This is a true story about too much of a good thing. When Hurricane Katrina hit with such devastation, the entire nation would have to come to New Orleans' rescue. I was just coming out of a TV contract and teaching martial arts through The Salvation Army. I was asked if I could help TSA by acting as the division's Public Information Officer. No problem, since I knew most of the media members on a first-name basis anyway.
<p>When the now-homeless victims of the hurricane were bused into Denver, they literally had no possessions to bring with them. They needed everything — from basics such as shampoo and toothpaste to food and especially clothes. I made the executive decision, along with the Corps Officer of the thrift-stores division, to put out a public plea for donated clothing items.</p><p>The city of Denver generously responded, like it so often does. Seventy-two hours later, I got a call from the officer: "Karen, you got to stop with the clothes."</p><p>"What do you mean?" I asked.</p><p>"Just swing by the back lawn on your way into work," he responded. I really couldn't imagine what the problem was. I mean, worst-case scenario, we could always take the donated items to our thrift stores.</p><p>Now, if you've ever visited Denver, you know that there are vast areas of grasslands, with foothills and mountains in the background. But as I was headed in the next morning, I realized I didn't recall that we had a mountain this close to the plains. Then everything turned into slow motion as I began to realize: It wasn't a mountain of any natural substance; it was literally a mountain of clothes!</p><p>"Oh, my God! Now what do we do?" I said as I hopped out of my car and shut the door. The Corps Officer looked at me and said, "Well, now we got a problem. Not only do we have enough donated items to clothe Africa, we gotta pay to clean it up and send it there."</p><p>Just then, three more cars drove up to dump more clothes onto the mountain.</p><p>My fellow instructors, this was a lifetime lesson for yours truly on how important it is to initiate and maintain balance. Coming from a hard-style martial art, I pushed myself for more than a decade to achieve the strongest and highest kicks my body would allow. Then my teachers taught me one of the most valuable lessons through their own actions: They were falling apart.</p><script async="" src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
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</script><p>From back surgeries all the way down to ankle problems, they ran the gauntlet of physical issues. Evidently, the body can take only so much of the "hard."</p><p>That's when I began to add a little soft training at the end of my classes, including yoga and <em>tai chi.</em> The girls were totally into it, and the boys hated it. My very big son, who was a second-degree black belt, fought me tooth and nail at the end of every class when I made him do a yoga session. Interestingly enough, today he actively seeks out yoga classes to maintain balance and flexibility as a college football player.</p><p>Here's the thing: I can see what's coming down the pike for all of us hard-style practitioners, and I feel obligated not only to practice soft-style arts but also to teach my students the meaning of balance — literally. Because there really can be "too much of a good thing" in life.</p><p>As for the mountain of clothes, I booked the Corps Officer on a TV news segment, and he made an official plea to halt all clothing donations. The mountain of clothing was boxed up and eventually shipped to a country where it was needed more. Lesson learned. We must always keep in mind the one word that will save us a lot of hardship in the end: balance.</p><p><em>To contact Karen Eden, send an email to renedenherdman@gmail.com or visit the Facebook group "The Eden Assignment."</em></p>
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