Ommmmm…Ommmmmm…Ommmmm
I’ve been participating in The Peaceful Dragon community for about 6 weeks, perhaps 7. Overall, I’ve attended somewhere between 18 – 21 classes. I’ve met lots of cool people and am enjoying the experience.
What sets this community apart from the normal ‘gym’ experience is that there are people there who know you by name and know a little about you. Therefore, it’s like a bit of a support network. Add to that, Sifu is always adding something to the calendar to get us together, which further strengthens the bond.
Since I’ve been there, I’ve been to three events:
- The Quarterly clean up, where we all pitched in to clean the school, top to bottom.
- Team Tournament Day – an in-house tournament.
- The CACMA (Carolinas Association of Chinese Martial Arts) Kung Fu and Tai Chi Tournament.
There was another event, yesterday. This was the Dragon Boat Festival. I was going to go, but opted for the zoo instead. However, today I will participate in a day-long (9:30 AM – 4:30 PM) Yoga and meditation retreat.
On Friday morning I had breakfast with my ‘buddies’ from Zen Super Boot Camp. Those of us who are members of ZSBC, whose primary goal is weight loss and fitness, are grouped by Sifu into groups of 4. We all trade e-mails and phone numbers. Sometimes we’ll have assignments. He just redid the groupings since we’ve had new people join and others leave. Our first assignment was to go and have a meal together, discuss the menu as to what might be healthy or unhealthy and what might be pleasurable to eat but not so good for us. He keeps drilling into us that food is to nourish the body, not the mind. 
Our group had a lovely breakfast together. We sat and talked for about 90 minutes, briefly discussed the menu, and had a great time. One of our members, who’s been there for 12 years, gave us a lot of history about the place and about how the students literally helped to build the existing building.
Based on what I’ve experienced so far, I can see why there are people that I meet that have been training there for more than 10 years. I would say that it is unusual to meet someone at the YMCA who has been training there for 10+ years, but I cannot say that because you usually don’t meet anyone at the YMCA. You come in, do your workout, leave. The Peaceful Dragon is so much more than that and that makes it easy to there. I think that is what will make the difference for me.
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2 Responses to “The Peaceful Dragon Community”
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Sounds as if you have fun – and as if it’s a rewarding experience also. Nice combination! The lion photo and it’s title just work perfectly with the post…
I am almost envious of your path at this point. At your age, I was too constrained and dared not stray outside the norms of my little rural community even though I was an import to that community and could never become one of them. I like the idea of building new community. I guess at some point I will have to move to a place where doing things like this are possible. Until then, at least work and photography allow me to wander through inner worlds.