A new way of life

Decades~ yes decades~ ago, I took Judo in college. I really enjoyed it too, especially when I sent a football player twice my size to the mat with one flip.

This month, my family and I started Martial Arts classes. We're learning Tao Hsieh Wu Shu - The way of unified martial arts. It's hard work (really hard work~ much harder than it was in college) in a Christian environment and we're loving it!

Earlier tonight we learned some kicks and pounded the daylights out of the mats and the instructors holding them too.

We also celebrated birthdays with games and treats after class. We played the concentration game where everyone~ from age 5 and up~ stood in ready position (feet together, hands in praying position) and could blink, breathe, and swallow. Nothing else.

The instructors tried many ways to get us to do anything else but those three things.

I'm glad to say four out of five of us went the distance and stayed in the game till the end.

Then we played a foot game where the goal was to step on other people's feet without them stepping on yours. If you got stepped on, you were out.

My goal was to get my hubby out. And I did it! Winning the whole game was icing on the cake after that.

But we came home and practiced some and I could feel every old muscle in my legs screaming for mercy. My kids were tired too, but they wanted to keep working on what we'd learned.

That's one reason I'm so very thankful for this family class. My girls are learning discipline and loving it, as well as a whole new experience in respect with bowing and showing respect to higher belts and instructors.

Plus, we're exercising and have a great time doing it.

In many ways it's a whole new way of life for us. Class twice a week. Practice. Conditioning.

But it's amazing. And I'm sure someday my experiences will end up in a book.

After all, life is great fodder for writing!