Combat Sports Review

So, I haven’t been around much lately.  I haven’t even been to the gym much lately.  There are a lot of things happening in my life and the lives of my family.  Some of those things are good.  Some, maybe not so much, but such is life.  The best thing that has happened is the birth of my grandson Keagan.  Hmm, maybe I should change the name of my website to “Grappling Granny”?

Once upon a time, there was this jolly grandmother.  Spring was in the air.  The flowers were blooming and Easter was around the corner.  Being the jolly grandmother she decided to get each of her grandchildren a baby Easter kitten.  These were not the kittens born of gentle house cats.  They were kittens born of a doe and a buck.  No, not deer.  Deer babies are called fawn.  These were rabbit babies which are called kittens.  The baby rabbits were cute and cuddly little things.  Covered in the fluffiest of soft fur, in an array of browns and white.

About six months passed and the kittens were no longer cute cuddly little baby rabbits.  They were full-grown bucks and does.  Full grown rabbits are not so cuddly.  They have very strong hind legs, each with four claws.  When the grandchildren would try to cuddle the rabbits in a “loving”  yet awkward way, as children do.  The rabbits would become defensive and claw the children with their powerful back legs and bite them with their strong teeth, as rabbits do.  Soon the children wanted nothing to do with the rabbits.  The smaller child screamed in terror at the sight of one.  So the decision was made to find the rabbits each a new home.

One day in late summer I came to call on my dear friend, the jolly grandmother.  My two sons, Michael and Joe tagged along for the visit.  Now my son Michael has a way with animals.  Even wild animals come up to him and beg for love and attention.  Once a feral mother cat allowed him to move her new-born kittens from a storm drain.  (that’s another misadventure for another time.)  While I was distracted with coffee and such, My dear friend and sons conspired against me.  You see, she had one rabbit left and it had taken a liking to Michael.  As we walked to the car, they all started acting guilty and nervous.  Knowing how them all too well, I walked to trunk of the car.  The boys immediately barricaded the trunk and pasted on their “I’m really sweet and innocent” guilty look.  With one stern “I’m the parent” look, they stepped aside and I opened the trunk.  I was face to face with the sweet innocent eyes of a rabbit.  She looked at me through the wires of her cage with pleading eyes.  The boys dropped down into prayer position and started begging please.  I was raised around animals wild and domestic, so I knew better.  But I relented and allowed the boys to bring the rabbit home.  I knew better…

Two weeks passed.  I was cleaning house and found Cocoa Puffs cereal scattered throughout the house.  Mentally thrashing the boys about wasting food, I soon realized that I had not bought Cocoa Puffs cereal in quite sometime.  On closer inspection, I found that it was not cereal but rabbit pellets.  For those of you that don’t know what rabbit pellets are, lets just say it is the end result of eating cereal or other food.   The rabbit was sequestered to the fenced in back yard where she could roam and play in a “natural” environment, without disrupting my life.

A few more weeks passed…  I had just awakened and wandered to my bathroom to freshen up.  Still groggy and delusional from a deep and heavy sleep, I heard the boys talking in hushed tones outside my bathroom window.  I am blessed with supersonic hearing.  If I was a superhero, supersonic hearing would be my super power.  So even though they were talking in hushed tones, I could distinguish three voices.  Michael, Joe’s and their friend Jackson.  And I heard very clearly the words, BABY RABBITS!

Surely I had not heard them correctly.  I wandered to the kitchen and brewed a pot of coffee.  As I sat sipping my first cup of coffee, I thought, “Surely I was dreaming”.  There is no way a rabbit had kittens by ITSELF!  As I drained the last bit of coffee from the first cup, my mind finally started to function… some what.  I started doing the math and figuring up dates and gestation time.  To my dismay, I realized that yes I could unknowingly have accepted a pregnant rabbit.  So I called my dear friend and told her what I had heard.  She in turn called one of her daughters (the former owner of the rabbit in question) and told her.  Her daughter called me with a definite sound of amusement in her voice.  She said that she would help me find homes for the baby rabbits, she just needed to know how many there were.

I told her I would call her back and crept onto the back deck.  Easing myself in a prone position so I could hang my head off the edge, I counted three little figures moving around in the dark recesses under the deck.  I called the “former owner” back and told her three.  She was all giddy with the prospect of cute cuddly little rabbits.  She wanted to know what they looked like.  What color were they?  So I hung up the phone, grabbed the flashlight and crept back onto the deck.

