"More Life"

To quote Kushner's "Angels in America": More life.

I'm on my way to the synagogue right now so I must be brief but I wanted to wish you a new year of profound happiness--even if you do not formally observe this day as a new year's beginning.

I was just thinking how lucky I am to be able to celebrate two new years (today and Jan. 1st) in every year... so too, I thought it would be neat to share the idea of beginning again whenever you wish to do so.

The more I study Aikido and Zen, the more a stream of clarity regarding beginnings becomes evident: that beginnings are far more preferable than is mastery. A beginning's purity and enthusiasm are difficult to retain. I find that in endless practice situations in the dojo, I am most happy when I forget the clock and fall into a new technique as just that: new. Without (ideally) the terror of "the blank page" staring up at me.

And, so, I think writing and falling (we spend most of our training time learning how to fall) are honeymooning love interests beginning again and again...

Again, more renaissance, and, again, love and, again, more life.