Meet Jung SuWon-imal Henry the Hawk up close and personal

Jung SuWon warriors come in all sizes and shapes, and I consider many animals out there to be just such warriors.  They are living and being true to themselves!  They do what they are meant to do.

It finally occurred to me why Sam has turned invisible.  Squirrels are Henry’s favorite food!  No wonder Sam’s been hiding out in the old oak tree and only darting in and out for some acorns.  And while Ferdinand is fun for me to watch, he certainly wouldn’t make a good companion for Henry. Ferdinand the turkey is the class clown of nature.  Henry is the prince. 

Henry is just very different.  For one, he is a predator, a hunter.  I can see him circle way up in the sky on clear days, and I hear his characteristic hawk screech.  I watch him nose dive straight down and strike his prey and I have seen him sitting on the ground, enjoying his feast. 

But most of all I see him sitting on the fence rail in the very same spot every day.  He loves sitting there and watching what’s going on.  Sometimes he looks away from the house, out into the valley, and only turns his head once in a while.  Today, he was facing inside the fence, and I was lucky enough to get a few moments of him on video.  Whether I see him up in the air, or resting on the fence, he always reminds me of Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim’s words:

“Righ here and right now, let’s start celebrating!  Freedom is real. Freedom is possible.  You have power, truth, beauty, and potential within you always waiting to be discovered, always waiting to be expressed.  Brighter and more precious than diamonds, warm as the spring sun, and beautiful like spirals of galaxies sprinkled over this vast universe, your Silent Master awaits your return, so that together you will come forth as one radiant being in charge of your destiny.  What is stopping you?  What is holding you back?  You are free to be free!  Spread your wings!  Fly and be free!”  (The Silent Master, page 162)

New Jung SuWon-imal: introducing Henry the Hawk

Since Ferdinand and his family have retreated into the woods, and since Sam is hiding out in his tree, it’s been quiet.  But, a new Jung SuWon-imal has arrived, in all his beauty.  Henry the Hawk is here!  His is a very majestic bird, and doesn’t mingle with others.  Here is what Henry looks like:

Whenever I see Henry, he reminds me of something Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim, of Jung SuWon Martial Art Academy wrote:

“Freedom does not mean freedom from adversity or difficulty.  Freedom is the knowledge that you have the power to conquer adversity and difficulty.  If you could ask any animal living free in the animal kingdom, they would tell you that they aren’t free from “trouble.”  Predators are everywhere, and life is a daily challenge.  But all animals were born with instincts to protect them,a nd were given special talents and abilities to help them say alive and pursue their lives in freedom.  It is the same for you. “ (The Silent Master, page 141)

Jung SuWon-imals – where aaaaaaaaaaare you?

It’s been a while since I have posted and for a good reason.  I haven’t seen any of our Jung SuWon-imals in the yard lately!  Ferdinand and his kin don’t come around much anymore – they stay outside the yard, and although they are congregating in amazing numbers – in flocks of 50 or more – they don’t come so near anymore.  Maybe there isn’t enough food anymore for them to make it worthwhile….

I haven’t seen Sam the squirrel lately either.  I hear that squirrels semi-hibernate throughout the winter months, so maybe that is what he is doing.  I guess I better keep the walnuts I have been getting for him for when he shows up again….

This situation reminds of one of my favorite quotes in “The Silent Master”, written by Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim, founder of Jung Suwon Martial Arts:

“To me, one of the most perfect pictures of freedom is nature in the wild.  Birds are free to fly wherever their instincts take them, to the highest mountain or to the water’s edge.  Bears, rabbits, deer, creatures of all names and sizes freely roam the land, each finding their food and shelter in their own individual  way. Animals freely express their unique individuality.  No animal tries to be like another.  Mountain lions don’t try to live like deer or eat their food.  Rabbits don’t try to hibernate like bears.  All animals take their individuality for granted, “trusting” that nature provides everything necessary to fulfill their every need.  And the elements of nature are also fee and joyous, expressing and contributing their gifts abundantly.  The sun shines faithfully and warmly no matter what happens on the planet below. Rivers flow through their native surroundings bringing food for life. And beauty if everywhere.  The clouds, winds, rainbows, butterflies, light filtered through the forest trees – all come together in a beautiful picture of harmony.

You are a part of all this!  Freedom, beauty, and originality for you is exactly the same as for nature’s beings and elements.  You are an original!”  (The Silent Master, page 140)

Jung SuWon-imal Sophie is really Sam!

Yes, I admit to it.  I was wrong, and made a mistake.  Cute little Jung SuWon-imal squirrel Sophie is actually a boy squirrel.  Of course, once I mentioned this fact to some family member, immediately they ask me:  So how do you know?

