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A one word title. If someone else has used it for his or her blog entry, sorry to "steal it," but then, if I happen to find it later, I will be very interested to read it.
The title just came to me, and reminded me of some concepts. I remember the tide-ebbing jewel and its opposite, though I can't remember the words for that one, from translations of the ancient Japanese books that some call history and some call mythology.
It just occurred to me that it can be quite ordinary, you exert yourself, you are tired, you rest a bit, then you feel better.
When you take ukemi, is it restful while you are in the air? Is it like breathing, when you grab the nage and are thrown, tension and release, is it like the ebb and flow of the ocean?
I like reading the various blogs, the techniques, the personal impressions of people about themselves and other people (so long as it is mostly positive!). Then again if some anonymous error is pointed out, we can learn from that too.
But I also enjoy the poetry and the impressions of nature, and the cultural observations, quotes and references.
I almost remember the title of a book by the Dalai Lama, I think it is called "Ocean of Wisdom." I always thought that was a beautiful title for a book, and a spiritual leader. Plus, I liked the fact that he smiles a lot and stresses the importance of kindness.
But today I wanted to mention boats. Rowboats are nice, you can row to a marshy edge of a pond like the one near our own town's Cove Island Beach (unfortunately I don't think they have rental boats there anymore) and think or write or just absorb the natural surroundings. But I also never forgot sailboats though I mostly sailed as a kid, and then as mostly a passenger when my parents or brother sailed the larger boats, larger than the one I rented a couple of times twenty or so years ago from the same place that had the rowboats.
Life has its intense times, and the times that seem boring or slack, but there is always something going on. As an older person I would like to clue the younger ones in on not worrying about plateaus or stuff like that, or being away from practice for a while. I remember one of my senpai's, an actor, was away for the summer, in summer theatre. When he came back his Aikido was even better than before. It wasn't that it's necessarily better to stop for a while, it's that a person improves in some ways even if he or she can't get to practice for a while. Like the ocean, even when it looks still and calm, something is always going on. It is very deep, and I suppose, so are we.
And if you have sailed, and you want to turn, one way is to head into the wind. Then your sails may start flapping until the wind catches the sail from the other side. It may be a good image for your life, sometimes it takes a while to catch the wind for the new direction you want to take.
Somehow I find these ideas from nature interesting, they remind me of stuff that goes on in life, and of the actual Aikido techniques, the turns, and the ebbs and flows of energy. Maybe you have thought of these things too.
10-01-2012 07:33 PM 