Being Positive even when succeeding

Learning and teaching Kung Fu I have struggled most of the time. When you are used to struggling sometimes it is strange to you when the doors are actually somehow open or seem to be.

You become as suspicious as Tso Tso seeing Zhuge Liang playing a flute on top of a wall of a seemingly abandoned city.

In any case, in addition to the classes I teach to kids at the house and the three month stick fighting thing I do, We are now going to focus on a long term Lion Dance and Kung Fu troupe. It's focus will be about team building and camaraderie. We are still working out how the group will make money...and part of the problem I had with it was that yes I believe I need to be compensated since I am being compensated for my classes now.

I mean I do volunteer for my community, but often, not only are those classes a lot of work, I suspect they are MORE work than the ones I get paid for... when I could be doing a class that I could be paid for during that time slot. Obviously I must get something out of it that I do not get out of the classes that pay... and the truth is, the "business" model that I have been using for the past ten years... is simply not working. But neither is the "I do all the work and don't get paid" model. It's not just that I don't get paid, it's that I put forth a lot of effort and I see very little result in the students.

But now that Grace is on board, she has a lot of ideas and has friends who have ideas for creating a new type of lion dance team that is more about the Jamaica Plain Lifestyle.