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MOVEMENT

From a martial perspective, movement, tai sabaki, is crucial. As a boxer, you cannot simply be a good puncher and stand in the middle of the ring waiting your turn to throw a mean left hook. There is footwork to consider, yours and your opponents. The same can be said of every martial art, wrestling, karate, judo, aikido and so on. 



Movement is life. Life all too often throws challenges and obstacles our way. Many of us have experienced, unemployment, divorce, injuries, financial problems, even the loss of loved ones, maybe even the destruction of our homes and the lives we once knew. 

 I am equally confident many of us have experienced joy. 
It could be meeting the love of our life, the birth of a child, accomplishing something we had worked so hard for, an unexpected windfall of money, a promotion, accolades from our peers, or simply the mindset necessary to enjoy a magnificent rainbow, a sunset or sunrise, or a funny joke with a cherished friend. 

 Life is movement. 

 The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, (540BCE-480BCE) said: “you cannot step into the same river twice”. 

 Cratylus, a late 5th century, BCE philosopher brought to our attention by the writings of Plato, went one step further and concluded we cannot step into the same river even once because by the time we step into it the river itself has already changed. 

 Life experiences undulate like the waves and currents of the sea. There is nothing static about life; it is a process. 

 As the saying goes, “don’t let life pass you by.” Life is all about movement and everything about life is in motion. 

 When foul things happen to us, when Fortune turns her face from us, when everything we touch seems to turn to shit, there is nothing we can do but move on! 

 Somehow we must find it within ourselves to carry on. 

 Remember the people from news stories, whose lives have been ruined by hurricanes, tornadoes, or tsunamis. The television crews climb over the rubble of people’s lives to ask what they are going to do next. The answer is always that they will move on with their lives, they will start anew whether in the same community they grew up in or an adopted community somewhere else. 

 Movement is as essential in life for the non-martial artist on a daily basis as it is in the practice of any martial art. 

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