First of all, I pray that everyone is having a great start to a great new year – 2010!  Don’t take a single day for granted, the year is what you make of it.  Just think, if we could all be as focused and productive each day, like we are at work (or school) on the last day prior to a long vacation or trip…we’d get so much done by the end of the year.  Secondly for those wondering about our annual potluck get-together, we purposely decided to avoid the busy Christmas/New Year’s period….right now, we’re looking at having it on a Saturday – a potluck lunch sometime in February.  I’ll let you folks know the place and time soon.  Should be lots of fun and we’ll have prizes and games as usual.

Remember that old saying?…”Because the cells that make up the human body are dying and being replenished (at differing rates, depending upon the cell type) continuously, at the end of every seven year cycle, you’re a completely different person made up of completely different cells.”  As with everything else, there is a basic truth in that saying.  As I recall, the cells have varying lifetimes, ranging from blood cells – which, I think, last around 90 days, to one’s brain cells, which you’re stuck with, pretty much, for your life-time.  Everywhere you look, there are all kinds of cycles around us: the daytime/nighttime cycle, the tidal cycle, the seasons of the year, and so on, ad infinitum.

I find that to be a fascinating concept – the seven year cycle.  If true, it would mean that after training for at least seven years in karate-do, you would have been practicing the art for the whole life of your present body ;)…except for the brain cells.  Of course, nowadays, it’s thought that we learn and acquire knowledge through the creation of innumerable new synapses versus just the the neurons that these connect to.  Perhaps one reaches a new level of understanding with the passing of each regrowth cycle.

What’s this thing about “Keep stirring on low heat”?  I’ve said many times before, that steadily practicing karate basics is kind of like stirring a pot of pudding or gravy on the stove top.  It starts off watery and even though you stir and stir (over a low heat), it takes anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes before the pudding/gravy begins to thicken into that familiar rich, creamy texture.  Until it is ready to thicken, it doesn’t matter how fast you stir or how hard you stir…it won’t happen until it’s ready to happen.  Karate is like that; you train and train, with what appears to be little improvement for years.  Then, one day, you make a little progress here, get a little faster/stronger there, or make a breakthrough in better understanding of a particular technique.  It usually means that some part of your body, mind or spirit hs taken a small step forward along the path…in it’s own timing.  The main rule is not to quit keeping the low heat and to continue stirring…or punching or kicking or just plain trying – and voila!  You reach pudding…or gravy…or Satori.  Hang in there folks.