Well, er, uhm, you see, they don’t wear clothes!  One day, who I thought was Sophie but turned out to be Sam, came right up to the sliding glass door with an acorn, sat down and proceeded to eat it with gusto.  He must not have been able to see inside the window, because on the other side of the glass, less than 2 feet away, there I was, enjoying watching him eat.  If the glass hadn’t been there, I could have reached out and touched him.  And being so close, and him not wearing any pants, well, what can I say…..

This whole episode reminded me of on of my favorite teachings of my Martial Arts teacher, Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim.  “Learn from your mistakes!”  Let me quote from her book, “Seven Steps to Inner Power.”

“Willingness to learn from your mistakes is the backbone to everything that can be considered progress.  How many mistakes do you think Alexander Graham Bell made in inventing the first telephone that conncted one room in his house to another?  Now telephone technology is developing that allows us to see the person you are speaking with on the other side of the globe.  How many mistakes did the engineers make while developing this technology?  Who cares?  The object is to succeed, not to count your mistakes.

Mistakes are also essential to your progress.  The minute you decide to achieve a goal that’s important to you, you will make mistakes.  How did we humans get the idea that to be perfect we couldn’t make mistakes?  Never making a mistake does not make us perfect.  Never repeating a mistake (after we learn from it) is as perfect as we need to be.

Imagine the freedom you’ll feel when you don’t have to worry about defending or hiding your mistakes.  Experience the increased energy that comes form this freedom!  Welcome your mistakes into your consciousness as your friends and teachers!” (Seven Steps to Inner Power, page 26)

Jung SuWon warriors come in all sizes and shapes: introducing Sophie

You have already caught a glimpse or two of Sophie in my previous posts.  But while I thought she was very shy, I found out she is really inquisitive, bold, and downright friendly – as long as she is in her own environment – up in the trees. 

She does like to hang out with the turkey family and especially with Ferdinand, but she does not feel all too comfortable on the ground – especially out on the lawn.  She only goes there with the turkeys, and stays in their midst.  But she really shows her spunk up in “her” oak tree. 

Sophie makes me think about Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim’s teachings – You are one of a kind!  And of course “Be an Original – don’t be a copy!”  See, while Sophie likes being with the turkeys, she is not trying to be one, or to even be like one.  She knows her strengths and weaknesses and acts accordingly. 

Join me and watch what happened out there, in the (really not so) wild….

Jung SuWon warrior animals: Be true to Yourself

I have been watching Ferdinand and his family a lot – since they come right into my yard – and their new friend Sophie, who, by the way, lives in my yard. 

Even though they like to hang out together, I noticed that Sophie only stays with Ferdinand in a certain areas of the yard, but doesn’t follow him anywhere else.  This puzzled me, since they seemed to enjoy  each other’s company.  But then I realized:  Ferdinand and his family can fly, but Sophie cannot!  The only way she can escape from danger, is to climb up a tree, or structure!  And that is why they are always together under the oak trees! 

Even animals know what Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim is teaching at Jung SuWon:  be true to your self.  Be who you are!  Don’t try to be someone else!  A dolphin is beautiful in his own right and has many great qualities, but it will never be an eagle.  Likewise, the eagly is awe inspiring and has his own excellent qualities, but he would not do well in the water.  And so the dolphin should be the best dolphin he can be, and the eagle also needs to remain an eagly and not try to be a dolphin.

So, Ferdinand will always be a turkey and he can – and should – fly when necessary.  Sophie, as a squirrel – will never be able to fly, and so will always need to stay around climbable structures.  And while they are so different, nevertheless they get along well together in the small area that they can be together.

As Grandmaster Kim always reminds us, there is so much we can learn from animals, out there, in the wild….

Jung SuWon in the wild – Ferdinand the turkey has a new friend: Sophie the squirrel

Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim of Jung SuWon has faced a lot of prejudice in her life.  Because she didn’t fit in, she was treated like a disease.  She was resented because she was a girl, as firstborn child, a total no-no in the Korean society in those days.  Then, as if that wasn’t enough, she wanted to train in the Martial Arts, and again, nothing but prejudice and rejection.

After she finally started training and achieved her highest goals, becoming a Grandmaster, she still had to face terrible prejudice – as a brand new arrival in the USA, she faced racial prejudice of incredible proportions.  Her school was burned down, landlords refused to rent to her, and people simply didn’t trust her, since she was from an oriental country.  She came to the USA in the late sixties, during the height of the Vietnamese war, and in rural Vermont people simply didn’t care to differentiate between different Asian countries.  She was called all sorts of racial, degrading names. 

