KODA

Today was busy… filled with all sorts of amazing and tiring things. No time for any writing or philosophizing, so today will have to do with a little journal-style post.

Woke up late today, around 8:45 with a bit of a sore throat… did some more great (tiring) philosophy stuff and it was off to Aikido practice. Today’s practice was… very difficult for some reason. Sometimes I have days where I just “know” that things aren’t going to work smoothly – and as much as I try to stop self-fulfilling prophecy, I just don’t feel as centered as usual. Today was kind of that way.

Haha, so today I forgot both the check and my belt, so I had to do with a really small child’s blue belt for the practice. I don’t know if my feelings of embarassment or decenteredness carried over to the practice, but we were doing some seriously interesting stuff and I’m dissapointed that I didn’t catch more of it. Boy, I love this class… everyone is really earnest and understanding about learning the techniques – though I still felt like I was being a little slow. But hey, that’s how it goes sometimes, and I can accept that – I feel like intellectually I can recognize it as a part of the learning, though on the other side I still feel a bit frustrated about it. In the future, perhaps going from Nietzsche to Aikido is not such a good idea.

There was one man at practice today with the most incredible skill – I had seen him a few other times but never like this – his rolls and techniques were skillful to the point that they were wonderful to watch, and really quite inspiring. There’s something profound about a well-trained Aikido artist… in the way that they move, they roll, the seeming readiness and effortlessness with which they handle themselves, and their environment. But I’m rambling now, and I’m afraid I’m out of time… but strong Aikido truly is a wonderful thing to behold. It makes me think that maybe, such arts can have as powerful an effect upon the world as they claim to.