Iai and Life

I received my two things back today:  my hakama and gi and my certificate for my sword school.

These are important to me because these things were earned.  They are not a right just by doing Iaijutsu, they are something that is granted when one reaches a certain level of development and proficiency.

These do not (by any stretch of the imagination) represent a stopping place, but rather a recognition that one has now started - truly started - down the path of development of excellence.  Not perfection - we will never achieve that here - but excellence, a continuing growth in how we do that which we do that we may become better in doing it.

I know that many things in my life lack this singularity and clarity of purpose, and I can become greatly bogged down in the minutiae of them.  But in this, is not iai  life?  We only practice a set number of kata but practice them endlessly to become better at them.  This same thinking can - perhaps in my case should - be applied to every area of my life, even the things that I do not think that it applies to - after all, is any job not just the application of the same set of skills day after day, much the same as Iai.  

Iai  is life.  Life is Iai.  It is just that we do not always wield a sword when we practice it.