Now, in California, she teaches that we are all one of a kind, and that we need to look beyond the color of skin, or any other physical appearance.  God made us all the way we are, and we need to appreciate this, and accept one another.

Animals know this too, and in this little short video you can see Ferdinand the turkey with his family, with Sophie, the squirrel.  Seems like she is still a bit shy and the turkeys still don’t quite know what to make of her, but they all love to eat the new acorns, and there are plenty of them to go around.  Later on I saw Sophie still moving with the turkey family, and spending the day with them. 

Here is what happened out there, in the wild….

Jung SuWon warriors of the wild – Ferdinand, don’t drop your awareness!

Ah, awareness!  Wouldn’t we all like to have more of it!  That is what training is all about at Jung SuWon, to develop awareness in all that we do.  But it’s of course not that easy.   Here is what Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim says about awareness:

“True awareness means being right where you are, right now, without fear or worry or obsession about the future or past.  When you manage to do that, a wonderful thing happens.  Focused here, now, you become undistracted.  You find yourself becoming mentally quiet.  And when that happens, you “hear” your Silent Master” quite clearly.  You perceive all around you quite clearly.  You find yourself knowing what to do – now, then minutes from now, or tomorrow.  As a result, you consistently find yourself in the right place at the right time. ”

For example, during sparring, we learn awareness simply by the instant feedback our sparring partner provides.  You don’t have awareness, you end up getting hit.  Of course, speed, agility, experience all come into play as well, but without awareness, all the other things won’t do you any good.

Here, it seems, our Jung SuWon turkey warrior Ferdinand has become complacent, is letting his guards down down, and is behaving as if he had no care in the world….good thing the dogs were feeling lazy too….just because you are in a familiar environment, doesn’t mean you don’t need awareness.  Finally Ferdinand realized that there was a big dog around and promptly followed his brothers and sisters…..

Watch what happened out there, in the not so wild….

He Can Do, She Can Do, Why not Me! Or, fly, Ferdinand, fly!

Sometimes we need a reminder that we have already learned something, and that if we didn’t put that learning into action, it would no longer be a mistake, but a choice. 

I always liked what Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim wrote about mistakes in her book, “The Silent Master.” 

“You make mistakes any time you do something new.  If you already knew how to do something without making mistakes, it wouldn’t be new!  It would already be a habit.  So let mistakes be friendly teachers, the fertilizer for growth.  When I say be wililng to make mistakes, I mean let your mistakes lead you into new understandings and new actions.  As long as you’re making different mistakes, you can be sure you ar eon a path of learning.  It is a natural part of the process.  Of course, you don’t want to keep repeating the same mistakes.  If that happens, it’s a signal that you are not learning from the mistakes the way you should.  All that you judge to be a mistake in  your life is nothing more and nothing less than an event that teaches you something.”  page 38

Animals are a little less complicated.  They just do what comes natural.  When it’s time to fly, birds fly.  They might fail many times before they can do it but they never give up trying until they are doing it.  Every once in a while an unusual one comes along that needs a little extra help with the learning. 

Here, it seems that our Jung SuWon turkey warrior Ferdinand has temporarily forgotten how to fly…until a very helpful canine came along to remind him.

Watch and see first hand what happened out there, in the wild…..

Unity and Teamwork – at Jung SuWon and in the wild!

As you probably have gathered by now, I love nature.  Yesterday I was out, pruning the roses (in itself a never ending job and in itself it’s own blog topic – the imporance of pruning, but I digress….)

So, while I was happily pruning away, I came within a couple of feet of disaster -  a swarm of bees had chosen the tree rose as a resting place, and it was so cleverly concealed it was hard to spot them.  Also, when bees swarm, they aren’t very aggressive and so there wasn’t much activity around the cluster.  I saw the pretty much last minute and was able to retreat, without a single sting.

I was amazed at this swarm.  Each bee in itself is so small and looks so weak.  But together they are very strong and accomplish so much!  Think about the wax and the hives they make, the pollen they gather from miles away and turn into honey, and so on.

Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim has taught from my very first class 24 years ago, that for example, each finger is very weak.  You can easily break them. 

But put together as a fist, these fingers become extremely strong, and can break through wood, cinderblocks, even glass, and especially through all our fears and weaknesses.  And on a larger scale, each person alone – if left living alone – would have a hard time fending for him/herself.  But it’s the working together, the unity, that has made us humans into who and what we are today. 

As for the bees – rather than dousing them with water or trying to chase them away, I simply waited – and, true to their nature – they moved on, to find a suitable place where they can build their new hive.