Zen Nihon Kendo Renmei’s instruction video of Seitei Gata performed by Ogura Noboro (ZNKR Hachidan Hanshi, Tokyo-To), published 2002.
I feature this particular video above all the others that are out there because I like it. It’s that simple. The skill in the performance of the moves appeals to me. The spirit of the man is so ‘in the moment’ that I enjoy sharing that moment. That’s it. No more attempts at wisdom. This is a gut thing.
Long time no blog. Back on my feet again and it’s time to start back on the path to wellness. Step one – Juicing! Yep, all those months of fast food and quick sugar fixes are to be relegated firmly in the past. To kick start this poor body of mine, a 5 day Juice Fast begins. Today’s first plunge into the sludgy green world of juicing was the Green Goddess a recipe I found and decided to try. I added a little ginger to it because I do like to have a slight zing to it..but to be honest you could add almost anything to suit your taste buds.
Serves 1-2
This drink is delicious, refreshing and super-healthy. You can’t help but feel so much better for drinking it, even if you’re not used to drinking a lot of greens. This recipe makes about one litre, and is the perfect drink to wake you up first thing in the morning or to drink after a session at the gym.
EQUIPMENT
200g of organic spinach
5 sticks of celery
1 whole cucumber, including peel
2 apples
1 medium RIPE pineapple
½ a lemon, including its peel
½ a lime, including its peel
DIRECTIONS
Raw Coach Top Tips:
Feel free to swap spinach for another dark green leafy vegetable and/or use different fruit as you desire. Greens and fruit work very well together, especially when juiced or blended.
Karen Knowler, The Raw Food Coach publishes “Successfully Raw” – a free weekly eZine for raw food lovers everywhere. If you’re ready to look good, feel great and create a raw life you love get your FREE tips, tools and recipes now at www.TheRawFoodCoach.com.
Day one has started. I have some whey protein powder as a once a day supplement for backup. I bought vanilla and also chocolate flavour to aid in fighting off those cravings. I am intending to only drink one of those a day as it gives 52g of protein and that is plenty for my purposes. I will also be taking an omega 3 fish oil capsule at bedtime. Female and over 50, gotta keep those joints lubed.
So here it is, the star of today’s show in my kitchen!
Image via Wikipedia
Time to get some! I’m rearranging a corner of my dining area to put all my workout stuff together. In all the snow hubbies truck blew a gasket and he’s having to use my car. This leaves me without transport in the daytime, which I have absolutely no problem with at all. Who wants to drive in the snow? Not me. I have 6 million things to do around the house and of course I work from home currently, so no need for a commute.
By the time he gets home and I have cooked dinner I really don’t want to go to the gym, so yesterday I started working out at home. I’m still losing weight a little at a time, and it’s almost that time of year to get back into all my sword related activities. What a year it has been for me! One thing I have learned about myself though, is I don’t give up easily. I might not get everything done that I intend, but at least I try, a few times..:-).
Todays workout. Legs and arms. Mini stepper and squats while using the medicine ball, some small hand weights and a little cardio with the skipping rope. Should do for a start.
I never tire of watching this movie. Yojimbo is also one of my favourites. I’m getting quite a collection now. My family retire for X-box marathons when they see the ‘sword box’ come out of the movie cupboard. I can’t help it, once the urge for Samurai hits, it hits. There is no cure but to feed the beast. Add in the Idol Worship of Toshiro Mifune and you can see my issue. I even admit to watching movies that he is in that don’t have even one samurai in them. There, I said it! Hmmm….I might…just….have…to stop writing…and go for the box….bye!
That’s it! I am done with the Rat Race! I am going to simplify my life and become an old hippie. Oh, wait. Too late, nature beat me to it.
