I am Working on My Aiki Spirit

Last night's class was exhausting and exhilarating, and I was glad to be back on the mat. It was a crowded mat, too. There were probably 15 people plus instructor(s). I am still in awe that of all the people there, I was the third one to line up. Only our Nidan instructor, and shodan sometimes-instructor were ahead of me when we lined up. The three other people who would have lined up ahead of me were not in attendance last night.

We started out fairly easy with a ki exercise that worked into a gyaku-hanmi shihonage omote and ura. I worked with a college student (4th kyu) who had also missed quite a few classes over the last few weeks. We were both quickly out of breath, although I felt my endurance start to come back as the class went on. He and I worked together on the next technique, too, but we added another college student (newly belted 6th kyu Melissa) to our group. We took turns, but kept getting confused with our rotation. None of us is particularly adept at doing the three-person nage/uke rotation.

I also had the opportunity to work with a brand new member of our dojo. Normally new members are pretty lost most of the time. They don't know the etiquette, or the routines, and have trouble picking up the most basic of Aikido techniques (although Aikidoka know there is no such thing as a "basic" technique). Last night, however, was a very different story. Our new member is (was) a practitioner of Tai Chi. First of all, he had an amazing amount of power. His ki, or in his case chi, is already very well developed. Secondly, he picked up the technique very quickly. By the third time he practiced the four variations he was seriously taking my balance. On the ura, he was pulling me around his center and hurling me to the ground. Of course, I helped him with that, so I'll take my bit of credit. He's good and it was a lot of fun working with him.

I am disappointed that I missed an outdoor weapons practice we had a couple weeks ago. The church where we practice had a wedding reception or something going on in the common room, so practice was moved to a nearby forest preserve/park. I enjoy weapons class, and I seem to have a knack for using weapons, both the bokken and the jo staff. I even enjoy working with them when I'm not in class. I'll go out in my back yard and practice suburi.

Finally, Aikido is good for my Aiki spirit. It was toward the end of a very long and difficult time in my life. I was having some very serious personal relationship issues. She came into my life unexpectedly, and made that difficult time even worse. I have never been treated so badly before, or since. The Aikido helps me deal with the feelings I still carry. I would like to forgive, but I am not in that place yet. It has never affected any part of my daily life, but if you were to ask, I'd immediately tell you that, no, I haven't forgotten, nor have I forgiven. I would like to be able to forget. I'm not sure about the forgiving part, though. Maybe I'll never get the one without the other.