Martial Arts in Each Season

We of the Upper Peninsula, Michigan, individuals that inhabit the wild lands north of The Bridge, are at the crest of winter season. Which isn't really saying a lot, since no matter what season, up here, winter season has a means of sneaking gleefully close by, like an antic, positioned to go down in on even the most warm of days - like an August wedding (mine), and also remind all who live here that we live, very first and last, at nature's enjoyment, as well as not she at ours.
I enjoy nature as well as the outdoors. Right here, you would be tough pressed not to, considering that nature is ever before existing and also wild, as well as can not be constrained. We live right here amongst general the huge forests, the blue-black waters of Mom Superior.
At my Center, we will study our first kangeiko, which is extensive winter training. The windows will be open, as well as the cold will undoubtedly come. The indoor sanctity of the dojo will be broken by the outdoors, the disrespectful ways of the howling, north winds.
It occurs to me - we spend so much of our time attempting to protect ourselves. When it is warm outside, we aim to cool down; when it is cold, we attempt to maintain our heat. In Japanese fighting styles tradition, kangeiko and its summer equivalent, shochugeiko, are ways of marking one's training, and offering over to nature. When the sun is raving, and also summertime's warm is on - train completely, sweat, give over to the experience and hold nothing back; in the midsts of winter season's cold, do not tighten up and also try to stave it off, yet approve the cold, unwind right into it and also break through to a brand-new understanding.
Yet in this training, I believe, we locate a mirror to life itself. Gorgeous, chaotic, requiring - nature. Nature just is.