11 on its way
January 6, 2012Ok. I know I say it every year that the year went by fast. This year didn’t just go by fast; it broke the sound barrier a few times over. And I have agreement with many others, so it must be true! Anyway, wow, this year was zipped by. As has become my tradition at the turn of the numbers I stop to look back at the previous year to take stock, see the paths traveled and celebrate what was before turning to dance into the oncoming year. Let the film roll…
As always, long post ahead.
For Further Confusion this year I had no skit, nor even an attempted skit… so instead I chose to delve into the official events track for both my tai chi classes as well as adding a Shaolin Wu Bu Quan seminar as well as a Stage Fighting seminar. And wow, they were all rocking, with oodles of people coming out for them all. With the Tai Chi on the official events track they were packed full, which was exhilarating, Evan came out to assist me in the Wu Bu Quan seminar and it was very fun teaching with him, and Rev and I had a lot of fun leading the stage fighting. Also got to hang out with and meet a gaggle of new people, I missed the skating events (next year I’m bringing my fursuit on Friday too, darnet!), got to actually be in the audience for the variety show this time, and had a fortuitously found banner to carry in the parade that was perfect for the theme. All in all I enjoyed myself and it was a fun way to start off the year.
This year saw the continuation of managing my thyroid issue, including the gluten free diet and, after some more tests, an even more restrictive diet due to some cross-reactivities. The good news was all in all it was a success, and my energy levels improved a lot during the year, allowing me to ramp up my exercise once more. The unfortunate news was the April humorous kung fu accident that did my ankle in and thereby kaiboshed both climbing and that exercise ramp up. The ankle finally felt mostly healed by year’s end, and I’ve just started a set of treatments that has the promise of turning off some, most or even all of my reactivities. Fingers crossed, for it could mean a return to the SUPER EATING in 2012. Not that it’s likely I’ll ever be able to be a gluten hound ever again, but it will still afford much greater food freedom and tasting delight.
And not that I didn’t eat deliciously in 2011 by any stretch. MMMM, good food.
I got to attend a fabulous dinner featuring William McDonough and Michael Braungart who spoke and re-created the world for their Cradle to Cradle initiative (which is now fortunately a 3rd party non-profit independent organization). It was inspiring and a great chance to meet not only them but others who are interested in that whole world. Later in the year I delivered to the whole office a presentation I put together on green architecture coming from, as I put it, the primordial, that is, from design and intention from the ground up, rather than relying on materials or systems tacked onto an existing building typology. This had its roots in some of the Cradle to Cradle precepts, but also from the TED lecture I’ve been slowly writing. It was a great presentation and I loved being able to create that idea for everyone. Late in the year I got to start preliminary work on a pair of buildings going for LEED C+S Silver certification. Unfortunately, that was the extent of it and so my otherwise grand plans to push and transition into being the green architect I want to be went mostly unfulfilled, as did me finishing off that TED lecture. They both remain on the plate for this coming year!
It was another year full of Kung Fu and Tai Chi and, despite my injury, I gained so many incredible insights this year, and by year’s end they were coming so much in droves I was having difficulty incorporating and exploring them all before forgetting about them. I love this so much, the never-ending discovery and growth and the new feeling that comes with it. So excited. And still so much more to go. I ended the year with several students for my kung fu class and am enjoying teaching, and I signed up for the upcoming study tour! I started the year with a little burst of work on the Shaolin books, then let it slide for a bit as I was awaiting comments from others, and then it just slid right off my radar with no completion, le sigh. It really has been too many years, it’s silly at this point. I have a plan for how to, no really, complete it this coming year and so by gods I will get it done, and let this fabulous knowledge Sifu has be shared with everyone. Just reading what is posted on Sifu’s blog is always great, and that needs to be shared far and wide. Kung Fu and Tai Chi remain a huge part of my life and I can never leave a class unhappy.
Along with the insights in KF/TC, this year was mind-blowing on the personal and transformational front. It really got going very early on when I watched Brene Brown’s TED lecture on Vulnerability a few times over the course of a couple of weeks and suddenly something went CLUNK one night, leading me to just this whole new magical space beyond where I’d been before of greater freedom, relatedness and self-expression. A week later I was so in the dumps it was hilarious. She in her lecture describes her own journey as “a year-long slugfest,” and it occurred for me as such as well, pushing forward, being pushed back, forward, back, all the while tacking steadily towards more and more amazingness, ease, love and all that vulnerability can make available. And I’m excited as I still have several months to go before the year-long is over with. Like kung fu there is always more to open here, and it just keeps making life more and more delicious, to feel freely, to experience things as richly as they can be experienced, and to live with gusto, every moment.
Burning Man is a place one could say is filled with gusto, and I chose to hit up the playa again this year. The kwoon grew quite fantastically as a project this year, with a high number of guest instructors as well as participants who joined us in our temple for various martial arts, yoga, meditation, and more. I can only repeat here what I said last year of the joy of providing something for people and the passion, peace and gratitude it inspired. The deliveries were lesser this year, and I had forgotten how much fun they were and how much it got people excited and involved even as we ran by. After the first few minutes of our first run, though, it all came back. I went to BM again with just the intent of no intent save of being present. BM can be a transformational event if you let it, and I did, and even had a transformational dream while there that expanded my exploration into the world of Vulnerability. Everyone in our camp was awesome and I had fun (re)meeting them and hanging out and sharing and helping out in mardi gras and eating lots of gumbo and crawfish and delivering wine and being offered unbelievable aged scotch and all the camaraderie, great people who were generous and loving.
Of course there was the Thunderdome, an almost singular experience in of itself at BM for me, tying together nicely the ontological and martial threads into a ten minute festival of being amazingly present, moving newly and freely the body, engaged in sparring openly, and throwing in some show biz as I do. It definitely left an impression.
I got many wonderful opportunities this year to be social, meeting new people, visiting/visits, and catching up with friends – a year of people. I got a great visit from an old High School friend, was introduced to and discovered lots of new faces, spent great times with friends, freely shared stories and experiences, lunches, dinners, teas, walks, movies, museums and more, and I had the amazing experience of, after a lifetime of nary ever meeting even one single other Oliver (other than my cousin), having a year where I meet or nearly meet some nearly twelve Olivers. Including the one on the train we were both taking to SF after leaving Stanford where he works in a lab I designed. Too darned funny. Laugher. Conversations. Support. Discovery. Sharing. Amusement. I loved and “lost”.
Some other highlights of the year… My Bloodstone Campaign continued this year, albeit with some big breaks in playing and the difficulty of keeping the world alive in your head. And we worked on that indeed and we have gotten very near the end of this chapter in the campaign. I didn’t get my next D&D supplement quite completed nor published, and thanks to work during the holiday break it is close! Saw Eddie Izzard and laughed and laughed and laughed. Saw the new Cirque show. Watched the entire Trois Couleurs film trilogy and had amazing hour long explorative conversations after each one. Saw the movies in theatre that needed seeing. Visited the De Young, Chabot and Royal Ontario Museums. Got some good work done on the house and the yards. Finally finished my planter beds, hooray! Vegetables of home grown awesomeness here we come! Edited and published another amazing year of Aurora magazine. I bought a lightsabre! And became giddy and excited and have dueled! Helped a friend design a house addition, then assisted them in drawing and getting it all through the permit process such that it’s nearly all done. Went to the Digital Moose Lounge Canada Day Picnic. Danced with abandon. Discovered and was introduced to some great new music. Rode the roller coaster of life.
And now the big 12 is upon us. May it be a grand year for us all, and may we live it fully, every single day.
