For those who quit and came back. Every think what might have been?

[Flying Crane]

Some things in life only come around once, even when you have two kids. I know you are making light. Life gets in everyone's way at some point. It is how we handle it that counts. Sometimes it is unavoidable adversity (health, family), sometimes it is misguided passion onto other avenues. If it means anything to that person they will figure out a way back to the dojo.

Yeah, before I became a parent i was really focused on my training. I was able to often get 20 or more hours a week in training, in addition to a full-time stressful job, and being married. When our son came along it was a catalyst that just redirected my priorities and how I spend my time and energies.

There are other things in life that deserve our attention, than training. It is good to have that richness of things that are important. Training does not disappear, but it does not need to be the only thing I focus on. It is ok to sacrifice some training time for these other important things. No regrets.

 

[tubby]

interesting topic. Last year at chinese new years parade I saw in the lion dance troupe someone who was one of the senior students when I studied choy lay fut almost 30 years ago. It does make me wonder, but then I've done a lot of other things in that time that I wouldn't have if I kept training. Several sports, gym work, work with lots of travel. Maybe I could have kept it up as a more casual student, but even then with moving around I would have been a jack of many martial arts, so whilst I am happy with the positive effects of pickup up again in middle age, it's purely a nice what-if thought bubble rather than any sort of regret.