Thanks Marc, for the info.

Plenty yet to learn for sure, but at ease with my own direction. Maybe one day we get to exchange some ideas on the mat?

Suffice to say that if anyone understand the OP as their own experience in their own aikido, they know what I'm on about.

Aiki can look different from practitioner to practitioner. I'm sure I could learn from your friend but choose to pursue my own interest as that is what I find most interesting and satisfying. Endo sensei comes closest to the feeling I'm pursuing but is yet quiet different. It's very much still in the early discovery phases even though I've been at it since 1974. My metaphors describes well the feeling my aikido contain.

Maybe Marc, I can teach you something?