We’ve always known but never expected at the blink of an eye, the world can go kaput. This year has been a rather unique one and one that many of us are happy to see the end of. Instead of having a sulk, think about the positives you have encountered instead.
For us, it all began early in the year. Our sensei and other members in Oki confirming that they would be coming to visit and train with us in February, we were ecstatic. After countless years of them beating around the bush, it all finally came to fruition. My gut feeling has always been that they look at the three of us as jovial happy-go-lucky characters who don’t take anything too seriously…maybe a little too relaxed for their liking to depend on in terms of arranging everything for their trip….especially in a foreign country they had never visited before. Little did they know that when my OCD button is pushed, everything will always be organised down to a tee with a back-up plan of another back-up in place. Meeting our students for the first time, a sigh of relief could be felt coming from our sensei that we did in fact have serious-minded people in our group, not just a bunch of Allan, Terrys and Craigs…. what’s wrong with that anyway?? 😊
Come end of March, COVID restrictions really hit everyone here in Brissy. And the positive from all of this? Since our Dojos are part of our homes, there was no major changes in our personal training routine. Can you imagine doing ZOOM lessons? Ha- Absolutely not! Online lessons are still rampant even within OGKK around the world, something I can’t see the benefit of…but we’ll simply leave it at that.
By May I had lost my job which meant more time with the family and friends, time for DIY renos, and just time to be…How often does one get to sit and purposely do nothing? By this I mean, avoiding phones, technology and anything else that people seem to be occupied with these days. We are always happy to charge our mobiles and tablets straight away, but often neglect charging our own.
Mid-year is here and the first official Brisbane OGKK “grading” was held. Just like us, we are very fortunate that our students genuinely don’t care about rank, instead, focus on their own training as a part of daily life. A grading for us is just another excuse to get together, have a chat and laugh. Always nice to be able to do that with good company. And you wonder why so many Okinawans live such a long life, there is no secret or rocket science, it’s all about the people who you are surrounded with.
Come September, we were contacted by OGKK Honbu in Okinawa requesting us to participate in “Karate Day” being held online and streamed live to the world. Nervous, honoured, why us? - would be best to describe some of our emotions as we still and probably always will consider ourselves as little insignificant nobodies just doing our thing in our backyards.
October is upon us and this man has finally scored himself a job! Not just any job, an extra low paying slave labour 9-5 one 😊 ! For the non-Aussie readers out there, the government was and still is funding a COVID jobless scheme where each person is paid such and such amount per fortnight. The total sum has been actually more than what many workers were receiving prior to redundancy, so to this day, people are still happily unemployed by choice. Those that know me however, understand that sitting still is probably one of the toughest challenges in life. And so, I informed my new boss during the interview that I’d be more than happy to work for free, just needed to keep my mind active and what better way to do that than learning new skills in a totally different industry. He couldn’t understand why I sounded so motivated and was willing to do such work, comparable to why so many outsiders don’t understand the reasons we barely / don’t charge anything for training. Waking up with no purpose in life, you might as well jump off a cliff – we all need meaning and a sense of direction to function – well I do anyway. I have found that moving into a new field away from my comfort zone has really opened many new opportunities to arise. To be restricted to only what I know would be like not searching or probing deeper into my own training. Bizarre analogy? Hmmm maybe.
So our final training session for the year finished up tonight followed by a quiet little get-together. Here I am sitting back and reflecting on the year that was. It was evident that all students have progressed by leaps and bounds both mentally and physically, started to think and resolve for themselves, and some have even started building their own little dojos at home. A year in which there were many weird and wonderful inquiries and a year where adapting to change was inevitable. It was also the year where new karate connections were made – both in the real world and online, and old connections rekindled. You see, 2020 wasn’t so bad after all – no matter how bleak a situation may be, it’s what you make out of it. Hopefully, yours was just as 👍 as ours. Happy new year everyone and stay safe!
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