The Power of Influence

I had a bit of a revelation today and once again it was through my little one. This revelation shot me back to a memory of when I was a yellow belt and I was putting her to bed. While she brushed her teeth and what have you, I started doing push ups. Half way through she came out of the bathroom, watched what I was doing and asked me what I was doing, and of course at that time, WHY? I said because it was part of my Kung Fu training. She immediately dropped down and started doing push ups with Dad. At that time she was 4 years old. Many a night she would do push ups and sit ups with me.
Fast forward a few more years and she was a student of Silent River. Things rolled along quite well for a while until the next interest came about which required more time and more classes. Kung Fu took a back seat. But Kung Fu took a back seat for some one else as well. The source of inspiration stopped being an inspiration. She wasn't seeing the presence of Dad's training anymore. Dad became busy with work and Dad also didn't have the security blanket of an instructor to keep him in check. Dad became a Sihing and the rest was up to me. Suddenly dance class took a prescience over Kung Fu. Sudddenly Dad's work took priority over everything. Suddenly we weren't doing Hsieh Hsien together anymore. She wasn't seeing Dad doing push ups and sit ups, form work, basically nothing except the odd random blast of kicks. Now one parent was no longer present to help share with the transportation. All of a sudden there was an absence in the kwoon, a continuous absence that grew into, "should you just leave Kung Fu for now, maybe go back  later..... we all know as martial artists, later never comes.

This trip has changed things. My little one is seeing Dad training, doing forms, doing push ups and recording them and it has inspired her to want to go back to Kung Fu. That's just way cool.
  It was brought up a while ago at the kwoon, how cool it would be to have pictures of students doing push ups all over the world. This agenda has never left me and my girls know that at the drop of a hat, if we find some place cool or memorable, Dad's going to be doing push ups and somebody better have a camera ready. Which brings me to the whole point of this blog. Today as I went into position, my little one asked me, "Dad can I do push ups with you?" Of course I said, let's do it. She kept up with me 25 straight, I couldn't have been more proud. Proud of her, and proud to be a source of influence. Inspiration is everywhere, as is opportunity for shared engagement. Today was just cool. See you at the Kwoon.