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Lessons from Missed Classes
Lessons from Missed Classes
by The Mirror
11-17-2011
Lessons from Missed Classes

This month's "The Mirror" column was written by Linda Eskin © 2011


I have the good fortune to be able to train 5 days a week, usually 2 classes each day. It's taken some rearranging of schedules and priorities, but I've managed to make this my normal routine for quite a while now. I just plain enjoy it, and I feel better, mentally and physically, when I train at least that much.

Aikido is my opportunity to move, to connect, to discover. It's how I get grounded and settled after a hurried, chaotic day. Aikido is where I express joy and exuberance. It's the time when I can tell my brain to take some time off, and let the body do body stuff.

Besides, I hate to miss class.

I recently had a string of unrelated situations - a sick pet, a vacation, a busy time at work, an injury - that kept me away from the dojo here and there. Not for very long at any one stretch, and I really didn't miss all that many classes. But still, missing any class leaves the day feeling incomplete, and it throws off the rhythm and flow of the whole week. And of course there's having missed the actual content of the class itself.

Each class is unique, with its own focus, a different mix of people and levels. Each presents a new way of learning to feel our way through techniques, or demonstrates something in a way I've not seen before. There are no ordinary classes. It's always "you should've been here, it was great," never "we just ran through shihonage again."

So much in our tech-rich world is available whenever we need it. We can bookmark a news article to read later, record a show we want to see, or catch the replay of a webinar or conference presentation online. We can even record video of our personal life events on our phones, and watch them again minutes, or years, later. Because of this, it's easy to only give some things only a fraction of our attention. We know we could always go back and experience them again if we found ourselves wanting to really pay attention to the details this time.

But Aikido classes are ephemeral and precious. When you miss one, you've missed it.

This sense of "don't blink or you'll miss something important" is made more vivid in Aikido because of our commitment to learning, to acquiring information and refining skills. It's less obvious in other areas of life, but no less true. The details we encounter every day - a friend's laugh, the crisp sweetness of a really good apple, or the way the light shines through the edges of the clouds during a particular sunset - pay attention. The bigger things, too - enjoying a period of relative good health and happiness, learning lessons from a challenging project, or noticing how the garden has grown, bloomed, and gone to seed - these are easy to overlook. They happen, we are too busy or distracted to notice, and then they are gone.

Maybe that's the lesson from the classes I couldn't get to: Many things in life are as ephemeral as those classes. Pay attention or you'll miss something.
"The Mirror" is a collaborative column written by a group of women who describe themselves as:

We comprise mothers, spouses, scientists, artists, teachers, healers, and yes, of course, writers. We range in age from 30s through 50s, we are kyu ranked and yudansha and from various parts of the United States and styles of aikido. What we have in common is a love for budo that keeps it an integral part of our busy lives, both curiosity about and a commonsense approach to life and aikido, and an inveterate tendency to write about these explorations.
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Old 11-18-2011, 05:09 AM   #2
SeiserL
 
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Location: Florida Gulf coast
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Re: Lessons from Missed Classes

Yes agreed.

We have to mindfully take advantage of the opportunities to learn when they present themselves.

And there is always something to learn.

Thanks.

Lynn Seiser PhD
Yondan Aikido & FMA/JKD
We do not rise to the level of our expectations, but fall to the level of our training. Train well. KWATZ!
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Old 11-18-2011, 09:37 AM   #3
Janet L.
Dojo: Obiji Ki-Aikido, Lawrence, KS
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Re: Lessons from Missed Classes

I have to admit, my Aikido classes are the very highest priority in my life. After work, anyway. I wouldn't DREAM of skipping one unless the cause was pretty unavoidable.

Indeed, if my house-mate (the one who got me into Aikido) even starts to think about skipping a class to study or some such, things start going kerfluie in her life.

I'm a bit jealous of your ability to train five days a week. I've been threatening to try talking sensei into adding another class, but ten classes a week! Actually color me R0, G255, B0. . .
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Old 11-19-2011, 05:37 AM   #4
Pauliina Lievonen
 
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Re: Lessons from Missed Classes

Apparently I missed the draft of this column. Very nice!

Pauliina
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Old 11-25-2011, 12:13 PM   #5
Linda Eskin
 
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Dojo: Aikido of San Diego, San Diego, California
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Re: Lessons from Missed Classes

Quote:
Lynn Seiser wrote: View Post
Yes agreed.

We have to mindfully take advantage of the opportunities to learn when they present themselves.

And there is always something to learn.

Thanks.
Thank you, Seiser Sensei.

Yes, and everything can be a learning opportunity, if we're open to it. :-)

Linda

Linda Eskin - Facebook | My Aikido blog: Grab My Wrist

"Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train." - Morihei Ueshiba
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Old 11-25-2011, 12:15 PM   #6
Linda Eskin
 
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Dojo: Aikido of San Diego, San Diego, California
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Re: Lessons from Missed Classes

Quote:
Pauliina Lievonen wrote: View Post
Apparently I missed the draft of this column. Very nice!

Pauliina
Thank you, Pauliina. As usual, I found that the column sort of wrote itself. I sat down to write something quite different, but this is what came out. Writing helps me see things in a new light.

Linda

Linda Eskin - Facebook | My Aikido blog: Grab My Wrist

"Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train." - Morihei Ueshiba
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Old 11-25-2011, 12:46 PM   #7
Linda Eskin
 
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Dojo: Aikido of San Diego, San Diego, California
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Re: Lessons from Missed Classes

Quote:
Janet Lowther wrote: View Post
I have to admit, my Aikido classes are the very highest priority in my life. After work, anyway. I wouldn't DREAM of skipping one unless the cause was pretty unavoidable.

Indeed, if my house-mate (the one who got me into Aikido) even starts to think about skipping a class to study or some such, things start going kerfluie in her life.

I'm a bit jealous of your ability to train five days a week. I've been threatening to try talking sensei into adding another class, but ten classes a week! Actually color me R0, G255, B0. . .
Hi Janet,

Sounds like we are cut from the same cloth! Our dojo has no classes over the Thanksgiving weekend (Th-Sun), so a bunch of us are going in on Saturday for an afternoon of exam prep and open mat training.

Good luck getting that class added.

Linda

Linda Eskin - Facebook | My Aikido blog: Grab My Wrist

"Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train." - Morihei Ueshiba
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