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
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
Lake Massapoag
An extra reflective day…swing the stick around and look at the sky and water…do some breathing…
Standing in the new world
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
New moves with a wooden sword: cutting and blessing
I enjoyed a special workshop with Shintaido Master Instructor Ito Sensei this last weekend, arriving from France with new movements being developed in Europe. I had already practiced an early version of these movements (part of a new kenjutsu form), but good to see them in their latest evolution. So what were the moves? They both involve use of the … Read More
Things you can see when you run with a stick…
Obviously I’m a big fan of using simple tools (like a stick) to expand our connection to nature when we exercise. But the stick is only part of it. There’s a whole other side to exercising in nature (rather than a gymn) — there’s so much to see. The changes in landscapes, new things growing up over time, the sun … Read More
Experiment: Doing Taimyo Kata Meditation in the aisle at Walmart
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
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
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.