Happy Thanksgiving

"For flowers that bloom about our feet;
 For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet;
 For song of bird, and hum of bee;
 For all things fair we hear or see,
 Father in heaven, we thank Thee !"
     - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Making Thanksgiving Day Count

I love this day, I love everything about it, my wish would be to have every single member of my family around for a wonderful day finished off by sitting down together for a marvelous dinner. “Holy Crap” you say “that would be like some form of ritualistic torture in my family!!”

Our family is extensive with brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, grand kids, great grand kids from all 5 of my siblings. We have a big family that has what seems to be the unusual ability to get along, we don’t agree on all things, and have different views on politics, religion, raising our children, money, and pretty much any topic but, we know how to get together and get along. We don’t have to spend Thanksgiving Day convincing anyone that our opinion is the winning one.

Is most of our conversation guarded, maybe to some extent - So What, you don't think we know what works and what doesn’t work, each of us knows what it would take to stir the pot, create controversy and start an argument on any number of topics. . . we just choose not to.

"In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future." Alex Haley

Many people would call this fake, or shallow, putting on airs. I call it respectful; have courtesy, being humble, I call it having gratitude. It is the reason Thanksgiving Day was start, it wasn’t to get together and get drunk, argue with that one family member you can’t stomach, or avoid getting together because “we don’t get along, all we do is argue.” What a bunch of self-center ego-driven, Crap.

Hello, wake up it’s not about you, it’s about giving thanks for ALL you have. And mostly it’s the perfect time for you and your generation to pass along the do’s and don’t of family to your younger members. What better day to teach gratitude, is there a better time to show cooperation, can you think of a more true definition of family?

I think this is an Art, Ya an Art Form and one that for some unconceivable reason may be quickly coming to a close. And I know the people most hurt by this Art Form dying away are our children, we are in the process of creating generations of kids that are becoming more self-centered with each passing year.

The saddest thing is that we have the best tool at our disposal to keep this from happening if we would only use it. . . FAMILY, and special days like Thanksgiving.

Put aside everything (especially your differences) for a day of Thanks, Love, and Gratitude be that special person that makes this day what it was intended for - Thanks for giving you the Family you have.

“To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.” – Confucius

Quote from M Twain

In regards to our economy issues; It isn't the sum you get, it's how much you can buy with it, that's the important thing; and it's that that tells whether your wages are high in fact or only high in name.
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Letters to Our Soldiers this Holiday Season

A simple letter telling them they are appreciated can mean so much when they are stationed far away from home, friends and family, and put in dangerous places and situations. It helps them remember the people and the freedoms for which they fight. Be as supportive and positive as you can when writing to soldiers

We will need to receive your letters by December 5th

Drop them by our school 18909 Sonoma Hwy Sonoma, Ca.
or e-mail them to sabum9@sbcglobal.net and
we will make sure your letter gets sent along.

Not sure how to write a good letter go here for a simple guideline
Sonoma Valley Resource

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. --Aldous Huxley

I get this morning e-mail from the wonderful people at Hazelden. Todays is such a great read I had to repost it here If you would like to recieve stuff from them go here; Hazelden.org

This is a hard concept for us addicts to get. We believed avoidance was a form of self-care. Our illness depended on our ability to deny its existence. Only when we were bleeding out of every pore of our body, were we willing to admit that maybe there was a slight problem. We were afraid of the facts. To face the facts meant dealing with betraying our illness. It meant admitting we were lost and in need of help from others.

Recovery, from Step One on, is about confronting our issues straight on. We take personal inventory a lot in order to break through our denial and bond with the truth. We face, directly when possible, the people we have hurt because the fact is we have hurt many and we have a responsibility to try to help heal these wounds. As we do these actions, we watch ourselves become stronger. Our confidence – not arrogance – grows. Do we always like facing the facts? No! But our lives aren't based only on feelings anymore. They are based on doing the next right thing.

