Venturing Back to the East Coast

Hey everyone. I wanted to check in with a personal post and let you know about some changes going on with my writing, projects, and general life status.

As you may know, I spent the last two years living in Colorado. It was a great chance to experience a different lifestyle out West and explore the beautiful Rocky Mountains. My wife had an opportunity to go to grad school in Denver, which she successfully completed a few months ago. Since then, both she and I have had renewed opportunities on the East Coast (Pennsylvania to be specific). As a result we made the cross-country trek back to the land of trees and cheese steaks.

It was a multi-day move but we got through it relatively unscathed. This was my first extended experience with a moving truck and it had been years since I last drove a vehicle with a trailer. Despite these obvious potential problems we managed to avoid any extreme traffic complications and I only kissed a handful of curbs while making turns and leaving gas stations.

Now that I’m back, I have fresh focus and will be looking to finish a few serious undertakings. Let me share some of those thoughts and updates.

Reflections on the CSV’s and Castle Rock Karate Kobudo

While in Colorado I took on a number of challenges in order to improve my overall martial arts maturity. One was to join the Community Safety Patrol operated by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. The program is essentially a posse building unit that allows qualified citizens to undertake the county police academy, puts the graduates in uniforms and marked cars, and has them assist full deputies in crime prevention and crowd control situations. I learned a lot about self defense, human tendencies, and matters of the law. It gave me a peek into the world of law enforcement and after two years of training and patrolling I can definitely say I have a new appreciation for how martial arts fit into the modern world. I intend to create a more complete blog post recounting my experience, so keep an eye out for that.

Two of the saddest things about leaving Colorado for me was leaving the mountains and the Castle Rock Karate Kobudo program. The CRKK was my first independent school despite having taught for over 15 years before that. The students I acquired there were great and I’ll be doing my best to make sure their martial arts journey does not end with my leaving.

Establishing an Eastern Dojo

Now that I am back East one of my primary focuses will be to establish my own dojo facility. I will be working in close collaboration with my instructor, C. Bruce Heilman, to ensure that the school carries on the traditions and methods of Okinawa Kenpo. When I secure a location and begin operation of the program I will be sure to inform all the readers here. Perhaps you can even help me develop my initial group of students!

Finishing My Latest Book Project

There has been some murmurings around IkigaiWay regarding my latest book project. It is still under the radar but I have been working hard on it for over a year. It is coming together and I am approaching the phase where I will begin revealing it to the public. This is my most ambitious undertaking ever and I hope everyone will be as excited to read it as I have been to write it.

Thanks for your time and stay tuned for more updates and articles!