Another Family Affair

Feeling a little sad at the end of my brother's visit, I went to the temple on Tuesday night for a shot of action meditation. The class was extremely small and fast with Joshua and Chris E. leading the line (welcome back Joshua!). The Chi was high but everybody was tired. However Shifu was in a good crazy chi mood the entire class. He came up with funniest bits while we did the basics. He showed off his super stretch during the break, encouraged and corrected us while we had one-on-one teaching sessions. And most importantly, he mumbled "hmmm alotta chi" at the end of my Dahongquan!

It was as if he was compensating for my blahh. I know it's just me trying to reach out but like other people said - things are what you want it to be. I wanted the temple to be there for me that day and it did. By the end of the class, I was sweaty, smelly, and exhausted - but I was happy to be there.

A Family Affair

Yesterday's class was quite a lot of fun. Sucheela's brother was there, as was Zu's sister, and Zhou and Lukas both had friends trying class. I also discovered that one of the new girls I taught later in class was Zhi's sister. It was a big class with lots of chi and I enjoyed it immensely: except the whole coughing up a lung thing.

I'm no longer infected with any disease (hooray!) but the winter air is still congesting my lungs, and when I start breathing heavily the coughing and hacking being. I apologize to everyone I disgusted yesterday. It's completely involuntary. My body is trying to de-phlegm itself and I'm simply along for the ride.

In spite of this, I really did have a good time. I felt flexible (from having three days off) and energized (again, three days off) and really enjoyed the enthusiasm the group carried through the whole class even when Sifu gave us no walks.

I'm really happy to get back to the no walking breaks. I feel like I get mentally weak when I have these expected rests. I want to push myself without stopping. God knows sometimes the thought of that walk is the extra boost that helps me get through the fifth round of jumps, but really, you don't need it. Especially in a class that large. And with the weather taking a sudden dip back to regular November temperatures, too much stopping and there's going to be some cold muscles and accidentally injury. I only hope that when my sister comes for Thanksgiving we can pull together a class with equally awesome chi; it will be my second sister I drag to training, I hope she is as enthusiastic as my last.