I’ve been practicing the Diamond Eight Cut in the mornings pretty regularly now. With wooden sword, slowly cutting across, up, down, across. Not just waving the stick around, but feeling the cut with my body as I draw the blade across the space. Cutting the space around me — cutting through things I’ve gotten stuck on. Opening the space around me — freeing the things I’ve gotten stuck on. Cutting and blessing them.

To what end? Not just slashing through things (though it can feel good when I speed the cuts up). But arriving at a point where I feel more free, maybe even open-hearted toward the world.

Does it happen? I was in Tampa last week practicing sword movement with a stick looking out at the huge cumulous clouds (Florida has the most amazing clouds), and when I finished, the phrase came to mind “standing in the new world.”

Am I standing now in the new world? Can I open a new world with the sword? More experiments to come…