Erick Mead

People, alone and in groups have seasons like the world does. What we practice when things are hot, sweaty, busy and crowded seems distinct from what we practice when things are spare, dry, cool and lonely. We would not know the one but for the other (in-yo), but they are actually not different at all. Only our perception of them differs according to whether we harmonize our personal seasons with those around us, or act in a way to harmonize those around us to our own. We are always in the process of doing one or the other. That is also aikido -- in the dojo or out of it.