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Here is advice that came from a friend I talked to right after my test: “My father taught me that when big things come – and then go – we often feel a let down. Think about the word [...]

I had to answer questions. Some of them I knew, others I didn’t. I had to demonstrate punches and blocks while in a horse stance and then I had to answer more questions. The wall of karateka [...]

Ok, so maybe I’m mildly freaked out. Maybe I had un-saintly visions all afternoon of my tibia and fibula bursting through my own skin and jutting up into the air as the femur in my upper leg [...]

The question isn’t whether or not I will pass the test. At this level, instructors see when you’re ready to test, and then invite you to the challenge to see you succeed. And even though it [...]

I spend two hours tossing and turning last night, stewing over the situation at work. I finally get up around 1:30am and write for a little while, and I think I went back to sleep by 3am. Then up [...]

When Hanshi turns to me in the middle of class and says, “How do you feel?” I do not reply for what feels like an eternity. We’ve just finished working Anaku kata, way ahead of the game for me, a [...]

If you point at something in your life and say, “This is bad, this is hollow, this is unjust,” there are two things that can happen. One, the universe will collaborate with you. This can be a [...]

“No,” Hanshi says. “Yame!” (Stop! ) Nate has just moved forward into a reverse punch aimed at my head and I’ve stepped into a left upper block to block his punch. Except that this ippon kumite [...]

I went to bed at 6:45 p.m. last night. I woke from 1 a.m. – 2 a.m. and wrote the blog, plus a few other things. Then I slept from 2 a.m. to 6:45 a.m. I woke with a new vision, seeing as how [...]

Here is why I haven’t been able to write in scene or in narrative exposition for the blog lately: 1. The smooch buddy spends the weekend on the mountain with me. I find that we can share the [...]