Instead of an ‘intro’ post… well actually this is an introduction post.
At the point of writing this, I’m 22, I live somewhere in Europe and I work as a software testing engineer. Well, names and places are not too important, I feel, so I won’t go into many useless details.
I started training in Aikido at a dojo in my city in December 2007 and I passed the 5th kyu (yellow belt) test on the 6th of June, yay! I didn’t think it was OK to test, but Sensei wanted all of us to test in order to keep track of our own progress and to receive a constructive feedback, be it positive or negative.
I guess I shouldn’t be exactly the one talking, but I can’t keep these thoughts to myself, either… after 6 months of practice I feel that I’m getting more and more ‘addicted’ (in the good sense I hope) to the Aikido practice. The days when I thought I could leave all my ‘aiki’ preoccupations at the door of the dojo, put them on at the next training and in the meantime just “be myself” are long gone :)
Looking back, it appears more and more obvious to me that I’ve since embarked on a loooong long road, full of obstacles, that I have to walk on all by myself, knowing with each step I take that I’m advancing on this path, while being aware that its end cannot be foreseen… there are certain things in life that you just can’t “learn” and then “master”; actually most of them suppose a great deal of commitment and constant, never ending will to perfect your skills.
If I were to think in images (it’s a good mental exercise actually… I did this instinctively as a kid but growing up I feel I almost lost this wonderful ability) about Aikido and the decision I took, to keep practicing and constantly try to improve myself, I’d visualize this as the long long path I spoke of, that never reaches a definite end and that you have to walk on all by yourself. Thus the title of this first post.
(For the few of you wondering, yes, this is the title of a track featured on the Drudkh “Enstrangement” album. You can listen to it here. Just a word: it’s a ’strange’ music indeed that you either love, either can’t stand. As genre, I’d call it “Slavonic heathen metal” – a sub-genre of black metal.)
(The picture above is not mine, so the credit goes to rammstein13 on DA. If there are any problems, notice me and I will remove it.)
