Pathwork

[Jackie Olsen]

Every spring and fall I clean out my files (my mom cleaned the house ... I do file cabinets and computer files!) Writers are like bag ladies, saving every bit of information, scrap of paper, or article for future use. I came across this poem in my Karate Articles file the other day (if anyone has a cool graphic to post with it ... feel free):

The fullness of time is here and now, and spring does not last forever. It is time to gather my energy and walk through the confusion and paradoxes ... the opposing pulls and contradictory challenges, the desires and attachements, needs, programs, and all kinds of fears and blocks and get on with it.

This means getting centered on a path that is chosen for no better reason -- and no worse -- than that my intuition says, "It feels right."

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Before karate, intuition was felt in my head. Since centering on this path, it is felt in my gut, my one point, or whatever name you have for it. It is the same feeling I get when observing or doing kata. I do not know how I know, I just know.

Jackie


[This message has been edited by Anthony (edited 10-07-98).]

[Jackie Olsen]

Anthony ... I love the graphic. It captures the essence of the vastness of life. (The poem is not mine ... I have no idea who wrote it). I, too, look at the rhythms of life and try to get into alignment with them. It seems that with winter coming on, I do my most intense, meditative/personal growth work. It is the time for me to dig deep and think deep thoughts. Then, when spring comes around, I step into my rebirth (my birthday is in June, so it fits in).

Jackie

[david]

Sitting by my morning window

In the darkness of the lingering night

With a cup of coffee and bittersweet memories

I await the dawn of this Fall day.


Anthony/Jackie,

I too am much affected by the cycle of seasons. The world seems to contract in the Fall and I unconsciously pull within myself. In my younger days it was almost unbearable. I wanted things to be different. I wanted to feel things differently. One Fall day I was having lunch with someone whom I have worked with for many years. We have become dear friends. Again, I was withdrawn. She looked at me and said, "You know, dave... you're like this every Fall since I've known you." It was like the poverbial "zen slap". I woke up to the fact that this is me and it's not something to dislike and run away from. With this knowledge of myself, Fall is what it is -- a time of contraction, to go within myself, to feel tenderly and deeply for the times and people which have passed by, and to accept that I, too, will eventually pass on.

Practice is like this too. There are times when the kata feels "right". There are times when it does not. But, the kata is perfect nevertheless for the time and place one is at. One simply perseveres and goes on with it.

david

[Jackie Olsen]

"I woke up to the fact that this is me and it's not something to dislike and run away from."

David ... isn't that the truth! Each morning I have a mantra that I recite (affirmations, etc.), which ends with "THIS IS WHO I AM." It is the goal of a warrior to become awake, aware, and alert. In order to do so, I must first remember who I am. Strangely enough, the idea hit me last May when I was watching the TV Show Millenium. They had either a visual statement/or kept saying to themselves (about the Millenium Group, if you've watched the show, you'll know what I'm talking about). This is who we are. This started me thinking even deeper about who I am.

ANTHONY: Re: the groove ... I'm not surprised. I feel the activities of the universe are bound together and human personality is not in the slightest measure separate from the movement of the whole...

Jackie

[This message has been edited by Jackie Olsen (edited 10-08-98).]