50th birthday marked by a day at work, strawberry shortcake, a birthday card that farts [from the 11 year old] and the urge to run away and join a circus. Not a real circus, you know those with hours of repetitive practice daily just to juggle a few balls, but the circus of the mind. With lights, sequins and sparklies and happiness that involves very little effort. Oh, and don’t forget the elephants, there have to be elephants. Of course they don’t poop or need veterinary care, ever. And my bank account is never ever empty, and my car never breaks down or needs that expensive petroleum product. My house magically cleans itself and looks like a wooden Gypsy caravan drawn by a horse from the outside, yet has TARDIS properties and becomes a mansion on the inside. It IS bigger on the inside. The snow only falls on trees and cute little town commons and never on the roads, and ice is something you put in your adult wobbly pop beverages.
When I was a child I used to wonder why the kids ever came back from Narnia and I don’t think I ever got over that feeling. My wardrobe door would be firmly nailed shut from the inside.
What does this all mean, you ask? Or not. Nevertheless I answer ” Who the heck knows? ” It probably goes with the territory of middle age, I haven’t a clue. If so, then I have been middle aged from birth. In England we have a phrase to describe those of a certain type, the ones who are constantly out in left field and never seem to firmly grasp reality. We say they are off ‘dancing with the faeries’, I have always loved that saying, I love to dance, love the idea of they fey and I hear the music clearly.
Cheers!
Hmmm. What is there to say about that? This is the time of life when you take stock and look back over what you have done and achieved in life. New Year’s Eve curriculum vitae. I have done many things and lived many lives in those 50 years. In some the human creature is reincarnated whilst yet being alive, a reinvention of the self as it were. I am one of those that has adapted and grown according to circumstance, and so I am a culmination of my many incarnations. Perhaps I will be lucky enough to experience a couple more.
I do wish that life was easier now than it used to be, in this economy it seems to be a little worse than I expected, but this too shall pass. I do wish I had some of the energy and innocence that let me to adapt so easily before. But, of course, with age comes wisdom if you are doing it right. I had planned a big international party for the big 5-oh! but it was not to be and I ended up cancelling altogether. Instead I will go to work and Yoga class much the same as any other day.
Hubby is going to buy me a tattoo, but that won’t be for a few weeks, it took me a while to choose it and I have to plan the time to have it done. It is to go across my back. I like it because the crow has always been very connected to me [I had a pet one as a child] and it looks Alaskan and Celtic at the same time, very symbolic of my life and family. Anyway..that’s all for now, I will update you on what it feels like to be 50 in a few hours. Happy New Year!
12 weeks after my injury and my face is still hurting like crazy. The eye remains a little stretched out and gets dry and sore easily. There is a bump at the impact point and it’s still blue around that spot but all in all it is much improved. The occasional stabbing pain to tell me that my body knows it’s got a bubo and it’s ‘working on it, thank you’. The cut has healed to a small pink line and the divot where my glasses nose piece indented on my nose is almost not a crater any more. Success.
Time to get motivated again. I have lost the 10 pounds I gained from misery loves company style food. I quit the job that had become less than fulfilling and am in the process of being accepted for a new one, close to home and NO DAMN COMMUTE! Gotta love Route 3 South in the mornings right around…oh, let’s say Chelmsford MA where 5 congested lanes of traffic become 3 lanes of pissed off people. A 20 minute journey at 10am becomes a 50 minute journey at 7.30am and that’s in good weather. Add in bright sunshine, rain or snow and you can add up to another hour on that. I’m just not going to do it anymore.
I want to move to Alaska. Hubby said ok, in about 5 years time.[He's a very smart man] I want to go NOW! Actually all I need is some quiet time. For me that involves computers. I am currently setting up websites for several people and polishing up a few of my own.
So, back to the point.
Now that I am not being stared at everywhere I go, I can rejoin society. That means back to the healthclub, the pool and soon Iaido! Hubby says I am miserable when I don’t do it, and I concur. I have to detox from the junk food, swim and sauna a bit, and after the holidays head back to the Dojo. I have a different mindset now. Nothing quite like a good conk on the noggin to clarify your resolve.
See you later.
