Silliness and sustaining motivation

Back at the NEYM YAF fall retreat I happened to mention to a F/friend there that, after venturing into living meme-hood with my profile picture, that I was thinking about borrowing a Star Wars mask from a friend, and posing as the newly created “Darth Quaker.”

In doing so, I probably did my best James Earl Jones/Darth Vader impression of the line, “I find your lack of faith … disturbing.”

But it was Tristan who remembered that the Quaker guiding book (with editions put out by yearly meetings around the world) is entitled “Faith and Practice.”

And so:

Yeah, it’s silly, but it’s fun, and I wouldn’t be writing this, doing Shim Gum Do or working to deepen my connections with my faith and the NEYM community if I couldn’t or didn’t have some fun and silliness from time to time.

It keeps me grounded as I’m counting down with three weeks until the next testing day (March 20). Unlike my test for Yellow, when I felt ready long in advance, took an unscheduled break, and then “crammed” with practice in the week or so before the test, this time, I’m on track and on schedule to practice up gradually (I think/so far).

In fact, I think my main challenge will be to build up my endurance/stamina with the fourth and fifth sword forms, the latter of which involves some spinning jumps and a lot of moves with arm extended or over my head. And my back and right shoulder are definitely making me aware of the need.

It may also, based on a conversation after dinner at the temple this week, be time to get more serious about working out/exercising outside of Shim Gum Do. As a red-belt mentioned after dinner at the temple this week, outside workouts can build strength and endurance in the muscles so there’s a greater ability to focus on the flow of the actions.

For her, the incentive of working out to be better at Shim Gum Do was enough to keep her motivated and going back to the gym, in a way that nothing else had succeded in doing.

And, at least when it comes to motivation for exercise, the red-belt “speaks my mind” about the previous motivational difficulties about gyms & exercise. So perhaps her experience will prove prophetic for my future as well.