We had a fabulous Boulder Quest Center graduation on Friday night. We had something like 12 people testing for new belts, and the energy was incredible. I guess it is credible, actually, because it's almost always like that - but it continues to amaze me. Here's my old man story: I think back to me, Aitoshi, and our first two students training in Scott Carpenter park on 30th street, next to the skate park and the SCA guys... and then I look around at a vibrant community of 130 practitioners in a stunning facility filled with reminders of our individual and collective successes. It's mind blowing, like my grandparents who sat with me to watch space shuttle launches after growing up before there were automobiles.

Truly, everyone rocked that night. Some standout moments to me include 15-year old Lia throwing big-man Randy with a ganseki nage, her younger brother Sam elbow-striking an incoming punch out of the way, and little guy Tallinn whipping Trainer Jenn Boughn overhead from a bear-hug attack. Adults rocked too. I always love the success of our senior-most women Kim and Jenn, who continue to deserve all praise. I also heartily enjoyed the bravery of Tony, a long-distance student visiting us from Santa Fe to demonstrate for his yellow belt in front of 40 strangers.

Our community is strong, talented, and supportive of each other. It is such a joy to participate in, let alone lead. Then on Saturday, Lia and Sam came to their first Level 3 class in green-white belts, Kim arrived in her new brown-white belt, and our two Boulder Quest black belts, Chris and Thomas, came as well. We had one of our best training sessions, with everyone excited to explore new material and try things out with new uke (Japanese word for "receiver [of a technique]").

So that's what I was really thankful for, in the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday. A vision years ago has become a reality, and now the community inspires me even more than I inspire them. What a great position to find myself in!

Aitoshi is out in Dayton this weekend at a kuji 3 seminar with Stephen K. Hayes and shamanic guide Dana Robertson. Meanwhile, I'm snowboarding at Eldora's opening weekend.

The two are actually pretty related. Kuji 3 (of 9) is about "riding the energy of the universe." That's a sophisticated concept, the total meaning and implications of which will defy a simple blog post, but that's not going to stop me from talking about it. Riding the energy of the universe means tuning it to where thing are going, what energies are dominant, and positioning myself within that. It's not the same as seeing the future (that's kuji #7) because riding energy is something that happens in the present. It may give us some sense of the future and how to position for it, but the sensing of important factors and the adjusting to those factors - that happens firmly, even radically, in the present.

Kuji 3 energy riding is also not the same as intention-sensing (kuji 5), or receiving messages from other minds or the cosmos itself (kuji 6). Those are somewhat separated from the receiver by space - they are events happening elsewhere that will or could affect you. Kuji 3 is happening right here - it relates to sensing the forces and currents that are affecting you right now. It is about not being ignorant to what is affecting you.

Snowboarding enforces that in a big way. You have to stay tuned in to many tiny details that are rapidly changing. You are affected by your own body, the snow conditions, the sun, the wind, your mental focus, your emotions, other riders and skiers, and the condition of your snowboard. Most of those things are in a constant state of flux. Throw on top of that real anomolies - a hidden rock or root, unexpectedly slushy or icy snow, an unanticipated snowmobile or skier pile-up, a snowboarder sleeping in the middle of the run, or a rogue squirrel.

The intellect can't track it all, so the only way to succeed is to get into a state of flow and allow a combination of instinct and directed awareness to take over. It sounds mystical, but it's very practical and clear. When you mess it up, you slam, which reinforces the fact that you were doing it wrong. That helps with the learning curve.

Although the ancients didn't have snowboards, they clearly understood the idea of "tracking multiple factors beyond the intellect with a combination of instinct and directed awareness while remaining open to the possibilities". It arose in battle, on horseback, and strategically in life. I feel so lucky that we can study these themes today in both compelling modern ways (and snowboarding sure is compelling), in compelling ancient ways (like Aitoshi is doing now), and through the echos that permeate the stories of our lives.

Toh!

Labels: kuji, ninja, snowboarding

We've now figured out how to put short Flash video clips in any of our photo systems on our website. Over the next few months, I plan to shoot a huge variety of short flash videos demonstrating not just our martial art, but also our dojo culture and our vibrancy of spirit.

I will also be able to grab a minute or so of highlights from graduation night video and put that up in the graduation photos folder, along with the usual still pictures. We make the whole grad-night DVD available, but I figure some highlights are fun to put out there to the world - something you can email to your friends and family if you happen to make the highlight reel.

So, first go to Photos, Graduations, Halloween 2008 graduation and watch the short highlight there... then plan your most mind-blowing demo ever for your next belt test, so that we can immortalize you on our website. :)

Two things:

First, I want to mention how much I am enjoying one of my senior students' integration of our To-Shin Do path into his job as a professional computer programmer. We frequently discuss the Kihon-Shoden-Chuden-Okuden educational model of classical Japanese martial arts, and he has realized some great things about himself and his evolving path in code. How much more Matrix-like can you get than a kick-butt ninja who is also a computer code master? We need to get him a black trenchcoat for his birthday next year.

