Now I'm the one waving my hand in the air.... Can I jump back in to a couple of posts a couple of days ago? (I'm trying to teach myself to think before posting....) Demetrio, yes the husband of Ame no Izume no Mikoto was Saruta Hiko (I forget the rest of his name). Matt was kind in waiting for me to answer, since I had brought up the story, but it was the website of the Kannagara dojo he attends that reminded me of the story. O Sensei felt that this Kami was the "patron" of Aikido and I'm sure Matt will explain to anyone who is interested the connection between the Jinja, Tsubaki Kannagara Jinja and Iwama's Aiki Shrine...

Rudy, thanks for the encouragement, as my husband has taken on side work with a demanding schedule to supplement the carpentry and cabinetwork .... and vehicle share with others, not our own, we can't attend the local dojo these days but hope to as soon as possible. He and I actually showed up two days two winters ago for morning class and people were very kind to not "little" but kind of "old" "me". The only one who forgot and threw me was my husband Chuck. I enjoyed the practice but had to take my glasses off, so that also was a new experience because I hadn;t worn glasses years ago when I trained originally. Somehow I have to get a hakama, but if we persevere in work efforts I'm sure I'll be able to get one.... can't show up to evening class without one I think.... I got away with just a gi and black belt in the early morning.... or people were too polite to complain at someone who hadn't really been on the mat much in twenty years...

Skipping a few pages, the benevolent Tony has been encouraging us to persevere with our efforts to resume training, thanks Tony, Chuck hasn't had much chance to train with his pet equipment, the old tires and metal rod he has set up in the yard behind some trees on top of an old water drum.... but I got him to do a few waza, he attacked with yokomen uchi and I'm not that mobile at stepping back anymore so now I was obliged to use the irimi entry on the elbow, yes, I think my other hand was active to prevent a counter.... surprisingly for me it ended up shiho nage ura. I'm just grateful to be practicing again, even just a few techniques every few days. And curious which techniques will come to the fore as I see what I can do these days...

A friend of mine had written a question to Chiba Sensei years ago on whether it was possible to go back to training. She showed it to me. He wrote, "listen to your body" He said the body is like a dog, if the owner mistreats it the dog will bite its owner.... With an example like that, who could forget the advice?

And finally (for now) I remember one of the recent posts mentioned flower arranging and other arts, and when Arikawa Sensei said Ten Chi Jin no Wago no Michi it also reminded me of the Heaven, Earth and Human Beings lines in classical Ikebana.....

Just thought I'd drop in with a few thoughts. I'll continue to learn from this thread, thanks everyone...