Scott’s Ramblings

We spent almost two weeks in Fort Lauderdale.  It is truly beautiful city from certain vantage points.  

 This is a photoshoped picture.  However I really did do the handstand just not on rocks in Hawaii.  The reason that I am proud of this picture is at 50 I am doing something that I thought I could no longer do.  Ride a scooter, do a handstand, try Aikido, stay young. I read this to my son and he said he does not get the end, what I am suggesting is that chronological age is meaningless as long as we continue to push ourselves to try new things.

When I study Aikido I am not looking for answers, I am searching for understanding.

Tuesday the 15′th of September I start teaching an eight week Escrima course.  I have been studying Escrima for a little over twenty years.  When I teach Aikido I try to teach premise based,

Tell me this is not pretty.

Below is a link to some pictures I have downloaded.

https://www.photoshop.com/express/index.html?galleryid=233f99c119e544228109cf0012c0664d&trackingid=BTAGC&wf=share

This picture was taken at the Santa Cruz harbor.  My friend who I will call Mr. Safety First and I had just come from sailing a 17 foot WindRider Trimaran.  We had gone out a couple of miles beyond the harbor and where sailing among  200,000 birds.  Mr. Safety First happens to be a very good sailor, which is good because I am not.  The coolest thing is when I was out there whether I sailing or Mr. Safety First was I had this feeling of being humbled by my enviroment and yet greatful for the moment.

Beauty is where you find it.  Sam and I rode our bikes to the base of Mount Diablo right after sundown I think this as pretty as my Hawai picture.

I fell down some stairs the other day and my back went out.  The next morning I went and taught class.  For the first 30 minutes I layed on the mat and felt sorry for myself.  I was in pain, and felt I should not have to deal with this crap anymore.  Eventually I got up, put a back brace on and started teaching.  It turned out that I learned alot, and hopefully the students did as well. The thing that was most interesting to me, being 6 foot 5 inches tall guy and carrying alot of weight even my most gentle way of being could be maybe not that gentle, but with a back that shouted every wrong movement it was like being a turtle and having my protective shell removed.  It was like what Terry Dobson talked about his last class, how he understood Aikido so much differently having to look for places to rest every few feet because his health was so bad, as oppose to feeling like you can conquer the world with your strength.  Blending from vulnerability is way different than blending from strenght.