The Silver Lining!!!

We have been talking about Appreciation this month in both our Adult and Children's Programs and last week's topic of a Silver Lining really hit home for me.

The concept of Appreciating something or someone more is a big one. Often enough we step on the very flowers that we have with us just to admire the roses on the other side of the fence. So with that in mind I wanted to share with you a concept of Silver Lining or a method of finding the good in everything.

For a while now I have been just upset with our oldest set of mats. Lets face it... they do not resemble anything close to being new. In fact these once red mats are not a very vague shade of pink. They have lost their loving feeling for sure. Or is it that I lost my loving feeling for them?

Well, I have been wanting new mats downstairs for a while because we teach a lot of private lessons on them. We also teach all of our first time introductory students on them. Frankly it was getting so bad I was a little embarrassed by them. But, they definitely were not going to replace themselves and everything we looked at was going to cost an arm and a leg... maybe even two!!!

It wasn't until a few months ago I remember a time (photos on our wall that you can see) that we didn't have mats. We worked out on a few older roll out mats for wrestling but nothing but carpet for striking. Then I remember not having those wrestling mats. I even remembered back to the days of a tennis court with no roof over our heads and us wrestling in the grass and mud as well as the concrete. (I know I know, young is all I have to remind you of)

During this time of reflection I remember driving 24 hours straight to pick up these mats. I remember all the little stops and speed bumps along the way to get the mats. What a great deal we got for them and how much we have used them since.

Once I started appreciating the mats the funniest thing happened. We fell into the greatest deal ever on the mats we were wanting to place downstairs. They were used but in great shape and to top it off they were 60+ percent off the normal price!!!

Yep, you heard me right. What an amazing deal and an amazing chance for us to redesign downstairs. We were so pumped about this and still am :)

Now as I place the mats in the design and I cut boarders... I can't help but think about the old pink mats. I can't help but be sad that we will soon be saying good bye to those mats. The very ones that we made our Academy on. The same ones that many of my instructors and friends have taught on from California to Texas.

The Silver Lining here is that I don't believe we were ready for new mats until we or I should say I remembered just how amazing the old mats were. Just how far they had taken us. Now that is appreciation. Try it out and see what happens!!!

Guro Larry