I forgot the brush — reach to the wide open sky / with an empty hand (Notes: I actually had forgotten my staff, which I often use to cut or brush across the sky as I run through woods and open trails. As I ran from a leafy shaded area around a corner that opens to the sky, I was … Read More
Moments of ease…
These are such crazy times…coronavirus, killing of George Floyd, protests, tear gassing for a needless photo op. And so on. But still to find moments of ease…Yesterday running with a stick at Moosehill Farm, something I’d never felt…each cut with the staff felt relaxing, warm, pleasant in my body. To find delight in simple movement through the world around me…
Cutting the sword through space
Cutting the sword through space connects me closely to: trees with new leaves, blue sky, the sun, a waterfall. A more direct and physical connection to nature that I can feel in my body.
One-third Haiku 5/26/20
Jump with shiny ferns (It feels good to jump around in the forest. Even better to count and grunt and make deep noises, let the body loose, dangle around, hop up and down…and see a floor of ferns shining in the forest as you bounce around.)
Haiku 5/10/20:
The wide open path — run with Spring’s abandon and / swallow the first bug (Notes: There’s a special exercise form in Shintaido called “eiko” where you raise your staff, a sword, to the sky, and then run across a wide field cutting the sky with your sword. You usually do it fast, energetically, and often it feels exhausting. But … Read More
Face covering while jumping with a stick?
Everyone wants to know, can you still jump around with a stick wearing a face covering? So I gave it a shot…
Getting Outside: Exercise with a Stick (video 3)
In these times, we want to reconnect with nature — using a stick to connect with heaven (aspiration) and earth at the same time (“tenshijin” in Shintaido). And I add a tip on working from home while staying active.
Getting Outside: Exercise with a Stick
So many of us longing to get out of the house. Thought I’d show a few simple Shintaido exercises you can do with a stick and connect with nature.
Haiku 3/13/20
a break in the clouds / and a chance to go outside / and run with the stick (Notes: this was a few days after it began to dawn on us all how much life would change with coronavirus. This photo is a classic “cutting the sky with sword” exercise we do in Shintaido — “eiko”. It can be exhausting … Read More
To pull the moon inside myself with my sword…
I think I was partially successful in a very very small way