" Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive.

And then go and do that.

Because what the world needs are people who have come alive."

- Howard Thurman

" Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving."

- Albert Einstein

In the middle of so many bad news we need to train and train hard...

" Laughter is inner jogging."

-Norman Cousins

" Ja, Ja, ja, ja,ja, ja....!"

-mcr

" Whatever our story is, we must come to know it. It is given to us the way we are given ourselves;it is the source and the record of our identity.  Perhaps story is the only thing we have at the end of our lives, and it is everything."

- Deena Metzger

" To succeed, it is necessary to accept the world as it is, and rise above it."

- Michael Korda, Publisher

Searching the web I found this interesting history from a peer Aikido dojo. I want you to read it first, so we can talk about it afterwards. Here is the link...'Repelling an attack with the heart'.

Talk with you later....

Sensei Myriam

" There is more to life than increasing its speed."

- Gandhi 

I really mean what I say when I tell my students that they are the best. Why shouldn't I?. I recognize the same right to every other teacher in the Island. How can I explain it?. It goes like this. I tell my students that if they are not the best for me , being  their teacher, how can I expect others to value them. This has not to do with the mind... it is associated more like with the heart function. 

It is a ying thing. I look at them - myself included - and in addition to see what they are at this point in time, I see them as potential. What they are capable to become. My job as a sensei - one that has walked the path before them - is to help them see their potential and nurture it. What?. Nurture it?.  "Oh, common...!", you might think. And it is your right.

How do you think is more effective?. Telling them..."You are worthless. You know nothing " - which in fact they don't know much at their beginner's steps. But worthless?. Are they really worthless?. What about potential?. It is there and it is my job to help it grow. And it is their responsibility to make it real with daily work and effort. The majority of them brings what is initially more important. Their eagerness to learn. What happens later along the way, when they think "they know enough" is material for another conversation. But for now let us continue this thread...

This kind of thinking - and feeling -  and mostly of working with such a diverse group of individuals requires of two important elements in a teacher. One of them is patience and the other is faith. "Now she jumped overboard".... Why not faith?. Faith on what?.

I would say, faith in a basic goodness of each one of us. Of course we have our shadow aspects within. But where it is a shadow, by force must be light. Faith in the art and in the process within the art. Aikido is not a quick result kind of martial art. It takes time to understand and be proficient in it. Rules of engagement are so different in Aikido as compared to so many other arts. We'll talk about this some time in the future. And where there is faith... there must also be patience. And patience is a ying thing. We need to learn how to wait. And to learn that faith is what sustains an effective and productive kind of waiting.

I need to go down to the office. Let us leave this conversation here but I'll try to continue before this year ends. 

For now I'll summarize it with these words. My students are the best, and are second to none here and out of Puerto Rico. And I say and feel this respectfully. With a proper sense of who I am am... and of whom they are becoming.

Sensei Myriam