Lighten Up Already

So this week I've been learning a lot about myself. We had dinner with our worship pastor on Sunday and as we were sitting there talking, I had a revelation about myself. I tend to be very analytical in thought. Wow, even how I said that sounded analytical. I think I get it from my dad. My father went to school for engineering and then became a fighter pilot and I was always envious of how he could learn something so quickly. Things came to him with almost scientific precision. I've started doing that in a lot of things that I do.

The dojo where I am taking Karate at is hosting it's annual tournament, The Battle of Shuri Castle. It's based on a historic battle that happened in Okinawa which is pretty important in the history of karate. In anticipation of the tournament, we've started training very hard. We're still doing the same things that we normally do, but now it's with the intent to test our skills against opponents. Well, yesterday I was at class and we did tournament style kata training. Normally when we do our kata (kata are predefined forms/motions similar to a dance meant to train your muscle memory so when you have to fight it comes naturally) we do them full on power train. Kata done correctly should be tiring. However, when you do it tournament style, you make sure to add times for pause so you can get the effect. It tends to be a little more flow-wy than how we normally do it.

My problem was that I was thinking far too much about what I was doing and ended up botching things that I know down to my core. Rather than trusting my muscles to remember what I've done so many times, I was focussed on everything else. I later did the same thing while sparring, but that's a whole other story for another day.

The point of all this is that at some point, you have to be able to trust that you CAN do something. If you make a mistake, you can't dwell on it otherwise you'll get pummeled. If you spend all day second guessing everything you do, you'll never have time to move forward.

I've learned that as we get closer to adoption, I'm going to need to trust God and not focus on little mistakes that we're sure to make along the way. If I do that, I might just miss out on the beauty of what we're doing. We're bringing our family home, and I don't want to miss that.

Interestingly enough, the style of Karate I take is called Shorin-Ryu, which means "small forest style". If I'm to be good at things, I need to focus on the forest and not the trees.

So, lighten up already...