Tai Chi Me/Kung Fu You

It's been a week since my last post.  I've been stretched and pulled, groaning and grunting, and at one point I almost hyperventilated, from my three hour Yin/Yang stretching and conditioning class.  In one week I went to Tai Chi class, then I went to my first Kung Fu class, where I learned how much fun it can be to jab someone in the throat with your elbow, and then on Saturday I went to the three hour stretching and conditioning class.

Have I lost my mind or am I so dazed by the magic of Kung Fu that I can't stop myself?  I think it's a little of both.  I mean let's face it, I'm 49 years old, starting martial arts.  Everytime I stand next to that little 6 year old boy who out ranks me, and gives me the eye, I just want to say "what the hell are YOU looking at?!!".  But hey, this is a different system and culture and the little tike out ranks me, so pride aside, he gets my respect.  And guess what, I'm actually starting to get some of the form down.  I don't want to get too excited about it, because I need to stay humble, but I am kinda excited that I'm learning and that my body is holding up to the postures and forms.

And here's a little secret.  I'm also studying martial arts because it makes me a better Witch.  As I was perusing my favorite used bookstore, Westside Books, about a year ago, I found a book called a "A Grimore of Shadows" by Ed Fitch.  The pages in the book were slightly aged and it had these groovy illustrations.  Ed Fitch was a close friend of the Bucklands and he wrote this book to help Witches create and run covens, and also to continue to grow in their craft.  I was reading the book, I came across a chapter where Ed said that as Witches we should be proficient in the defensive arts of our time.  We should know how to defend ourselves, using whatever modalities of our culture and time are available to us.  That really stuck with me.  Granted I've always had a fascination with martial arts, but when I read what Ed Fitch said, it stuck.  Hence I now find myself in these classes.

I took a plunge tonight and signed up for a six month membership.  I was going to sign up for a year, but one thing about being 49 is that I know myself now, and I can get bored with taking these classes just as fast as I got excited by them.  However I'm hoping I can stick with it, because I'm having a good time and I'm learning things about me and my capabilites that I never knew.

End Trans - 1/20/10