The specifics attached to the generalities of my last post are that I have decided I would like to become more involved with my TKD dojang. I think I'll be living in this area another few years. So I'm allowing myself to dig in a bit. It's odd because I've been "temporary" for the last couple of years - first, eight months in MO, then senior year at PHC with no idea what was coming next. In a way, I had few roots anywhere when I graduated, thus the bizarre "homeless" feeling.

So anyway, this Saturday I work the PHC graduation in the morning and early afternoon, but by 2:00 I have to be at my dojang, wearing my dobak, for Kukkiwon black belt testing. Turns out I was never officially registered at the Kukkiwon in Korea, despite the fact that I have been a first-dan black belt for six years now. I need to get that official before I can push forward to second dan.

In prep for Saturday, I need to attend class as much as I can this week. I went to two classes in a row on Monday evening, and I'm doing the same tonight. Thursday, I'll go for my regular one hour. The second classes Mon/Wed are for instructors, one of whom I hope to become. Warmups for these higher-level classes begin by doing "ten tens," meaning that everyone falls down gracefully and safely, does ten crunches, ten leg lifts, and ten pushups - then repeats the whole set of exercises ten times total, as quickly as possible. After that, we proceed to other things. ;)

Needless to say, my abs protested yesterday and this morning at the slightest use. And I'm looking forward to tonight. ;) My TKD community is a good place to invest myself in loving others, especially those who don't know my Lord and Savior.  ¶ 6:39 AM (2) comments

  There comes a moment when you commit to someone or something, which is the same as admitting that you love that person or thing. You stop holding back, and you give yourself with gusto and abandon. But in so doing, you give another power to hurt you and thereby to change you. Never commit, never love - and you never get hurt. Also, you never live.

Life itself is love - the extrusion of self into the world. That makes Jesus the personification of God's love. Living love, wholly love, utterly selfless. He kept nothing back.

Funny thing is, the more self extruded, the more a harsh world chops it off, the less "self" you have left. In losing earthly self, you find eternal self. The soul shines brighter and more pure. And so the strangest paradox of all is this - the more you love, the less this world can touch the essential you.  ¶ 7:09 AM (0) comments