This is not the post I had planned to write. When I began Being, Essence & Motion my intent was to share my experience of Aikido with whoever stumbled across my blog and found the recollections my journey interesting enough to spend some time reading them. The choice to keep this narrative in the first person is deliberate. This structure seems the most logical given that I simply want to relate how the study of Aikido has affected and continues to affect me. It also affords me the most ample opportunity to avoid the words "you" and "should" which seem all to prevalent in most of what I read about Aikido.
As anyone who has spent some time with me here probably knows, I consider myself a teacher of Aikido in only the loosest sense of the word. I am, first and foremost, a story teller. And the story I tell is of my time upon this path called Aikido. I share my learning experience with the kind folks who come to our dojo to find their own Aikido. Mary has been studying with me for twenty-three years, Dora, Charley, Jocelyn, Linda (the oldest living member of our group at 66) and Alice are all approaching the twenty year mark. All of my students, no matter their level of experience, have something to teach me and I am so grateful that they are willing to allow me to learn from them.
As I began to write what I originally intended to write an image of someone, from whom I have learned much though we have never met except in the pixilated world of the internet, popped into my head. His name is Francis Takahashi. From what I have read of his writings on AikiWeb I find him to be a man of strong opinions gently presented who manages to always enter a thread, no matter how heatedly being discussed, with a voice both reasonable and compassionate. His method of presentation is truly inspiring, bringing to life the true spirit of Aiki. This post is the result of that momentary diversion from the ill thoughts I had been harboring and planning to write about. Thank you Francis.
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