Meditations on God

Enough May Be All That We Get (And That Is Okay)
“I have only ever asked God for enough and he has always provided.”
—Joe Sheya (my first martial art instructor)

I am have never been shy about discussing the large degree to which my late hapkido teacher, Joe Sheya, impacted my life. He passed away in 2014, but some of the lessons he passed onto me and others near me still resonate within me as being as, or more, true than ever. Recently I am reminded of the above statement I heard him say on many occasions.

Joe was not a financially wealthy man. He was a career school teacher who took side jobs so that he could enjoy his hobbies of motorcycle riding, scuba diving, and later flying airplanes (a hobby cut short for medical reasons) and boating. In addition to these, he enjoyed wearing nice clothes, going to the movies, and going out to eat whenever the mood suited him, but he always worked hard in order to be able to afford what he understood to be luxuries.

In spite of running a dojang (Korean martial art academy) for essentially his entire adult life, he never made money off of martial arts, even though he tried to in various ways throughout the years. He lived in a small home built just for him that had everything he needed, nothing more, and nothing less. Every time the subject of money, and especially wealth, came up, he would, at least to my memory, always say the same thing, “I have only ever asked God for enough and he has always provided.”

Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

All photos by Robert Van Valkenburgh (artist unknown, unless otherwise noted).

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March 25, 2020

abundance, enough, gratitude, hapkido, joe sheya, prayer, provisions, sustenance, teacher, wealth
Transcend Difficulty By Practicing Discomfort
If you do something difficult every day, when unexpected difficulties arise, you will have had lots of practice at dealing with them.

None of us wishes to live in difficult times. If anything, we tend to do everything in our power to shore ourselves up against and to avoid difficulty, seeking comfort and convenience in whatever forms we can. The funny thing about life, though, is that what we want and what we have control over is a relatively small fraction of what we will actually experience from day to day and year to year.

Obviously, we cannot prepare for every contingency of difficulty we may face in our lives, and those of us who try to tend to miss much about life that truly makes it worth living: the joy, the spontaneity, and the pleasant surprises. We can, however, prepare to be uncomfortable. We can do things that are intentionally difficult, that push us past our perceived or self-defined limitations, and that we are not good at, that we will fail at over and over on our way toward improvement, and that will force us to grow, not so that we can avoid the inevitable challenges that arise, but so that we are more robust and ready for them when they do.

By choosing difficulty in the good times, by facing it day to day in whatever form it happens to take for us, whether through strenuous exercise, martial art training, strict dieting, or even facing our fears through public speaking, sitting quietly alone, or venturing out in business or investing, we become used to discomfort, what it feels like to live with it, and what it feels like to overcome it. Intentionally facing and overcoming difficulty prepares us, not necessarily for the specific challenges we will face when uncertainty is upon us, but for the mindset we will need in order to transcend the obstacles in our path. Preparation gives us confidence and practice is the means by which we become prepared even for unforeseen difficulties.

Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

All photos by Robert Van Valkenburgh (artist unknown, unless otherwise noted).

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March 24, 2020

challenges, comfort, difficulty, discomfort, obstacles, overcoming, practice, preparation, transcending, unexpected
A Little Bit Of (Measured) Progress Each Day
Progress does not have to be extreme, but it has to be consistent and it has to be observable.

We all need to feel like we are making progress in our lives, like our lives have purpose and meaning. One way to accomplish this is to set measurable, achievable goals for each day. These goals can extend out to weeks, months, and years, but starting with daily goals is easy and, ultimately, we want to establish a routine that is ‘sticky,’ that we actually adhere to, not a routine that is so difficult that we quit shortly after starting.

In order to feel like we are making progress, it is essential that our goals are both measurable and achievable because measurability allows us to track our results and achievability ensures that we see results quickly and consistently. Tracking our goals and our results is important because writing them down, whether on paper, on a white board, or on a spreadsheet, makes them real and undeniable. Seeing results quickly and consistently gives us momentum and momentum will keep us going when desire does not.

What does this all mean in simple terms? It means to set a goal of doing one more rep, to lift one more pound, to run, bike, or walk for one more minute or for one more tenth of a mile, to take one more deep, meditative breath, to write one more sentence, to read one more page, to learn one more recipe, to spend one minute more outside, to reach out to one more person, or simply to be present for one more moment than yesterday. This all starts with writing down our goals, making a plan, and then taking action, consistently.