More even than the substantial cool factor, his story is an illustration of how studying To-Shin Do transforms our relationships in all aspects of life. He really is on the tatsujin "master of all aspects" path. After four years and a black belt, Thomas has a sense of a vast realm of possibilities just dawning. That's often said but seldom found in martial arts, but To-Shin Do does that for people. I'm proud to be his teacher, and to represent, illustrate, and demonstrate this path for him and others.

If you're a coder yourself, check out Thomas' blog post on our other project (Propits). You can see the blog at propits.blogspot.com.

The second thing I want to mention is how much I like enjoyed lighting things on fire at my friend's 30th birthday bowling party. I don't think anyone else enjoyed it - I think they found it alarming. So, I have to be more careful and be less alarming. I do feel bad about alarming others. But from a pure aesthetics perspective, I find watching fire delicious. It's even more delicious when it's incongruent - for example, this fire was burning on top of ice, in a styrofoam cup. I get some deep sensory pleasure out of observing those kinds of contrasts. It's unfortunate that the styrofoam turned out to be highly flammable too. I think it would have been okay, because I think that counter was some kind of indestructible product pretending to be wood, but I can see how it alarmed people. I'm glad that the drink that someone poured on it wasn't high enough in alcohol content to burst into flame itself, because then we would have had kind of a napalm situation.

Labels: chuden, classical taijutsu, fire, ninja, okuden, Propits, shoden, To-Shin Do

Check out my new story in the Novemebr issue of Women's Magazine!
http://www.womensmag.com/news/2008/oct/30/womens-date-aggressor-safety/

I'm starting some new ventures as well as writing an auto-biography, and let me tell you, I am really scared. It's a familiar old fear - the fear of the unknown. The more time goes by, the more I realize all my real fears boil down to fear of the unknown.

I've done some really scary things in this life (you'll enjoy reading about some of them in the book). I've been attacked by humans and wild animals (scariest was a sea turtle). I've been in vicious car wrecks. I once "drove" my car backwards uphill on the end of a tow chain through a forest. I've snowboarded down some huge mountains, blind in a blizzard. I've bungee jumped. I've gone SCUBA diving with sharks. I once snuck up on a tiger and petted it (got yelled at for that one).

All that stuff was scary, especially the first time, but social situations are even scarier. I've bluffed federal agents. I met the god-king of Tibet. I've spoken to crowds of thousands live on stage. I've presented business proposals to billionaires. I once negotiated in my swimming trunks with a man who ambushed me with a machete.

And even all that stuff pales compared to risking my identity with bold new moves to grow and change. When I started writing a book about my life, I had to ask myself what my life is all about, and what I wanted to share. Scary!! My new project, http://www.madpropits.com/, takes me into realms of new media and social networking. Scary!! Why? Because it's new. I don't know what to expect, I don't know how I'll have to grow. I don't know how I'll be changed by the experience, and where that will take me next.

Some days, it feels like it might be easier to stay in my comfortable Crocodile-Hunter-meets-James-Bond personality... or my warrior-monk persona as To-Shi protector and Buddhist disciple... or even my loving husband and proud business owner role. It's all wonderful, beautiful stuff, but it has been brought into manifest form because I kept going and growing. I kept stretching my boundaries, like our Q-guy symbol with one foot reaching into the unknown. Even the great roles I've played so far would go stale if I just settle into telling stories of the glory years.

So I grow, and I am afraid. It amazes me that the fear of growth and change never wears off. I have to take a deep breath and remember that I am fundamentally smart and strong, and I can stop and rest anytime I need to. The successes become confidence and the failures becomes understanding, all fueling the next chapter. And so, it will work out.

Deep breath in, and then, onward.

I find myself with a cold this week - my mom out in California has it too, so I guess it's going around.

It's an opportunity in a few ways. The first way might be peculiar to me. I discovered that our dojo is strong enough - has enough teachers and staff - that I can actually take a sick day instead of dragging around the school looking and sounding terrible. So that's a big sign of success to me, and very comforting. In fact, some things get done better when I'm not hear - always an important lesson to the founders of any organization.

The second opportunity is true for all of us. When we heed the call of illness, things slow down a little bit. There is time to think, to reflect on the blessing of being alive. We can be pleased that we aren't more sick (or dead), and we can be pleased that we have experienced being healthier than the illness we are experiencing. We can also take some time to do those little things around the house that we are normally too busy for. As I'm feeling a little better today, the blessing of my usual vibrancy, clarity, and intelligence is all the more evident. Getting back to normal will feel so good.

The third opportunity is that I got to work on www.madpropits.com some more. That site continues to grow - we've grown by 333% in the first week of the closed beta. :) Thomas and I rolled out some additional features yesterday which make it a lot more interesting. Keep your eye on that, because it's going to change everything. In fact, you might check out the blog there at propits.blogspot.com for news on just how ninja of a concept that really is.

In the meanwhile, as I often say, good health!

My second story recently published in Women's Magazine. Check out the story here: http://www.womensmag.com/news/2008/oct/30/womens-date-aggressor-safety/. I am so enjoying the opportunity to share my perspective and experiences with others. Please email me with questions you'd like me to cover in my column. Use our contact form or email me at mary@boulderquest.com.

Labels: date aggression, Date rape, empowerment, safety, To-Shin Do, women, Women's Magazine