Reminders of Kindness

Last week, I had one of those days that started off pretty poorly; oversleeping, forgetting stuff at home, forgetting breakfast, all the stuff that can put someone in a bad mood in the morning. I was dropped to a poor enough state that I had already written the day off and it wasn’t even 9AM. 

At some point, I left my desk for about 30min for a meeting. When I got back, there was a letter on it. “Weird, I don’t get letters often”, I thought. But hey, my name was on it, and there it was. 

It was a birthday card, from one of the people I attended training in Ottawa with nearly 10 months ago (the postage strike can be blamed for getting it a month late). I have rarely spoken to this person since training (despite getting along with them really well), nor do I recall ever telling them when my birthday was. But they sent me a card, along with a postcard from the Yukon (where they are from), and photos we had taken while in Ottawa. 

They could have just sent me a text or an email saying happy birthday and that would have been enough to make me smile. But they went a step (or two) above. The impact of receiving that letter was enough to turn my day around on the spot. 

It was a really good reminder to me how impactful acts of kindness can have on a person. I recount my AoK at the end of my day, before bed. Lately, I have started to lose sight of the purpose of the AoK and it became something I was just moving through the motions of. I am glad this letter came a month late; it came exactly when I needed it.  

Silly Goofs

Something I enjoy about the breaks is the opportunity to focus more on my own things and less on teaching. Don’t get me wrong; I greatly enjoy teaching. However, there are times where it feels like it takes up all of my energy and focus when on the mats, so I appreciate the chance to recenter. 

This last week, I torqued my knee while working on my lion dancing. I’ve been really focusing on the level of emotion I can convey using only my legs and have been experimenting with implementing more aggression and intensity to some of my steps to display a more “stern” side of the lion. I got carried away at one point and, with not a lot of energy left in the tank, stepped a little too hard and rolled into my knee. 

While the injury was minor to begin with, the mistake I made was continuing to aggravate it. Not my usual “I can keep going” sort of aggravation, but more of a “thinking it’s good and taking a bit too much risk” type of aggravation. Once I thought it was good, I went skiing. A little slip on the ice, and it was not so good anymore. Since then, I have been really listening to it and been pacing myself slowly, while trying to not be afraid of it either. 

One of my biggest developments over the last year or so is working on my understanding of my body and making sure I don’t abuse or take advantage of it. The more lessons I learn, the more I am able to grow to this end. 

Numbers (per last 7 days)

PU

62-93-62-31-780-0-20

SU

93-93-62-31-800-0-20

KM (total per last 7)

28.5km

AoK

5 per day