Another Way To Look At Martial Arts: Go With Life's Flow

"The only thing standing between you and your dream is the will to try, and the belief it is actually possible."

-Joel Brown

"You are never too old to set another goal, or dream another dream."

-C.S. Lewis

Destiny is one of those funny things where you both get to choose to make it, and also stumble into it.

I have been planning and working toward a long trip to Israel; one where I would teach English. My life has not always been the easiest thanks to my own usual creation of unfortunate events.

But for perhaps the first real time in a very long while I actually have a grip on my life; I'm sober, and found out yesterday at noon I have been accepted by MASA, an organization in Israel, to become a teacher of English for Ethiopian-Jews at an absorption center for refugees. These are a marginalized group of people who speak neither Hebrew nor English, and so this will be interesting. I do not speak a lick of their language. Despite that, I know I will get through it and have a very positive experience.

I intend to teach English alongside what I know of martial arts. This allows me to both continue practicing literally thousands of miles from where I call home, as well as make an actual difference. Despite being a sizable population this group of people, on the collegiate level, comprise less than 1% of those attending school, despite comprising more than 15% of the population in Israel.

Had you asked me a year ago where I would be, I would not have said Israel in two weeks from now. It wasn't even a passing thought.

That's how life goes though; how many parents expected to have a child a year before they did? Sometimes life launches tribulous surprises at us, and sometimes those experiences can become some of the greatest of our lives.

It is true it took a long time for this to come together. But sometimes building the most important moments of your life involve that.

And so often we are presented with opportunity we forsake. I am an adventurous person, and have visited many places already. Before I was four I had lived between Germany and Norway, France and the United States. I have been to Mexico, Canada, Austria, Hungary, Spain and England. And now I will soon be in Israel. I know my life is one that will ultimately involve traveling; that is just how it has been.

The difference is now that I know this as just a fact of who I am, what do I choose to do with it? Fight how things will be? Or roll with it. I choose to go with the latter.

And with me I know I will carry a number of things; my love for martial arts, and my love of writing. This is why I am starting a new blog to document my travels in Israel, which for a 'Merican will be very unique.

I have always wanted to perform aid work, and perhaps assist in conflict resolutions. I have always been sure someday I would visit Israel, but before I knew it, that someday is literally in the next two weeks.

This gives me hope; that those faraway places I only hoped I might be able to attend to someday are something I can very seriously not only pursue, but achieve.

Martial artists, as human beings, are dreamers. But while most people are happy to let dreams pass by, when one comes to us that is worth it, we pursue it. And this makes the difference; because without active involvement to make those dreams come true, it is so hard for them to without it.

So, if I can do it, make your faraway hopes become realized also.

All it takes is time and earnest effort.