NOTE: There are experts out over who will be more than happy to help you create a plan for progress with whatever your personal goals and individual needs are. Comment below if you are in need of such an expert or if you are such an expert and are willing to provide this service for FREE in these unprecedentedly difficult times.

Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

All photos by Robert Van Valkenburgh (artist unknown, unless otherwise noted).

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March 23, 2020

accomplishment, achievement, gains, goals, growth, improvement, kaizen, momentum, progress, results
Good Enough For Folk Music
Good enough is a good enough beginning.

Years ago, a few friends of mine and myself drove to The State Theatre in Falls Church, Virginia to see the blues* musician Taj Mahal do a rare acoustic solo performance for a charity called Music Maker Relief Foundation, an organization that helps to provide financial relief to impoverished American blues musicians. As fans of the blues in general and Taj Mahal in particular, we were all super excited for this intimate evening of music and good will. We knew that this was perhaps the only time we would ever have the opportunity to see Taj, who almost always traveled with a band, perform alone on stage with nothing but an acoustic guitar.

After having some car trouble (we got rear-ended on New York Ave in Washington DC by a federal police officer who was somewhat resistant to helping us get on our way), we made it to the venue. Our anticipation was palpable, a trio of grown adults as nervously excited as little kids who just found a dollar on the ground outside of a candy store. We could not wait to get inside and to get as close to the stage as possible to see this giant of a man sit atop a stool and bare his soul to us through six strings and a couple of microphones.

The opening acts, all older, poor blues musicians from different rural regions of America and recipients of Music Maker grants, were amazing in their own right. Then Taj Mahal got on stage. He was larger than life and we were in awe. His presence, his stature, his voice all overtook us as we watched. He talked for a bit and then picked at his guitar strings, noticing that it was a bit out of tune. He began tuning it and then shrugged, “Well, that’s good enough for folk music,” he said, and then he began playing and it was perfect.

The lesson I took away from this was that we can do our best to prepare, but when it is our time to step up and act, to do something for others, good enough is good enough to make a beginning. In the act of giving of ourselves generously and courageously, regardless of whether or not we are fully ready to do so, our mistakes and flaws are forgiven. It is in the doing that we find grace and perfection.

*Taj Mahal’s music goes way beyond blues, into folk, rock, Caribbean, African, and South Pacific musical influences and genres, but the blues is how I got into him.

Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

All photos by Robert Van Valkenburgh (artist unknown, unless otherwise noted).

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March 22, 2020

action, beginning, blues, blues music, doing, folk music, grace, music, perfection, taj mahal
Seek Stillness To Find Purpose
The number of hours in the day do not change for us, so we must change to make the most of them.

As we get older, time feels like it flies by faster and faster. The days feel too short for all that we need to accomplish. The weeks blur into months and the years just seem to disappear behind us. All too often, we find ourselves saying that life is too short, that we have too much to do and not enough time, and that, if only there were more hours in the day, we could accomplish more.

When we have free time, however, especially an abundance of it, our tendency is not to start doing all of the things we have been putting off or claim to not have had time for. Instead, we distract ourselves with more, often aimless and purposeless, busyness. When our schedules clear up, if we take a moment to step back, reflect, and be honest with ourselves, we may actually see that our problem was not really a lack of time, but an inability to prioritize our time effectively and purposefully.

Prioritization begins by first establishing and understanding our personal values, and determining, of all of the things we have going on in our lives that are vying for our attention, what is truly most important based on those values. Establishing our values should not be seen as another busy task, however, but something we do with deep reflection and intention, focusing on uncovering who we are and what in our lives is essential to who we want to be. In order to know ourselves, we must first be still.

Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

All photos by Robert Van Valkenburgh (artist unknown, unless otherwise noted).

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March 21, 2020

busyness, essentialism, goals, mission, priorities, prioritizing, purpose, stillness, tasks, time, to-do, values

Enough May Be All That We Get (And That Is Okay)

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Transcend Difficulty By Practicing Discomfort

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A Little Bit Of (Measured) Progress Each Day

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Good Enough For Folk Music

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Seek Stillness To Find Purpose

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