My Dear Friends,
I am back, arriving on Sunday around noon after leaving Japan at 1100 local time, so almost a 24 hour day to return. I appreciate your well wishes and your patience in my delay to your comments; I will respond to them soon.
It was a very good training. Sometimes people ask how physically taxing it is. It is somewhat taxing - I think for most of us that attend, we find that our sleep schedules do not really recover and so we are working on not ideal amounts of sleep. The actual physical training is not necessarily inherently difficult on any one day, but over time it builds up - We had a single day of training before we went to Tokyo for the weekend, then had six straight days of training prior to to departure and I can assure you that I am feeling it, largely in the area around of my knees and in my right hand (But to be fair, we did have some intense training as well: two hours of effectively body weight squats and the very last training session, where we did kata for effectively three hours straight).
Did I find what I was looking for this year?
I think I did, or at least more than what I could have hoped for. The breakthrough seemed to come around Wednesday after a dream that I had, a dream that (when I looked through the symbolism) actually made some sense to me. Add to that a very healthy review of my technique by practioners much farther along The Way than I am and a very healthy set of life wisdom cleverly disguised as sword teaching from the Head of my school, and the answers I was looking for - at least some of them - were there for the taking.
I have a rough list of things that I learned that I need to rethink, rewrite and shape before I think I am ready to share them - but the list does exist.
It was a very good trip.
I dunno TB. I read your stuff and you are focused, serious, and disciplined. I am dirty, rude and crass .... and I could swear we are on the exact same path sometimes. I wonder how that is?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if what you’re doing isn’t a pilgrimage of sorts? Men our age seem to be fond of them and for many they seem to become some sort of rites of passage.
Whatever it is, I appreciate your sword and your company as I walk my broken roads.
Hope you got some good pics and had some fun too.
Welcome back! Sounds like it was a positive trip in more ways than one.
ReplyDeleteGlen - It might surprise you to know how very undisciplined I feel most days. So perhaps we are on the same path.
ReplyDeleteIn my "About Me" over on the right, I mention I am on my Musha Shugyo - literally "the Warrior's Pilgrimage", where samurai would wander the countryside training and challenging themselves against other warriors. So yes, I am on a pilgrimage of sorts.
I appreciate your companionship as well, friend. Pictures to follow at some point.
Thank You Leigh! I did have a very positive trip, and got almost everything I had hoped for.
ReplyDelete