquan, I started out at the front line at the end, and thought there weren't enough people at the back, so I made a move to fill in, but Shifu again yelled at me to stay where I was and demanded to know where I was going. He said I was training sleepy style.

He might have called my name again at some point during class but I lost track.

It had been a while since Shifu yelled at me for something like this -- not for poor execution of any particular basic or movement, but rather, for something as essential as paying attention. We must listen with Chi!

At first it surprised me to hear him directing his words at me, but in the end, it resulted in me being more careful with how I conducted myself for the remainder of class. When Shifu is paying attention, I end up paying more attention.