I’m getting the hang of practicing Shintaido alone. The material I learned during the four months in San Francisco seems to have shaken down into 3 practices: bo, sword, and Shintaido. I hear my dad’s buzzer at 7, I lay in bed thinking I’ll just take off this morning, catch a little more sleep. Then I remember the early classes in SF area, how I somehow pried myself out of bed during a much colder and darker season. So now I somehow pry myself out into the yard here. The dojo is certainly beautiful-the great oak, the distant mist rising in the morning sun over the pasture to the east, the camellias, azaleas, and Carolina Jasmine in bloom.

Sometimes rush hour cars are stopped along the road--so there’s the occasional audience. What must they think? ‘Mom! Why’s that lady jumping like a frog?’

I’ve been patient with myself for not remembering the exact order of things, but the more I do, the more it seems to hang together. I miss the flow, the being pointed by someone else in a direction and made to go. Alone I have to overcome my own inertia. Yesterday, my body resisted eiko dai--it would just go a step or two. But it was sword day, and I finally figured out a small cue that gets my feet in good position during a thrust (focus on the foot as the leading edge instead of the sword) so that was good. Today, general Shintaido day, all was fine. Well--jumbled. But quite beautiful.

I tried something new, something that was in my mind during yoga relaxation long before shintaido, but that works better with shintaido. I did it with hands today, but want to try it with sword, and with a partner.

It’s a kind of gyroscopic spinning--painting horizon--with fractional moments where nothing touches the ground! Aiming for the body to be in the air, parallel to earth, spinning. I love it! It feels great! I didn’t know I could do it! It isn’t that hard!

Well. My form must be amusing--but it has potential!

I don’t keep that same inner current of energy I experienced in San Francisco from the vigorous chain of classes--but I feel good.

This morning, a great blue heron wended above during o of tenshingoso...