littlewonderlog

As part of my tough training process for my weak body that screams even with a slight bend, I’ve been doing the leg splits recently and found the perfect time for it. It’s right after taking a shower while drying my hair. A hot shower warms my body and softens my muscles – perfect for tearing them apart. It still hurts, of course. It brings out the natural screams from the core. Arghhhhhhhh. But it’s way better than when my body is cold and stiff. Much better.

For me, hair drying time after a shower is also the time for reading English books. The scene is weird, I must admit. Splitting (well, “trying” to split) my legs in front of the mirror and blowing my wet hair all over the place while reading an English book aloud is just bizarre.

Still, I can’t afford to miss that golden time. My stiff body certainly can’t. It’s the best time for the leg splits, and I just can’t miss it.

There are those times when you feel like nothing seems to work. Everything you try fails or simply doesn’t work, and you don’t see any progress. Still, when you face so many trials and errors, it means that you’re also building a database of what doesn’t work. It means you are actually getting closer to the ways that work. Failing again and again makes you feel like you are going backwards, but you are actually moving forwards. Why are we always able to see it only when we look back?

Even when nothing seems to work, you can’t stop. If you want something, there’s no choice but to push further.

You just can’t stop; instead, you have to push even harder – until you see something, until something finally happens.

A sponge baseball bat, a Children’s Day present for my nephew a few years ago, has fulfilled its duty and responsibility, and we replaced it with a new aluminum bat. It’s just a few bucks, but the boy was excited. Before going to bed, he put it next to his pillow and lay down. And then he sat up and touched the bat saying, “Is my precious aluminum baseball bat doing alright?”

My phone I put near my pillow is worth more than 25 times as much as the bat, yet my joyous feeling toward it is less than 0.25% of his.

I used to have those precious things next to my pillow (I can’t really remember what they were though). I would set them down, lay down, and then look at them again and touch them.

During the upcoming spring-cleaning day, I might need to look for “the ability to put some precious things next to my pillow and feel joyous multiple times” in my dusty piles of junk in my closet.

I don’t remember throwing it away, so it must be in there somewhere.

Here’s the season where killing is not wanted but inevitable. I kill for my survival (very dramatic version it is). I don’t enjoy this killing season but I have no choice (perhaps). I can’t ignore the existence that tampers with my precious bananas and neither can I ignore the one that sucks my blood while I’m in my heaven in my dreams.

I can hear the electrically frying sound of killing from the blue-light-spreading trap in the living room and the racket I swing half-awake. I feel bad about killing, yet at the same time I feel this slight joy at the fact that I’m the one who survives.

Unfortunately, and sadly, the killing season is here.

Believing in karma makes life more enjoyable.

You speak gentle words, share smiles, and act with kindness.

Even if it may not directly affect your life, the attitude, words, and actions themselves make life more enjoyable.

 

I’ve always wondered (doubted) what 10 minutes of learning English would do, but the habit of playing the piano for a 1 minute or longer (usually 10-15 minutes) every day gives me some idea. Even just 1 minute makes me improve. Yesterday was better than the day before yesterday, and today is better than yesterday. I don’t go backwards (on most days). That’s a good enough reason.

It’s better to do it than not to. It’s better to improve very slightly than not improving at all. In addition to that, it is actually quite fun.

 

I’ve been watching a lot of training videos online to come up with an optimized workout plan, including those of gymnastics, Taekwondo, Judo, Jiu Jitsu, boxing, MMA, calisthenics, and even the circus. Yes, I’ve been watching them because they were just incredible and fun. Anyway, I’m always amazed at how high the human body can go while how low my (cursed) body has gone.

How much time and energy would they have spent to break the limitations we’ve believed there were?

Human limitation is a joke. Is there really a limitation in a sense?

In the 10th year of our marriage (or it might be the 11th, but whatever), I have been telling him this so many times, but he just doesn’t get it. Why doesn’t he get it? My question, “Shall we get a rice cake?” is not really a question. It’s just a declarative sentence in a question’s clothing.

Why does he forget it every day? It’s not like rocket science level grammar.

I am sure that men suck at grammar. I am absolutely sure.

While I was talking to my nephew and ended a sentence with the Korean word “in-ma (인마)”, he told me not to use that word because it’s bad. Is it? Since when? Well, it can be a little bit, but it’s more like a “dude” than a bad word. Technically, it can be a bad word but I can’t explain its origin (I can’t, and I don’t really bother to either).

He’s in 4th grade so he is supposed to be learning a lot of curse words and practicing them but he’s obviously a peacekeeper neglecting his age-appropriate duty. I don’t know what kind of person he will become. I’m kind of looking forward to it though.

When my knee feels strange while running, I walk and when it feels ok I run again. When my leg split hurts too much, I take a deep breath and stretch my legs slowly. When my back feels stiff, I reduce my core workouts, and when I feel a bit tired, I go to bed earlier than usual.

I don’t fit myself into the workout, rather I take things slowly and fit the workout to my condition.

I respect my pace and consider my physical condition.

Slowly and with ease.