Remembering the lessons

I was talking with Sifu Masterson about teaching. She told me that in her opinion my teaching has greatly improved in the last 18 months. That made me feel really good. Sometimes I feel like one of the blues brothers doing acrobatics only to have some guy in the back row giving a pity clap. Can be kinda harsh.

But we continued to talk about it, and tried to figure out what was responsible for the change. She feels that I don't just answer questions anymore, that I am connecting more fully with the student and am better understanding where they are coming from. The only thing I can come up with is, I'm now a student again in something completely new.

How many of us forget the first lessons? The frustration, the fears, the uncomfortable reality of not knowing what's going on? Many of us are learning a new system as part of our UBBT journey. But this is not the same as being a new student. It's not exactly the same style, but it IS an arena that is still comfortable for us. It's a martial art or physical training. It's something we understand on a fundamental level, and we are confident that we will succeed. This is not what our students experience when they start with us.

I have been spending a lot of time learning new things. Things that are completely out of my previous experience. I believe this has been the change. I have remembered the lessons. What it's like to truly step into the unknown. To not know the basic principles and expectations. I have had empathy forced upon me, and apparently am growing from the experience. The irony is, these lessons are not coming from the martial arts, an arena that I am very comfortable in. They are coming from motor cross, changes in jobs, and of course my other true love of skydiving.

UBBT asks that we take our lessons out of the kwoon and into the world. I have discovered that I have to take myself out of the kwoon and into the world to achieve this. Something I have never really done. It's kinda cool how it's proven to be a two way street. What I am learning in the world has been brought back into the kwoon. It appears the results of my new found empathy are very promising.