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I’m hiking up the driveway in a denim mini-skirt, knee-high leather boots, and an ivory tweed dress coat. There’s an R.E.I. daypack on my back with hip and chest straps, a handlamp across my [...]

I miss one class and come back to see the other two white belts have red bands on their belts. Another has a patch on his gi and oh, the beastly concept of competition rears its head. What does [...]

[Welcome Seattlest readers! Since moving to The South, I’ve learned that grits stands for Girls Raised in The South. Good luck cooking yours, and don’t hold back on the cheese!]

[Dear, patient readers. Bear with me as I explore this world of karate. I cannot seem to stop writing about it in gross detail. I hope, at least, there is a kernel of the teachings offered in the [...]

I keep remembering things that Hanshi said during class that slipped my mind when I sat down to write about them. For instance, the fact that all the katas are forms that were invented by a [...]

In addition to practicing at home, I’ve taken to stretching and warming up before I drive to class, just to focus my mind a little bit. I sing along with my recording of Khenpo Tsultrim’s “Songs [...]

Hanshi begins with a lecture about katas, “our most formal form.” He says outsiders call them the dance of karate, but really, the katas are imaginative combat versus multiple attackers. Hanshi [...]

All day I think about the eggshell. I think about how easily perfection cracks when it is only for its own sake. I think about my nature as a person, the ways I learn best, and the limits of [...]

“What do you do with the shell after you’ve cracked an egg?” Hanshi says. We are in the dojo and this time I remembered to bow. I know now to call him Hanshi or Sir and I also know never to stand [...]

I leave a message at the academy for Hanshi. I want to know more. What do I call him? Hanshi? Sensei? Sir? And when do I call him, if ever, by his first name? The other karateka used all three [...]