Life gives us many unexpected twists, turns and 'road blocks'.  When you reach one, you may feel you are being redirected further from your goals.  Sometimes, though, life just needed you to be aware of other aspects of life, show you how coming at a situation from a different angle can make it better. 

We teach in Aikido to blend with an attack. To look at it straight on, not to look away. To keep the attacker in close to us, just barely avoiding a crash, turning and looking from the attackers point of view, then redirecting them.  Controlling them, not letting them control us.  If we practice these principles in real life, our twists, turns and roadblocks won't seem so overwhelming. We need to keep faith that by stepping just slightly offline and keeping our troubles in view, we will see them from a different perspective  and feel a solution, a way to 'control' them and our reactions to them. 

We were told years ago from a great martial artist* that in Aikido there is always the word DOUBT.  When you are a white belt, that word looms so large that you can barely see past  it. As you move up in ranks, the word gets smaller and smaller, fainter and fainter, but never goes completely away.  That analogy works well in dealing with trials and tribulations that come up throughout my life. I may DOUBT that I can work my way through a problem. But as I get older, I find that at a point the word FAITH is in front of me as well, and it gets brighter and brighter as I work my way through life.  Just as in doing techniques, you have to stop moving like a robot going through each step, just let go of your mind and have FAITH that what you've learned will take over in your muscle memory, there comes a point in life where worry and strife needs to give way to the FAITH that you will make it past this road block. You will find your way through the twists and turns and redirect the negative influence into a positive power to bring you where you truly need to go. 

-Heather

*(Thank you Sensei MacEwen)