More post-election: taking care of ourselves and others…

Brad LarsonShintaidoLeave a Comment

I won’t mince words, Donald Trump won by appealing to fear and anger, and that doesn’t bode well for our path forward. I just returned from the NEMA museum conference, where we watched the election unfold in shock and disbelief. A friend reported someone felt this negated her life’s work in the museum field. But if anything, it’s a call to burn more … Read More

Barefoot and rolling around in the grass

Brad LarsonFeatured Posts, Shintaido, UncategorizedLeave a Comment

It’s one of those sunny October days that feels like an early September day, doing keiko (Shintaido practice) outside, barefoot under a blue sky. It’s an old-timey practice, without sticks, doing some of the roots movements, going down on our knees, cutting our partner, rolling. To be honest, knee walking and rolling are not my favorites. More of a shorter, Japanese body … Read More

Standing in the new world

Brad LarsonFeatured Posts, ShintaidoLeave a Comment

cumulous cloud and bird in Tampa

  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 … Read More

Experiment: Doing Taimyo Kata Meditation in the aisle at Walmart

Brad LarsonFeatured Posts, Shintaido4 Comments

There’s a moving meditation developed in Shintaido a decade (or two) ago called “Taimyo Kata”.  It involves a ten to fifteen minute sequence of relaxed and deliberate steps, reaching motions, and, my favorite, a section where you hold your hands together over your head and slowly bring them down across your face and chest.  In my mind, it’s as if … Read More

Chasing the Butterfly with my Bo Staff

Brad LarsonShintaidoLeave a Comment

chasing butterfly sketch

Chasing a butterfly with my bo staff — the sudden almost random movements of the butterfly make me quickly change my body in response. Hikari (soft energetic play) with a butterfly. (Don’t worry, I’m not attacking butterflies, I’m playing with them).

Cutting the Sky at Midnight

Brad LarsonNature, ShintaidoLeave a Comment

Amazing things can happen when you go outside at midnight with a stick. Chalkstone river bluffs, a meteor, a deer appears and stomps its hoof at me, an animal that sounds like a flute, and I keep waving the stick around cutting the sky.