I hope you have an amazing holiday season this year!  We are doing some pretty awesome things to celebrate family, friends and having fun.  We are doing an American Ninja Warrior Camp or Olde Fashioned Game Night or even our testing in late December it's all geared towards being together.  Being together is what makes us appreciate each other even more.  It's pretty amazing that many of us come from all walks of life but have one goal and that's to be our best.  So this holiday season enjoy each others unique gifts and abilities and understand that we are all trying to do our best with what we have.  So no matter what you celebrate or don't celebrate this holiday season I wish you the best.

I know super controversial but not the way I am going to talk about it.  Regardless of how you feel about the history of Thanksgiving it's important to know that how we perceive it toady in our current culture is a bit askew.  The fact that we have to have a day of reflection to remember our blessings seems odd to me.  If it's a time to gather family together and celebrate the beginning of the holiday season that seems odd to me too.  I firmly believe that we need to live in the present.  Tomorrow as they say is never promised.  If you are not living daily with gratitude and spending time with your loved ones often then it's time to reflect on what's important.  Value isn't a reflection of worth.  The priceless memories I have stored in my noggin are probably the simplest most spontaneous moments that just happened because I was engaged and present in the moment.  If your trying to create a memory you should rethink your position.  Creating is done because the thing you desire is not present.   Living is what we do effortlessly because that's what we are here in this moment to do.  Think about the moments you share and make those the memories that endure.  I hope you have a day that you are grateful for because of the priceless interactions and joyful celebration of just being together not because the calendar said so.

In our area there are some awesome martial arts schools.  We are pretty lucky to have so many talented people in such a small area.  I know that people often want to compare one school to another and have that sort of pride about where they train.  It's a slippery slope though.  We all teach the same kicks, blocks and punches for the most part.  I would even dare to say that we all try and teach the same values that make martial arts so great.  Every now and then I will hear some rumblings of students that are unhappy and glad they found us.  That to me is really cool in the fact that they love martial arts so much to continue it just wasn't the right fit.  Just remember there is plenty of room for great schools in Spokane and each one has something to offer.  Schools will come and go and that's for variety of reasons such as lack of business skills, ego, poor customer service and so on.  Don't judge anyone on technique or about teaching instead get back to me in 20 years and see what sort of people were produced from their martial arts training. 

I have been very blessed to have some great mentors and coaches in my life.  Now some were amazing people and martial artists and others were well, were not so good.  They each taught me lessons on what was possible.  Both groups the good and the bad had a positive contribution on my personal growth and development.  Sometimes when you have something in your life that is so opposing to your goals you can't help but to work harder to move on from it.  Sometimes you learn more in a single lesson than in a year of training.  It goes like that.  We look for the home run each time we get a chance to shine.  Instead we should look for lessons in our failures and our foibles.  Those are the lessons that sting the most but move us forward to what we really wan.  Either way we still learn.