On day 95 I am thinking about how many days are much the same and what did I do today to make it the best day of my week, month or of this challenge.  Today was filled with teaching classes adults and kids, preparation for parent bullying workshop, admin work for the Rotary and our school.  It was also filled with trying to figure out how to help mainly parents - but students too - to be willing to grow in their life and martial arts one step at a time and not bring the “it has to happen now” mentality to their training.  

Last night as I met with parents in a workshop on bully prevention with just 10 in attendance, I was reminded by one of the participants about the principle of a little bit every day adds up to big results in the end.  Yes just 10 came - but if every time we do a workshop 10 people show up - soon it will be 100 spoken to. That is 100 more who have become more aware of the issues facing our kids today and what they can do about it. 

I also watched our students doing pushups in our 100 pushup challenge.  Some who by their own admission were unable to do even one “perfect” pushup are now doing 30 perfect pushups - this in less than 3 weeks of working a plan.  

I have a plan.  I have a mission. I have a philosophy.  I have a belief.  I will stick with my philosophy, beliefs, mission and work my plan, because I believe that we can create a culture of peace in our schools and community.  

My day started at South River High School.  I am finishing my last months as president of the Community Advisory Board there and we had a good meeting covering the successes of the past month and our continued efforts to improve the media center.  The STEM program is growing and there has been good support from the Board of Ed.  

From there I got up to Columbia for my second workout with Gerald Dawson, and again I enjoyed it - though I have some practice to get in this week.  He has promised me a much more intense workout next week. 

Returning to Annapolis I had lunch and picked up the contest winners entries from the Literacy Contest put on by the South Anne Arundel County Rotary.  We will be delivering Barnes & Noble gift cards to all the winners in the next week or so. 

Finally classes begun in the afternoon and all went well.  Everyone including the youngest of students are improving on their pushups and fitness and it makes them even more intense as they do their forms and other parts of their training.  the 7/8 and some of the 5/6 classes have said they would be a part of a push up challenge.  So we will put that together for them this week and start the challenge the following week.  

*** Finally we got some reports back this week from the State on the number of deaths in the county and state that were recorded as being caused by self infliction.  These numbers are very difficult to handle and again I encourage all adults to become gatekeepers.  In other words learn from dedicated teachers in the county the signs that someone may be in distress and needs some additional help.  We do not have to be professional social workers or doctors to do this work.  You and I each have the first sight of the needs and we need to know the questions to ask and the resources available to help.  Join us in a training on May 23 at 6:30 PM at Balanced Life Skills.  We have made the commitment at BLS to provide this training on a regular basis and this will be announced in the coming weeks.  Every month we will provide a free training for the community.  Balanced Life Skills is committed to creating a culture of peace and saving lives.

It was a night of pain with my knee being so painful that it required Advil to lessen the swelling and inflammation.  I got a late start to the morning, so I made a quick smoothie and headed off to the studio.  We had a good class with the adults, with me adjusting how we are approaching the 100 push up challenge.  Then I was off to the preschool to teach.  

More classes in the afternoon and going home, to find out my wife went in for an MRI due to severe pain in her abdomen.  Still we do not know what is causing the pain - but hopefully this will help to solve the mystery.  

My pain today was finding out that there has been yet another completed suicide in the county.  I cannot express how hard these hit me.  I think of the parents and of the friends.  I worry that others may feel that there is no other choice to feel relief.  I wonder what is it that goes through the mind of someone, how distressed they must be and paralyzed to a point that they do not speak of their pain.  Or do they and we have just missed the message?  This is why I want all of our parents to become gatekeepers in our community.  I would like all of our parents to spend one hour or a little bit more so they know the signs and what to say and do.  Spend a small slice of time and learn about the resources in your community that are there to help.  

Every day on this journey of 100 days I have become more committed to bringing a culture of peace to our schools and community.  Peace is not just the absence of fighting - but peace within oneself, with others you know and may not know - it is about being mindful of the needs of others. It is the “cultivation of understanding, insight, and compassion, combined with action. Peace is the practice of mindfulness, the practice of being aware of our thoughts, our actions, and the consequences of our actions.”  Peace is having a “positive effect on our family, friends and society.”   

Please work with me and others in our community to bring a culture of peace to our families, schools and communities.

Now I am just a week away from completing my first 100 day challenge.  I have some anxiety this morning for a number of reasons.  It was a jam packed week with workshops, new training, belt testing, meetings with schools, birthday party, workouts, Mother’s Day, and trying to deal mentally with parents and the progress of their child in the school. 

I spent a portion of the day working on myself - recognizing and reinforcing in my mind my intentions and goals.  I am working on allowing myself to be present and productive on my mission in life.  One of the quotes that I pondered this weekend is well known but worth looking at regularly;  At the end of your life everyone asks themselves 3 questions - Did I live?  Did I love? and Did I matter?  I ask myself too at this stage of my life Am I being faithful to my philosophy and doing what I know is best for my students or am I being swayed by outside forces?

That question is interesting because as I speak to parents from many of the private schools it becomes apparent that while a school may start off on the right path - with high ideals and philosophy - they many times are swayed by and get off track due to monetary issues and some decisions are made because of the influence of money.  I look at our school as a private school that works on the whole child - physical and character - and while parents may attend our school for the same reasons, they still give into their child’s desire for faster gratification.  It takes time and some things no matter what the child can do physically they need to allow time to pass to be their best.  That goes for adults too.  

We would not allow a child to take to the wheel and drive in the city just because they show they can operate a vehicle on the farm roads.  Two different areas and it takes time for all the pieces to come together.   Even with my own studies I see the need for time to pass and for me to practice for the sake of practice everything - both mental and physical to reach my best efforts.  

So I work on coming back to my center and finding the right words to help parents and students to have the patience they need for growing up and being their best.

While it was not possible to get things done on the big list of goals for the 100 day challenge I was able to get some reading done, I had a good workout in the early morning with about 20 students and a great day of testing young students.  

That was my whole day - after which I spent the afternoon and evening enjoying the summer like breezes on my front porch, reading and listening to uplifting and encouraging information.  I try to spend some time every day working on myself and who I am and want to be.  I like to reflect on what my mission is, what is my purpose?  I was reminded yesterday that in the end we all ask ourselves Did I live, did I love and did I matter?  

For us to feel good about our life, to know that we lived to the fullest, that we had people in our lives that we loved and that loved us, and that we made a difference in the lives of others - that the way we went about our lives mattered, we have to be connected to a higher purpose.  If we are - others will feel it and we will too.  You will want to jump out of bed in the morning because you are on a mission - you have purpose in your life.  

Even when there are some that try to thwart your efforts with negative talk, or who do not want to travel the journey, but rather only want to have the things - when you have purpose, none of those things bother you any and you continue to produce - for the good of others.