Keep Training, Stop Complaining

Zen and the art of…well, everything

Portrait of the author as a martial artist. Or the martial artist as an author.

Aikido is the martial art I trained in physically for twenty years. Since my spirit is willing but my joints are weak, I now mostly follow the mental, and spiritual aspects of the art. Martial arts was never meant to be a sport. It is a lifestyle.

We used to say that someone doesn’t find Aikido, Aikido finds them. We would also place imaginary bets on who would stick with it when they first entered the dojo. Some of the most unlikely people became the most committed Aikidokans, while some of the gung ho people soon drifted away.

I was one of the most unlikely ones.

In school, I was the brain, not the brawn. I cried and threw up when I had to run laps, and my mother thought teaching girls to play softball was a waste of time. In short, I was a sissy. While I climbed my share of trees, and punched a guy once who was upsetting my sister, I was considered by most to be a girly girl. With my blonde curls, long fingernails, and petite stature at 5'2", I would have been voted least likely to kick anybody’s ass anywhere.

At age 33, Aikido found me. I attended a week long workshop for CEO’s at a rustic ranch in Aspen, Colorado. Having just left a lucrative job with a large ad agency to start my own very small one, I needed all the help I…