The Journey Ongoing

 I've decided that this will be the blog I journal most of everything to come. I came to this decision, because at this point in the journey of my life, I've started to look forward again. I decided to live.

 I spent a long time the other day talking to Keith after we were done training at the Dojo, as he has suffered loss in his life as well. Not to trivialize it by saying we were comparing notes, but in a sense we were. One of the commonalities we discovered, was that grief and everything that comes after is an open ended process. It's like a scar on your life. It might heal over, but it is never the same.

 During our discussion, I kept coming back to a lot of the ideas Hatsumi Sensei presented in his works, and one that has struck me profoundly is the Shinobi Wind.
 The Shinobi Wind is the feeling He got when talking to the picture of Takamatsu Sensei after his passing. It is the feeling you get when you are sitting out in those special places in the world, and you suddenly feel like you understand your direction in life.
 I felt the Shinobi Wind the first time in my life when I was at Word of Life in New York for a semester. I went out for a hike one day, no real direction. I hiked up a mountain that I cannot recall the name of.
 I got to the top of that mountain, and there was a clearing with a stone. I sat on that stone in the sunlight, and communed with God's creation. It is those moments when you are truly communing with God and everything He has made.
 It's those times when you slow down and sense and feel the word around you.

 It's those times when you are talking to someone you've lost, and you know they are still with you.

 It's those times when you are training, and you know the shinobi that have gone before are watching, knowing that their legacy is safe.

 Studying Ninjutsu came at the right time in my life. Being in the process of losing Robin, I was lost in a lot of anger and grief. I was losing hope. I indulged those feelings and they were destroying me. Then, on one of those random paths of life, we drove home and passed the sign for the dojo, and the process began.

 I believe that was the shinobi wind.

 I believe ninjutsu calls to certain people.

 Like one of my buyu, or "Warrior Friends", Jake said to me after I talked of realizing what a long road of training ahead: "That why people either quit, or do it for life."