My wife is in Brazil to help look after her mother this week. She went down thinking it was an emergency, but now that she is there, she realizes it is anything but an emergency. Yes, her mother is 82 years old, and that it old by just about anyone's standards. She has bad feet, and knees, so she has trouble walking, and has fallen a couple times recently. The falls are why my wife went down in the first place. I am Mommy and Daddy all this week and next.
It also means that I've been away from the dojo since last Saturday; the girls want me home on school nights, and I agree completely. My return today was accompanied by some mixed feelings. I have to admit that in some ways it's very easy to stay away from the dojo. It's tempting to avoid the aches and pains that go hand in hand with studying a martial way. On the other hand, those of us who study (for lack of a better word) once we take our first step down the path, it's hard to step off the path, even for a short time.
My thoughts centered on the cold, the rain, and my arthritis. I thought that I would be stiffer and more achy than I was, which was a surprise. My ukemi was light and smooth. I am working on making my forward rolls tighter, and that was going well, too. I am trying to get my head down to my feet as I roll instead of going out first, then down. I also received a surprising compliment from Sensei, but that is for another post.
