I have two friends with serious health conditions. Both have cancer. And their conditions is helping me to understand once more why and how do we need  to train. A test?. A rank?. A position or recognition?. These are too little and limited goals. My friend's conditions gives me perspective. Yes, Sensei. "Train for life".....

Sensei Myriam

"The old can be glorious if one has not unlearned how to begin."

- Martin Buber

Our lives have so many chapters. One ends to turn the page and start another. Age need not be a limiting factor. If we know how to not forget how to start again, and again, and again....

Sensei Myriam

"Sometimes we behave as though there was something more important than life.

But what?."

-Antoine de Saint-Exupery 

My Sensei helped me see this yesterday. Domo arigato Sensei!

Today, is the last day of my pediatric practice in Puerto Rico. Will I be a doctor at DE?,  I don't know.  I still have the skills and the knowledge. Which means that being a doctor is what I know how to do but it is not who I am. And this is important for me to remember at this point. Because ending my practice doesn't means ending my life. A path ends, and now at a crossroad several others open for me to walk. Let this day be a good one...!

Sensei Myriam

" True power comes from the choices we make."

-Sensei Myriam

These are words from an Alan Cohen's newsletter I receive monthly and to which you can subscribe. I want to share a portion of it and give him credit for such wise words..... 

" Sometimes what seems to be going wrong is really going right. From a human perspective it may appear that things are working against you, when they are really working for you. That's why it's important to be vigilant for the good things apparent errors lead to."

"Play the mistake...", is and was the little voice I heard within. I told my Sensei this last December, "It might look that the problem is me". And I said it in earnest, opening myself to the drastic truth of those words. Opening myself to whatever effects of acknowledging something could bring to my perception and awareness of things around me. 

"Play the mistake...", the voice still whispers inside me.  Whatever it is, I am not afraid to open my eyes to see in me whatever it is. I won't hide nor recoil. I won't crutch as if making me small from whatever mistakes I have or will do in the future. Because, I am awake and not fearful to know about the good and the bad in me. 

"Play the mistake...", I won't accuse; not me, not them, nor anybody else.

Sensei Myriam

Leaving our safety zones is not an easy thing to do. In my case I am leaving the comfort zone of having my dojo in my house and move it to a rental space in a nearby town. But, it doesn't stop there....I'll continue later when I come back from dojo. Because, yes, Saturday's class changed from 2-4 pm to 10 am-12 noon. Just another  of many changes....

OK, back. It's Saturday 3PM and one week ago we would be at the middle of the class. But not today. The class was early. It feels odd but it's OK. Also part of coming out of our usual routine. Out of what was, to start moving  in a new direction. There are no guarantees, but who cares. There are no real guarantees in life nor certainties. We would love them to be real but what we call certainties are but  illusions. This false sense of security that comes from been able to predict. And if there is something that I've learned about predictions is that it doesn't always work. Today, I would have thought of other students at my side taking charge of the dojo. But, it wasn't meant to happen. I would have thought of other yudanshas being in charge, and again, it wasn't them to be the ones.

And all is up on front. We are out there to do, to work, to be known as who and what we are. And for us to define who we are and move from that point onward to new and bigger challenges requires for us to get out to the world and out of our comfort zones.

Sensei Myriam

" By letting it  go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go.

But when you try and try, the world is beyond winning."

-Lao Tzu

"Letting go doesn't mean giving up,

but rather accepting that there are things 

that cannot be."

-Al Anon