Karate - how it made us better

When my son was 7 we decided to enroll him in sports for all known reasons: physical activity, health, hanging out with right crowd etc.
And we started a quest: what sports is suitable for him and what does he like?? Soccer, basketball, swimming, skiing ... until we got to martial arts. That was it. That's when his eyes sparked and we knew we found it.
First training I remember with smile as we watched it from around the corner so he was not able to see us: at first he was in shock as he didn't expect warmup exercises for 20 min (running, stretching, pushups, squats ..). He was not impressed with that! 😂😂😂. And then came the first karate move and his face turned into giant smile. Yep that was it.
Mind you him and the rest of the kids quickly learned to respect sensei and each other and 6 months later, they acted as one and breathe for each other.
Self confidence sky rocketed, grades got even better and so did the social skills. Overall - the quality of his life improved.
Those were beginnings - he still loves it 4 years later and he is a proud brown belt. How we get to that point. I will explain some other time.

Fast getaway

From a city heat, asphalt and crowd. Everybody is honking their horns, it's burning up and down, so I decided to escape for an hour or so. Not that far either. Nice little woody area along small river, shade, breeze, birds and a glass of wine. Doesn't take much to make me happy.
And remember age is not important ...unless you are a bottle of wine. Then it matters 😉.

Indoctrination v Loyalty

I have a feeling that lot of people mix up loyalty with indoctrination. So here are some of the definitions:
Indoctrination - teaching ideas and opinions of a particular group.
Loyalty - feeling strong support or allegiance to something or someone.
Sadly, there is more indoctrinated than loyal people in my experience. After few min of conversation I am able to tell where that person works, party affiliation, government or business employee etc. I am just a layman and it's sad.
Indoctrination is embedded and hard to shake off, loyalty is chosen and hard to come by.

Explore and discover - Adriatic

Traveling is the best teacher. It feeds your soul just like the good read does. This Adriatic blue always calms me down, always relaxing, the clear water, the seagulls, smell of pine trees ... and for a bit, time stops. Worries are gone and you are in the now.

Faith in humanity restored a bit - thanks to Icelanders

10,000 Icelandrs volunteered to accept Syrian refugees into their homes after their government anouncd they can only accommodate a handful. Iceland is a nordic state with population od 300,000 people.
One single mom wrote that she and her 6 year old son will help any child in need. How about, that? It is not those those who can, but those who want to help...

Travel and discover - Ephesus

Ephesus, ancient Greek city and port located in Turkey, Asia Minor, one hour drive from Izmir.
Breathtaking, so much history and my son and I were in awe.
We literse had walk through history.
The city was sacked by Goths in AD 262 I believe, and it's been protected area in modern Turkey, also one of the places tourist visit the most in this part of Turkey.