Prayer for the Day
Higher Power, with Your help and guidance I can break through my wall of denial. Show me the things I need to face.

Today's Action
Sometime during the day, I will sit down and make a list of issues I am avoiding. I'll commit to talking with my sponsor about what is on the list.

Other peoples grass

when thinking today I came away with this . . . . . is the grass always greener on the other side because, well maybe they just water their grass better than I water mine?

Holy Crap, maybe all I really gotta do is stop staring over the fence at their grass with that stupid come-hither glazed-over, poor-pathetic me look on my face and put some serious effort into my own damn grass.

100 Books Every High School Student Should Read

Found this on Twitter, and think it's a great list:

When preparing for college, one of the smartest moves a high schooler can make is to read, read, read. This is especially true of literary classics. Many of the books covered on this list also surface in university literature classes, so high school students can facilitate their college workloads by knowing the classics before they become required reading. Students should also keep in mind that classics are classics for a reason: they are good books about the nature of the human condition. They reveal something magical about the workings of the world. They are invaluable to the person attempting to become an academic. The following books encompass nearly every genre: the lighthearted tales of Johnathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travles to the dark fate of George Orwell’s 1984. Read one or read them all, but either way, enjoy and prepare to be enlightened.This List is from Accredited Online Colleges.Org

Click Here to see Books List

Definition of "Good Intentions"

"I don't see much sense in that," said Rabbit. "No," said Pooh humbly, "there isn't. But there was going to be when I began it. It's just that something happened to it along the way." Winnie the Pooh

. . . and so hows your day going

I’ll bet if you ask most any women how she puts on her makeup she will be able to step by step tell you and explain why certain things go on before other things, and how this way is the quickest way to do it.

For the ease of it I’m just going to call this “Creating Systems”. Corporations use this phrase or something like it, the martial arts industry uses it to explain how a person should do everything from enrolling a new student to having a birthday party.

Some call it their way of doing things others say it is the right way to do it I have a few systems in place that are there because that’s how I was taught.

We all do it to a certain extent, some because of need, some because trial and error has shown them the best way to do something, and some because they really want to accomplish or complete things.

I have a system put together for my morning. I very methodically go about the process of getting my day started, I’ll bet you do to, right. The night before I setup the coffee maker, I make sure my glasses are in the same place every night, and so on.

So, once we step back and look at it we have thousands of little systems that complete tasks for us all day long, from washing our hair, brushing our teeth, how we like to have the seat fixed in the car, a certain way to fix our coffee each and every time, doing the laundry, getting kids ready, you name it we probable have a system for it.

What is the biggest difference between people that accomplish things and those that don't? Why is it that some people seem to really get a lot done while others seem to be doing a lot and only getting a little done?

Look at the tasks you have that you do every day?

Do some of your tasks have a weak system in place? Do some of them have an incomplete system in place or a system that doesn’t get the job all the way completed?

And, because of a weak and incomplete system, I’ll bet these tasks interfere with most other tasks we’re doing keeping us from accomplishing as much as we should on a day to day bases, it could be something as simple as putting a tool back when we are done so that it is in the same place every time we need it.

Action Plan:
How about we spend some time this week listing our tasks and grading the systems we have in place that complete those tasks.
How about we grade our systems for each job we do on a simple scale from 1 to 10.
10 being obviously perfect and a score of 4 for anything that doesn’t get the job completed.
Our goal should be to score a 7 or 8 on all our tasks.
Any task that doesn’t score that high should get a hard look at the system in place and changes made to improve it.

And remember, if we have had a weak system in place for years and haven’t paid much attention to accomplishing this task in a system like manner it’s not going to fix itself quickly. It may take many tries to get something in place that works well and completes the task.

Teaching Self Confidence

“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh," he whispered. "Yes, Piglet?" "Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw, "I just wanted to be sure of you."

Before we begin talking about self confidence, I would like to clarify what I think a quality Martial Arts program and a Senior Instructor should be able to do for their community.

