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If my brain had a warning like my iPhone does it would be telling me that it's overheating and needs to shut down for a while.
Today I got my "Your Group Fitness Instructor exam is one month from now" email from ACE, the American Council on Exercise. Yikes. I need to be totally prepared for this. Failing isn't an option (although it's certainly a possibility.) It's going to take some serious effort over the next few weeks, but I have to nail it.
At the same time, I'm training diligently for my shodan (first black belt) test in Aikido. While the test isn't until mid-December (thank goodness), there's a run-through coming up in just two weeks. Lots more training to be done between now and then - and after, of course. I'm refining my focus, and really working on polishing the things I will need to demonstrate.
On the home front, the weather is cooling off a little, so it should be possible to finish more projects remaining from this year's spring's house renovation project. Something about the temperatures being in the 90s and 100s just saps one's enthusiasm for that sort of thing.
I've gotten away from meditation, and "keep meaning to get back to it." That starts now. I really need it. I need that settling down. With so many important things drawing me in conflicting directions it's easy to feel scattered and overwhelmed, not knowing which to handle first. I need to find that centered, calm place from which to act effectively.
I have just returned from George Ledyard Sensei's 4-Day Randori Intensive at Aikido Eastside in Bellevue, Washington, near Seattle.
Wow.
For my non-Aikido friends, randori is a multiple attacker scenario, usually one of you, three of them. It can be intimidating and exhausting training (and a lot of fun). Four days of it… Whoa.
I first heard of this seminar shortly after I started training in Aikido. At the time it had been offered for 20 years! It sounded amazing. Four full days of weapons and randori work. One of the intended audiences for the seminar is people preparing for dan (black belt) exams. The word "Intensive" isn't just in the title to sound cool on the flyer.
Wouldn't it be amazing to be able to go? A learning experience and rite of passage rolled into one. I always thought it would be fun to take the train up, too! 1,500 miles. See a whole lot of the country on the way.
For the first few years I didn't have the required rank (or skill, obviously) to go. When I first met Ledyard Sensei in person I mentioned that to him - that I was looking forward to the time I would be able to participate in this seminar.
Then last year, when I did qualify to go, budget and timing interfered. Also, knowing more about weapons I became concerned about that aspect. My training is based on Saito Sensei's weapons, and theirs comes from Saotome Sensei. I don't know their forms at all - not even some of the terminology. I thought I would be lost and in the way. Under
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09-26-2014 10:31 PM 
