Keep on trying

Well a lot has been happening to me lately. I went to my doctor for the results of my blood tests and I now have arthritis in my joints. Needless to say the pain has been very persistent and has made me cut back on my activities. I seem to have it all over in every joint it seems. When I have to work overtime at work it gets worse. So my kung fu has been neglected because of all the pain I keep on having. Repetitive motions are the worst. So at black belt class  last night I went in not expecting anything special. Boy was I wrong. We had the best class ever. I've finally see a way to maintain my kung fu with all my aches and pains. It has to do with the 6 harmonies. I feel the external ones right away if I don't have them lined up properly so I work very hard to keep them together. We have been working on the internal harmonies and it has eluded us all for a long time. Getting our intent to drive the bus so to speak has been a real struggle for many of us. Last night It clicked. It has to do with how we are constantly readjusting our intent as we do our kung fu. Punch is coming so we must block then counter. Now as a black belt we are constantly going through all the micro adjustments all the time and this is what is constantly changing our intent. It's not just step one then 2 then 3. from one to 2 there are hundreds of adjustments we make as we go to get from intercept , block then counter. It is theses adjustments we are continually doing that is connected to our intent. So to execute a block counter with intent we are now realizing the full potential of the release of our chi at the end of our counter. This I can practice on my own with my forms. It has opened up a whole new way of thinking about all my forms and how vitally important they will always be in our progress to mastery.
I am very glad now that I went to class even if I'm sitting on the bench you never know when a jewel of a class happens and your there for it. So I will be attending classes again every Thursday  even if it's bench warming the thrill of learning kung fu doesn't get any better than this I truly do love my Kung fu. Sifu Jeannette Langner