Meditations on God

One Single Act of Kindess
What if your act of kindness is the only one another person experiences today?

For several years, I worked as a barista at a coffee shop by the water in downtown Annapolis, MD. We had a lot of regulars every morning, some more awake and happy to be there than others. I did my best to be outgoing and friendly, with varying degrees of success. I have always been somewhat of a morning person, but I haven’t always been outgoing or friendly. It was a challenge on some days, but it was my job.

On one particular day, really no different than any other, I was calling down the line, making drinks, and handing them off to people when I realized something. I was seeing these people at the very beginning of their day. It was early. They hadn’t had their coffee yet. I might have been the first person they interacted with that day or I might simply have been the first person who was nice to them that day. I also might be the last person to be nice to them that day.

It occurred to me that I literally had the opportunity to start someone’s day on a positive note if I wanted to. Even if no one else treated that person kindly on that day, I was going to. Maybe, just maybe, I could change the entire trajectory of a person’s day with a smile, a warm greeting, a hot cup of coffee, and acknowledgment of his or her existence and worth. Maybe if we all did this, we could change the trajectory of our entire culture or the whole world.

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, Severna Park’s Holistic Chamber of Commerce, and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

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September 28, 2019

annapolis, coffee, coffee shop, compassion, graciousness, kindness
Words Have the Power to Change Us
We are not untouched by the things we speak.

The words we choose have power. They have the power to change minds. Too often, however, we focus on using our words to change others’ minds, not realizing that the words we choose also change the way that we think, the way we view the world, and the way that we interact with others. The easiest way to change the world for the better is to begin by changing ourselves and how we express ourselves within it.

If we are more intentional about the words we choose, we will begin to see the world differently. By being more reflective and less reactive, we give ourselves room to think and others room to be themselves. If we realize that not everything we think needs to be expressed outwardly, our thoughts will actually begin to change. As our thinking changes, so too does our behavior.

As much as our character becomes our words, our words become our character. If we choose words of kindness, we will find ourselves becoming more kind. If we choose words of generosity, we will in turn become more generous. If we choose words of compassion, graciousness, and understanding, we will start to become those things. We must choose our words wisely because they are not only from us, they become us.

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, Severna Park’s Holistic Chamber of Commerce, and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

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September 26, 2019

change, expression, power, self expression, speaking, wisdom, words, writing
Remain Curious (Not Resistive)
“Flow with the go.”

—Rickson Gracie

Much of the difficulty we face on a given day is rooted in resistance. We resist that which is new, different, or other. We resist demands made on our time, our character, our conceptions, and perceptions. We resist change in ourselves and the world around us. The problem is, where there is resistance, there is conflict.

At best, resistance keeps us where we are. It keeps us stuck. At worst, it causes us to struggle as we lose ground anyway, at the cost of our own integrity and success.

If, instead of resisting the external and internal forces pulling and pushing us from day to day, we treated them with curiosity, we may find that these forces acting on us each contain within them a lesson, a lesson that cannot be learned through resistance.

This does not mean whimsically going wherever the changing tides lead us. We must maintain our focus, our structure, and our drive forward, but if we can do this with incoming forces instead of against them, we will have multiplied our own power exponentially.

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, Severna Park’s Holistic Chamber of Commerce, and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

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September 25, 2019

bjj, brazilian jiu-jitsu, conflict, curiosity, flow with the go, forces, openness, resistance, rickson gracie
Randori: Failure as a Path to Rapid Learning & Growth
Failure is an essential component to rapid learning and growth.

It is often said that martial arts which incorporate live, resistance-based, freestyle sparring (randori) create more effective martial artists more quickly than those that do not. Why is that? Simply put, people who regularly spar with each other fail more often than people who do not and failure contains lessons that success does not.

Martial arts that do not incorporate live, resistance-based, freestyle sparring offer only success as a means of learning. Of course, this is an oversimplification. There are ways to fail in these martial arts as well, but they are more a matter of doing a technique incorrectly than suffering an actual consequence like getting punched or submitted. Real consequences cause real pain, but the pain need not be permanent in order for us to learn. In fact, longevity demands that it not be.

Pain, whether physical or emotional, is motivating in a way that success is not. Failure, consequences, and pain require from us rapid problem solving in order to avoid experiencing them. The more we experience these, the faster we learn. Experimentation, randori, is the path to failure and, therefore, growth and learning.

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, Severna Park’s Holistic Chamber of Commerce, and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

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September 25, 2019

bjj, brazilian jiu-jitsu, failure, freestyle, grappling, growth, learning, randori, sparring, striking, success
The Best Design Has Both Beauty And Function
“For me, a very complex world has to be simplified, has to be stripped down, and design, for me, was a way out of confusion. Because great design simplifies a very complicated world.”

—Platon Antoniou

Creative design is a means of organizing chaos into something new and useful. It begins by making an observation about the world that perhaps has never been made before and then bringing that observation to life, giving it form and function. It is a new idea birthed into existence for others to see, feel, hear, or taste.

Everything around us is a product of design, but what separates impactful, meaningful, and life-changing design from that which is banal and forgettable is the intention behind it and whether or not that intention is transmitted cleanly to others. Is it moving or is it merely functional? Both are necessary, but they need not be mutually exclusive. In fact, to create something that is both moving and functional simultaneously is to create a work of art.

We thrive on beauty. Design is the will to create beauty where once there was none or to enhance beauty that was preexisting. If we are going to create something useful, we might as well also make it beautiful in the process.

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, Severna Park’s Holistic Chamber of Commerce, and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

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September 24, 2019

beauty, creation, creative, creativity, Design, function

One Single Act of Kindess

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Words Have the Power to Change Us

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Remain Curious (Not Resistive)

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Randori: Failure as a Path to Rapid Learning & Growth

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The Best Design Has Both Beauty And Function

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