Martial arts should be able to assist a parent in building many strong, positive traits in a child. One of the First goals of a quality martial arts class is to reinforce the positive goals and values of the parents and families that have entrusted their children to them, teaching punching and kicking should be taught but not at the expense of life skills - they come first.

Our goals as master instructors is service, assistance, and guidance, to our families. It should never be just about a student(s) honoring an instructor, but instead an instructor honoring the position of trust bestowed on him - giving back one hundred fold that which he receives.

Self Confidence Issues;
A child with good self confidence is easy to spot in a crowd. He or she possesses a bright, engaging smile and a positive attitude. Effortlessly, this child makes friends and accepts leadership opportunities.

Timid and shy children, however, are too often relegated to the sidelines. For these children, their problems start small; a child who can't interact with his or her peers has a hard time look an adult in the eye, or won't step into a game or program because they lack confidence.

But as a child grows so to do these problems, and before long this child is the target of bullies, susceptible to peer pressure and withdrawn in the classroom, playground, and possible at home. Kids like this are called "painfully shy" for good reason, for them it must be very emotionally painful to be in this place.

A child with self-confidence problems needs to improve his or her self-esteem. Here are some of the characteristics of a child with low self-esteem, followed by ways to assist a child with their self confidence issues;
Timid and shy
Loner, not a leader
Bully magnet
Fear of failure
Peer pressure

The Look of Confidence
What does confidence look like, and why is “Looking Confident” important? Muggers that were interviewed from their jail cell said the same thing over and over, how a person physically presented themselves when passing by the mugger was extremely important and in many cases it was the determining factor in the mugger choosing to pursue that person.

There are some definite physical qualities involved in projecting the look of confidence. These qualities include:
• Great posture
• Good eye contact
• Strong and controlled voice

Great Posture;
Our posture communicates what we think of ourselves long before we ever open our mouth to speak one single word. Most people get a significant portion of their first impression of us from how we walk, stand, sit and in general how we physically present ourselves.

Eye Contact;
Making eye contact with someone yelling at your child, a bully at school, a mugger or an abductor seems small, but can be the only difference between your child becoming one of their victims or not. Good eye contact tells people you are focused on them, confident in yourself, and could possible describe the person to authorities if needed.


Strong, Controlled Voice:
Great posture and good eye contact are the perfect starting points to presenting a confidence that people notice, and acknowledge, adding a strong controlled voice reinforces this and tells others "you are someone to be listened to". Whether you are trying to get your point of view across to someone, part of a group that is working on a project together, or making sure a play ground bully or a would-be assailant is stopped in their tracks, the child with a confidence in their stride, eyes and voice will be considered the leader, and the person to be listened to.

Let me ask you, have you ever been around a person that is loud for no particular reason, but is just naturally very loud? Do they keep your interest or make you want to leave the area? How about someone that gets loud when they want to make sure their point of view is heard, does it ever convince you that they are right just because they are loud or do you tend to end the conversation quickly and leave. Does loud convey confidence, or insecurity? I don't think this is the way you want you child to present themselves.

Click Here - If you would like to print, e-mail or read the complete article that gives you
• Great ideas so you could practice with your child
• What to avoid when working on your child’s confidence. and
• How a martial arts classes will help


Learn more about how martial arts addresses specific problems related to a lack of confidence and other important issues. Call us today Sonoma Taekwondo Center 707-935-7118 or drop us an e-mail at sabum9@sbcglobal.net

Things Learned the Hard Way

Sent to me by a good high school friend - I Love These:

1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

2. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."

3. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

4. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

5. You should not confuse your career with your life.

6. Nobody cares if you can't dance. Just get up and dance.

7. Never lick a steak knife.

8. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.

9. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.

10. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

11. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age eleven.

12. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.

13. A person, who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person. (This is very important. Pay attention. It never fails.)

14. Your friends love you anyway.

15. Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.