My Karate Journey (final)

It’s been 4 years now since I stopped teaching and training, and not a day goes by without me thinking about it. Karate has been a part of my life for over 20 years, but I never let it be my life. It was a complement, not a whole. I existed outside the dojo; I was “Stinkypaw” before being “Sensei Stinkypaw”, but both were me.

I truly believe that it brought me a lot physically, mentally, emotionally and even spiritually. It made me stronger in so many different ways. For that I will always be thankful. I’ve learned many things, some I could only explain as “the mysteries of karate”, some were rough lessons, but I did learn. I was also lucky enough to meet amazing teachers, one in particular who truly is a blessing. Because of him I kept going for as long as I could, but it got to a point where I couldn’t endure anymore. I have the utmost respect for this master who contributed so much to martial arts. He is what a true master should be. I feel blessed to have had the chance to meet him and to train with him. That encounter was priceless and it allowed me to see that there are, still, some passionate teachers who do want to pass on their knowledge, and not only collect money.

Through my years of training I’ve met great people, and I’ve also met some real creeps. For that as well I’ll always be thankful, because without those people I wouldn’t have known what protecting my integrity meant. Overall, I had good teachers. They taught me well… and some lessons could not be learnt in a book, nor on a dojo floor, but only in life.

There are no bad teachers. Only poor students who are not willing to learn…

There is so much more I could write about, but after five parts, it will be enough. Now that I’ve written about karate, I won’t refrain myself to post funny anecdotes that occurred in class. When I started blogging I didn’t want it to be about karate. It was for all the other things in my life what makes me Stinkypaw… does that make sense?