Bo Staff

 March 7, 2024

Expressing myself ...

But first this art speaks to me, and how they expressed themselves is absolutely fabulous, this share below, my daughter found from a local Austin Artist. (Artist unknown)

Feeling lucky to be alive. Thankful for love shared. Blessed, and in need of reminding.

Sharing some of my favorite joy here.

Bo staff.

First you should know before you judge to much; after being diagnosed with AVN (Avascular Necrosis) due to a bad fall, and fracture that cut off the blood and the bone died and disintegrated, leaving me in need of a hip replacement, I opted out of doing the surgery, and pushed through the pain. Years into needing the surgery, I found myself walking with a cane, and at the time, quickly loosing length in my leg (2.75 inches!), and gaining 30 lbs.

   I was depressed, immobile, and stuffed full of pain meds.

A healthy female hip vs mine

This is the totally awesome prosthetic that I would have gotten. 

Things prevented the surgery 

Yes, to this day, my hip is the above mess.

Below you can see the before and after. After finally getting off pain meds, getting used to living with pain, along with changing my diet, and changing from cane to staff, I began to move more, and I lost 30 lbs!

Before (Above) & After (Below)

Years of dropping my cane and staff at too many embarrassing moments, helped me decide to try and learn Bo staff.  I absolutely love it.  

 Tai Chi, Yoga, and dance, to those interested and capable of such a thing, I say get up and MOVE.

Spinning my staff kind of became my major outlet and obsession. But as will happen, I forgot the main lessons over time. The centeredness, strength and balance training that I had originally been working toward. It had become more about flow and rhythm, which comes more natural to me than balance, or centeredness, and it became more just kinda my outlet.

My latest outlet, besides crochet, is the drum, which believe it or not is a lot of strength and balance training as well. It is a great warm up for crochet as well 😅

March 2024,  I find myself in need of remembering, sharing, learning and relearning.  So I reflect back on the year and my bo staff journey. 

At first, not feeling well, I did not want to sign up for a class, and I found a few inspirational videos on YouTube, like 'the badass' Michelle C Smith, and Master Jesse Tsao do Tai Chi Bo Staff. I also found a Broader than a Border with M. I. A. using staffs and swords :)  Some inspiration comes from Morgan, in Fear the Walking Dead.  Morgan learning the Art of Peace and his Tai Chi Bo Staff moves, helped with the stick idea. Yes, I used to be secretly a WD fan, and bonus, parts were filmed right here in our little town 😁 though I only caught glimpses of filming here and there. 

What a handy weapon to know how to use, especially if you are walking with a staff everyday.

Below a few shots I got while they were filming FWD and the cloud rainbow hanging over.

Below, video is the very first Bo staff video that I made when we were visiting Colorado, caught some snow in late March 2023. 

My family is still like, 'what the heck are you doing?' 😅 

Hey, I am still a kid at heart.

You can watch the Bo Staff in the snow video on YouTube 

I enjoyed spinning so much, for Christmas, all i wanted was a light up bo staff, and I got my wish! About to give up the search for the perfect light up staff,  karatemart.com supplies their awesome light up Bo staff. This awesome Martial Arts equipment provider had the real, and really cool light up gear at karatemart.com 👍  

Here is the light up bo staff video on YouTube with the awesome led bo staff from karatemart.

When I said previously that I forgot my objective about balance and strength, and got lost in the flow, rhythm and meditation, this is what I mean; YouTube.  At one point in the video I'm letting the cat in the garage with me. She is a smart cat, she is not scared at all, but she knows to stay clear of the stick.  

In this video because she was following me, the cat picked the same spot to lay that i was planning on recording. The ground is gravel and very uneven, making it very difficult for me, and I think the cat sensed that, cause she ends up running off  😅; YouTube

Bo Staff is so much fun that I could not stop, and I took filming back outdoors; YouTube

One of the few times inspiration hit to spin since we moved, as well as the last video I made; YouTube

: YouTube  crazy lighting of black cats on New Years. Fun for giggles 😂

Thanks for stopping by.

Best wishes, and happy spinning!

October 23, 2024

Update

So.... Life has happened again.

I was injured, and have a torn rotator cuff, so,  😢 no spinning or drumming for me, at least for a while. Injury unrelated to neither spinning nor drumming, and good news, crocheting is still doable.👍