Hello from a happy fool in Michigan. I'm brand new to Aikido : )

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[Baka]

Good to finally be here, everyone.
It took me long enough.
I've studied a lot of martial arts in the fourty years since I caught the bug as a lad.
A couple of months ago, i was lucky enough to stumble upon ... well... the best sensei I've ever trained with. This is saying more than would be modest or elegant to clarify. Aikido seems to be the art I've been searching for.
Pre-emptive gratitude to you, my esteemed sempais, and possibly friends.

[Baka]

Better written late edit: i meant that it would be inelegant and immodest to list how many styles and arts I've studied.
For me to clarify how impressed I am with the sensei, even amidst a field of pretty great teachers, would mean talking for entirely too long about all the places I've studied, and how fantastic I felt some past teachers were.
To be slightly more dignified about it, I am struck by the strength of compassion.

[Baka]

For the last few decades, I've been consciously trying to find arts that will help me find peace. Best one so far.

[Baka]

I guess the crux of the matter is that while I may have some physical facility for training, my mind is and has always been chaotic, and what little time I've spent studying aikido in the past couple months has given me reason to hope that aikido might be a way for me to meditate, whereas I've been rubbish at meditation as normally practiced, though I've been trying to do it for thirty years now.

[Derek]

Welcome!

[akiy]

Hi Dave,

Welcome to AikiWeb.

-- Jun