Practice

In the nearly forty years I have practiced Aikido, I have seen people come and go in the dojo. Some leave after the first class, others last through Shodan, the first degree of black belt. Regardless of the intensity of their participation or the regularity of their attendance, they disappeared. Whatever their initial reason for being there, they were not sustained by it in the end.

It is rare that the practice of martial art lasts as long as it is intended. It is easy to believe that there is an end; a place where you have arrived. The truth is that moment never happens. You are always in the act of becoming and always standing at the beginning.