Ode to my Bro...

I have been meaning to do this for quite awhile, but better late than never...

(ahem)

Dear Shanti-Town Readers, I humbly present to you....(drumroll pleeeease)...

MY BROTHER'S BLOG (and website)!!!

For those of you who know me in real-life (not just cyber-life), you know how deeply I admire and respect and L-O-V-E (love) my big brother (and you know why he deserves a place of honor in Shanti-Town), for those of you who don't know me, you may be wondering what a bunch of plain ole' family pride is doing on a yoga blog? Well, I'll tell you. In addition to being just an all-around excellent person and stellar older sibling, my brother is also a FITNESS GOD.

I am not exaggerating. Following is proof of his other-worldy fitness skills:

1. When he was 9 and I was 5, we both started taking "karate class", for fun. My mom bought us matching white gi (the kind you could buy in plastic packages in the store, made of cotton, with iron-on dragons and stuff all over them) and in them we took ourselves proudly to class at the local Civic Center. I lasted about 8 months. My brother has never stopped.

2. When my brother was just a tyke he was tall and skinny-skinny and he wasn't so crazy about the skinny-skinny part so he started adding weights and various sports of force to his karate training. Now my brother looks like this:


3. When my brother was a teenager and running and lifting and karate-ing his brains out (and I was getting chubby and writing poetry) I once tabulated how many calories he was eating in a day (for breakfast he ate a mixing bowl full of cereal, so I figured it had to be a lot, and it was)....8,000 calories a day, people. 8,000 calories a day and not an inch of fat on him. (This is because he was already a FITNESS GOD-in-training).

4. At the tender age of 32, twenty-three years after he took his first karate class, my brother now holds the following distinctions:

He is a 3rd degree black-belt in Ishinryu Karate. (That's...well, that's really high up)

He holds a black-belt in Choy-lay-fut Kung Fu.

He holds a black belt in Arnis.

(Are you counting? That's three black-belts in three different styles of martial art.)

He runs an amazing karate/kung-fu academy in Washington State, which he has single-handedly made into a beautiful, dedicated, serious place of study for people of all ages.

He also heads up a thriving personal training/fitness business, AND...

He is developing HIS OWN STYLE of martial art.

I'm proud. Can you tell how proud I am?

My brother is one of the most focused, dedicated, passionate people I have ever been blessed to know. He has a rigor of mind and spirit that I am in awe of, and EVERYTHING I know about discipline, I have learned from watching him. He loves what he does. He loves martial arts and the improvement/movement of the body in a way that is so deep it makes me question my own dedication to everything in my life. And, to top it all off, watching my brother perform (no exaggeration) is like watching silk dance through water. Martial arts is his gift. His dharma.

Okay, enough, enough. I know. What can I say? I'm his little sister...I idolize the guy. But there is no need to simply take my word for it:

Check out the Academy HERE.

Check out the Personal Training HERE.

Check out the new martial arts style he's creating HERE.

Read his words, check out his photo galleries, and if you're ever in the Gig Harbor area, go and take a class from him. You will not regret it.

xo,
YogaLia