Support and encouragement makes a huge difference! Over the past year I have shared with friends, family and co-workers some details about my personal goal of achieving Shodan (1st degree black belt). I shared…

Meditation in micro-doses One of our Black Belt requirements is 15 minutes of daily meditation. Finding or making a contiguous 15 minutes of time with family, job (and early AM calls), karate class & training and…

Another night of blackout The last big storm that whipped through Sacramento caused a lot of power outages. Fallen trees and limbs plus overhead power lines do not make for a good combination. We lost power for 2.5…

1,000 Acts of Kindness (3.5 acts per day ~13 months), black belt requirement When I first reviewed this black belt requirement with Sensei Oliver, I thought to myself, “How will I achieve that? How does one m…

New Year’s Day 5-mile bike ride and finish with Gumbo! What a way to start the new year! A friend of mine who is a local and well known chef hosted a bike ride and lunch of gumbo with rice and cornbread muffins (…