Sometimes you don’t know you are in a rut until you fall out of it. I was sailing through life thinking that things were starting to go my way, when in actuality I had just stopped making waves and was floating on whatever wave came by. Spiritual bodyboarding, if you will. I made plans and attempted to do things that I really wanted to do, fully intending to carry them out. Then something would come up and I or my resources would be needed by someone else and I willingly abandoned my own thing to go help or fund theirs. I did not see it as at all self sacrificing, I have always believed it is good for you to help others whenever you can. Well, the universe decided that this way of life must stop, and sent me a BIG wake up call. This is neither a pretty story, nor a short one, but I feel it’s worth sharing.
I was punched in the eye. By a person who I have given much time and support. It was totally and utterly unexpected and shocking. The aftermath was worse than the blow. First I was upset and in pain. Then angry, and I started taking pictures of the injury. Then proactive in having my hubby take a look at it, and on his advice treating the site with icepacks and taking a painkiller. Then angry again as my glasses were broken. Then upset. Then relieved because hubby was able to fix them for me. Then sad. Then tired. All I wanted to do was sleep and forget about it. The shock and horror on my husband’s face told me how bad it was but to be honest the more it swelled up, the less pain I could feel.
I got up the next day and went to work. Driving was a bit of a nightmare because my eye was almost swollen shut. I carefully plotted the timing and the route so that I could drive slowly. I think I may have been in shock at this point because normality was like a sanctuary and I felt comfort in just performing all the mundane tasks of the morning. Well, that didn’t last long. My boss took one look at me and said I should go to the emergency room right away and they gave me a medical leave of absence for as long as was necessary. I meekly complied. I just seemed to float along in a fog of numbness. Long story begins. The rest of the day was spent in the ER having facial CT Scans and vision exams etc. Half way through all this I realized my poor husband did not know where I was so I sent him a text from the examination room I was in, and within 10 minutes he was there. One thing that had not occurred to me was that everyone would assume that he had done it. Luckily I had filed the reports earlier and they let him in.
Ice is my friend
Apparently the severity of the injury caused the medical professionals to expect fractures in the cheekbones. A woman of my age being hit that hard almost always gives that result. They talked to me about facial reconstruction by a plastic surgeon and that if they did find what they expected, I would not be going home that day. They remarked on my calmness. But I was still in that ‘fair enough’ mode. Hubby, on the other hand, vacillated between sadness, concern, worry and anger, frustration, let’s get a lynch mob. Still no pain. It did hurt a bit when they prodded a few places, but other than that, not a bit of pain. Results were in. No fractures! Doctor told me what to expect in the way of crush injuries and their progression. She was amazed that I only had tissue damage. I was too. She did explain that it was a very severe injury and would need a lot of care. Hubby took notes while I sat in my little calm spot.
By this time I could not drive anymore, vision totally gone in that eye due to swelling. We decided to leave my car in the ER parking lot, and hubby drove me home. I had two prescriptions for two different strengths of pain killers, but as I was till feeling no pain I didn’t bother with getting them. I turned on the TV to listen to, got my ice packs and laid on the couch. Still totally calm.
We 'ates dose Hobbitses!
Next day the pain kicked in. Hubby had gone for the day, and for some reason I missed my car. It became very important for me to have my car at home, so I decided to go get it. I knew I could easily walk there. I plotted my route so that I was able to avoid people as much as possible, because everyone stared at me when they saw me. On the way to the ER parking lot, I passed a supermarket that has a pharmacy, so I decided to go get my scripts filled. Yep, freak show time. I had to make a choice, cower and hide my face, or stand tall and deal with it. So I stuck my chin up and walked in. The reactions I got were varied. From staring when they thought I wasn’t looking, and some nudging of companions to right out avoiding looking at me at all, even while waiting on me at the counter. If I caught someone looking at me, I smiled at them. I became chatty with everyone who waited on me, and if they couldn’t deal with me, that was their issue. I think a little anger crept back in.
