Ugh!

Hello friends!

Oh my! I have been SO damn busy that I have not been able to post here. I still have pages of notes from my Japan trip I am wanting to share. One thing about those, however. As I was writing them during my trip, I found myself experiencing so much that I had a very challenging time putting it all down on paper. There were so many lessons, things I heard, things I saw, stuff I learned that I discovered the futility in trying to note it all down.

I ended up skipping a day of note taking and trying to make it up later - which was almost impossible. I went from one awesome experience to another. To try and go backwards and write about what had happened the day before was to miss what was happening at that moment. That wasn't something I was willing to sacrafice.

Another challenge I am having is that so much of my experiences are deeply personal. There were things I felt were personal to me and not something which should be posted on an internet blog page. In our Bujinkan arts (as with many budo arts), there's a concept called "kuden", which means "oral teachings". These are things which are on a personal level, kept between teacher and student. So much of what I experienced and learned seemed to fall into this category. If I ever talk in person with any of you, I am happy to share them with you. But, to post them on a web blog seems disrespectful, or at least devaluing of the experiences.

Most kuden, in my opinion, is never really explained well outside of a personal level anyway.

I've also been thinking about this blog and it's purpose. I've been reading some great blogs out there and gotten some good ideas. I think I am now looking at making this blog more of a collection of my thoughts, not just about my classes, but about my whole budo life.

So, please keep checking back. I promise to keep writing here. Really, I promise...