One of the major themes in my life the last few years has been “cutting and blessing.” …Going through life changes, getting unstuck, using a wooden sword for my body to feel this. And to do the cutting in a way that doesn’t just discard the past, but blesses it at the same time. Anyone who has gone through a divorce can probably relate, but there are all kind of ways of getting stuck and unstuck. And to do it in a way that includes a blessing.

I wrote about this all in a blog entry three years ago, here — it’s been a theme I’ve returned to ever since.

In the photo above, taken a couple days ago on a marsh trail in Canton, MA, I was playing with the feeling of cutting. Trying different speeds — sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes more intuitive and multi-directional (like Jedi training), a technique our dear departed instructor Joe Zawielski taught us.

Sometimes it is just pure mindfulness, slowly moving the blade across the horizon. Watching the blade cutting through space, watching the sun reflect off the blade, against a beautiful natural backdrop…the sky…the earth. And the feeling that I’m cutting through something, and blessing it at the same time.