From that point, I just went everywhere I normally would. But some days I had my fill of the stares and chose less popular stores to shop in. It just became very, very tiring. My husband took me out to a Five Guys Burger place because I had wanted to try them out. Of course the patrons all assumed that ‘big biker dude’ had clocked his ‘old lady’. I made a huge point of being bright and cheerful and we laughed a lot. This seemed to confuse them. Apparently I was supposed to be a sad, wounded, and suppressed victim of violence. BTW their burgers are awesome! AND they have malt vinegar to put on the chips [fries].
I have to admit that I did start to get a little down after that. Not really over the injury but over having to justify and explain and talk and talk and talk. People giving me advice, suggesting counseling, mentioning post traumatic stress syndrome and all the rest of the well meaning responses. The swelling had started to go down, and the pain was interesting to say the least. The eye was constantly weeping and my cheekbone injury would be okay one moment and then excruciatingly painful the next. The blood in the wound was running to the lowest point and in this case that was the base of my throat, so now the entire right side of my face and neck was an array of peacock shades. I did have to utilize the painkillers and was grateful for them. Ice was my friend. My days became a series of visits to the freezer to put one bag back in and get the next. I could not sleep well, because when I rolled over, the pain would wake me up. I was miserable. I became cranky and irritable. The meds made me dizzy and tired. I became sarcastic and cynical and any time I spent with others found me mimicking Orcs and saying ‘We ain’t had nuffin to eat for free days, cept maggoty bread’.
I had planned a camping weekend with friends, that I could not attend, so that made me worse. I persuaded hubby that his time would be better spent elsewhere and he reluctantly went out to visit our friends, while I stayed home and wallowed in my misery. I did not leave the house for 3 days. I did not answer my phone or emails, and I watched marathons of my favourite TV shows. I love Television. Hubby was concerned but alleviated this somewhat by filling the cupboards with my favourite foods, and replenishing the salad crisper. On day 4 [one week and a day after the incident] I had to go back to work, and just the thought of it made me want to throw up. I avoided all thought of it, and did not prep clothing, lunch or any of the usual stuff. More TV.
I see no ships!
Didn’t sleep well and got up on day 4 feeling terrible. Grabbed whatever clothing I could find, discarded several shirts that clashed with my face, settled on simple black, and headed to the office. Freak show 2. People were so kind to me and so distressed over this happening that I almost felt guilty for making them feel bad. I got many visits from concerned persons offering help and support and of course, the usual concern that I might not be safe in my home. I found myself having to reassure others. I discovered that being a victim of violence makes you feel like a second rate person. People assume that you are not in control of your own life. They start talking to you as if you need guidance. I think it’s this realization that makes people become depressed after the experience. You might start to believe them if you listen long enough. I changed from mimicking Orcs to channeling Quasimodo, and ‘the bells, the bells, they made me deaf you know’. Insert manic laughter here.
Fall foliage [day 12
What is does prove is that no matter how old you are, you need to make sure you are thinking of your own wellbeing. This not only includes physical health but also spiritual strength. If all you do is give, then soon you will have nothing left. As we age we need to be the strongest person that we can be. Did it hurt? Yes. Was I scared? No. Of the gamut of emotions I felt, fear was not included at any time. This more than anything made me appreciate all the lessons I have learned in Iaido. And putting it into practice automatically, reinforced the idea that your mind must direct your actions when in a dangerous situation. Panic would have been my downfall. The situation occurred, I dealt with it and with the ensuing issues, and only when it was concluded did I allow emotional responses. I did this without thinking, because the hours of practicing control of your body via learning how to control your mind paid off. I am not a superhero, I am just a small, middle aged woman who is trying walk this path as best I can.
Note to self : As soon as possible, get back to class – you got the IM from the Universe.
 | oscarclub on The film that helped inspire S… |
 | revdebi on Poi |
 | Melinda Deuso on Life, The Universe and Ev… |
| revdebi on My Poi |
 | Ishana on My Poi |
|
