Different Room, Same House

With Ryron Gracie

"When one door closes, another opens" - Alexander Graham Bell.

This quote is said to mean that one should not be discouraged by failure but that there will be other opportunities. A variation on the above which I like better is: "When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us".

I like this one better and when I closed the door of my beloved kungfuschool in february 2021 it wasn't untill august 2022 when I stepped through the door of another martial arts school; Gracie Jiu Jitsu Amsterdam. Well I did pick up Karate before this but that did not last very long because of a bad knee so that new adventure was shortlived. Not long after my nephew hinted to me that his dad was doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I could not believe it. My brother? Sports? I had to see it for myself and booked me a trialclass asap and I stuck! It is less formal or traditional but very structural and detailed, demanding discipline and a tiny ego as do most of the traditional arts. There is always someone better than you. I truly enjoy being a student again and on a road of new old discoveries. The martial arts world is one big room with many many doors. You can compare it to a house, even though you enter a different room you are still in the same house. The perspective is different, standing vs on the floor, but every now and then seeing a little kungfu here and there.

It has been a while since I have written something in this blog since shaolinpowered suggests kungfu related content but this blog is about me. It is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu now but I am still shaolinpowered. Same house, different room.