Hanging upside down off the edge of the deck with flashlight in hand I counted.  One white, two brown, and one black.  Wait a minute!  One white, two brown and one black.  One plus two plus one is FOUR!  I popped up off the deck so fast that I acquired splinters from hand to toe.  Back inside on the phone I explained to the “former owner” that their were four and not three baby rabbits to find homes for.  She, even more excited than before, needed to know how old they were so that she could tell their prospective new owners.  So I was back out on the deck with flashlight in hand laying on my splinter ridden stomach.  I was looking for fur quality, open eyes and ease of movement, so that I could estimate an age.  There was the white one, the white and brown one the two brown ones and the two black ones…  My head popped up so fast, I think I gave myself whiplash.  I took a deep breath, slowly exhaled, and lowered my head to “count” baby rabbits again.  One, two, three, four, five, six!  Not learning my lesson the first time, I popped up off the deck to run back inside and acquired even more splinters.  I called the “former owner” back and gave her the latest head count.  She laughed, I fumed, and the mother rabbit hopped happily in the back yard.  I was now the owner of seven rabbits total.  I refused to look under the deck again, for fear that was the cause of them multiplying.

A few more weeks passed…  The baby rabbits were starting to wander out from under the deck and eat their mother’s food.  That was the sign!  They were old enough to go to their new homes.  So, now the question was, “How do I catch six baby rabbits?”  They were very shy.  As soon as somebody walked onto the deck, they would scamper back under it to hide.  So relying on my ninja skills of stealth (my other super power).  I would place a bowl of food just a few inches away from the safety of the deck.  I sat patiently hunched over, waiting.  To be ninja stealthy and strike ninja fast, one has to clear the mind of all doubt, anxiety, and fear. So with my ninja skills of a quiet mind, stealth, and speed, I sat patiently for the baby rabbits to come out to eat.  One at a time, I snatched them with the speed of a cobra strike, and deposited them into a cage inside.  Within a few short hours, I had six baby rabbits snoozing in a cage in my son, Michael’s room.  That afternoon, the former owner came by after work and took possession of the seven rabbits and ferried them off to their new homes.

Per wikipedia, “in one season a single female rabbit can produce as many as 800 children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.”

Frustration can exponentially breed more frustration, much like rabbits breed exponentially.  When we fail at a task or skill, we get frustrated.  When we leave the frustration unchecked, it grows exponentially and becomes a mental block.  We must learn to recognize frustration early.  Frustration clouds the mind and makes us anxious.  Frustration is over come with a patient and clear mind.  If we are not patient we do not see what is happening.  If our mind is not clear we can not react to what is happening.  Only with a patient and clear mind, can we see what is happening and react to it.

For the past few months, I’ve worked more.  It’s been great financially.  I’ve paid off several bills and only have two left to pay off.  I’ve also bought some sweet new clothes. 

One the negative side, my body hates me right now.  I haven’t been able to train much.  I haven’t been able to write much.  There has been little socializing.  It seems that all I do is sleep, eat and work.

Mentally, writing helps me a lot.  It forces me to put things into focus and sort out the mental trash.  Mental trash will weigh you down.  It prevents you from thinking clearly.  Thereby it prevents you from making efficient and effective daily choices.

The lack of training has made me soft and I mean that figuratively and physically.  Physically, I’ve become a bit on the pudgy side.  My clothes don’t fit very well.  That makes me physically uncomfortable.  Figuratively, I’ve become mentally soft.  I have lost that extra drive to get up and train no matter how I feel.  I’ve lost the ability to decide my mental outlook.  By that, I mean normally a person possesses the ability to decide how they feel.  (aside from clinical depression and detrimental life events)  When I am mentally toned, I can decide that “Today is a good day and I’m excited to see what happens.”  Needless to say, when I’m not mentally toned, I’m a bit moody.

I have about six more weeks of this current work schedule.  Part of me is going to miss the money and the work.  I actually love my job.  Strange, I know.  But I do love what I do and the people I work with.  The extra money has been really nice.  A source of stupid pride even.  The other part of me doesn’t really care about money or nice clothes.  That part of me craves quality of life.  By quality of life, I mean spiritually.  How I feel about myself and the world around me.  I cultivate that spirituality through training.  When I’m physically fit, I am also mentally fit.  I’m not saying that I’m a basket case, nut job,  psycho chick at this moment.  I’m just not radiating my normal, “I can conquer the world glow.”

So, my body hates me right now.  But, I’ve stumbled across yet another reason to stay active and healthy.