“While their owners sleep, nervous little dogs prepare for their day.”

I’m looking at the old Far Side cartoon on the wall, the dog on a stool preparing espresso alone in the kitchen.

Nervous Dog Coffee

How happy I am to be here. The natural light, the cozy couch and colorful pillows, the clean wood floors, the cheerful slight big-hearted owner who knows everyone who walks in, the ginger cookie. Wow. The ginger cookie.

Not to mention the wireless internet.

A skateboarder with a crocheted hat, shades of gray, passed me on the sidewalk as I walked here. If you want to see someone who’s in touch with his or her body, watch a skateboarder.

I have learned more about the seeming contradiction between the Shintaido practice of martial arts and the practice of peace.

One teacher when I asked how they were related said, Try it!

The other teacher said something to the effect that the ritualized metaphorical cutting with a sword or bo or the hand is a cutting away of unwanted baggage, dead skin, dead weight, old suffering. That the cutting of one’s partner is a freeing, a release from layers that hold them back, keep them from their true self.

I like both answers. I needed both answers. I asked the question weeks ago, and accepted the response without overthinking.

Two cheerful women and I spent the end of one community class last night on high school grounds, cutting the moon. I spent the hour before dawn on a hilltop with two other women, a new year meditation, cutting fog and sky. And in class this morning, I practiced cutting my teacher instead of just bruising her. (No blood. No broken moon. Metaphorical!)

Hey. Try it!