Time gets away from you if you aren't careful. It
did for me. I turned fifty late in 2015.
It is an odd thing to contemplate.
I have read that we are not as “present” as we age: we decide this
experience is like memory 73b, while that one is a 52a, etc., instead of taking
each moment as new. I think that is correct. Time management hasn't been my
strong point since returning from Iraq.
War changes people.
Chronic injuries, fallout from the war, and
illnesses major and minor have been allowed to dominate my life. Add to that
the loss of our parents, my wife’s half-sister and aunt; our younger daughter’s
divorce and move home; and several other family-related issues, and I'm in the
worst shape I've been in for many years.
After several false starts, the time to turn things
around has arrived. I am the most focused that I have been in years, and it
feels good. It took me years to fall to where I am now so it is going to be a
long road for me. If there is one thing I learned from military service,
though, it is to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Crazy
thing is, as an out-of-shape, overweight man of fifty, I am looking forward to
it.
Goals are important in life, doubly so in a venture
of this sort. So, what do I need to do?
- Cultivate a positive, motivated mental state.
- Get more rest. I've got to stop burning my candle at both ends.
- Eat right. No more junk food and beverages. LOTS of greens, veggies, fruits and water.
- Rebuild my endurance while building muscle. Get strong. Get stronger still. Body weight calisthenics seem the best route.
- Regain my flexibility. Lots of Taoist yoga and qigong/neigong, power yoga, and silat yoga.
- Walking, cycling and swimming. With my legs, running is out.
- Lose about sixty pounds by the end of 2017. I will regroup then and see where I'm at.
- As for martial arts, I’ll be practicing American Kuntao Silat as a distance student. We plan to relocate to the Wisconsin area early next year, so I don’t see much point in trying to take a class locally. I’m also planning to supplement that with a distance class in the internal Chinese arts, but haven’t decided on a particular one yet. I’m still weighing the options.
This is where I'm going to chart my journey as I
renew my commitment to healing and the martial arts. Come along with me if you
like. I'll learn things from you. I hope
that you learn things from me, too. And
we'll both be better for it.
Masaaki Hatsumi, Soke of the Bujinkan, said, “Ever
tried? Ever failed? No matter! Try again. Fail again. Fail better! Understand?
Good. Play.”
