Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Shift of Weight

Back in Japan, the trees outside my balcony are covered in budding leaves, no longer heavenly white clouds of blossoms.  Walking to the grocery today I noticed the bushes full of large dark pink and purple flowers.  One flower to another.  I think there is always another flower opening in Japan.  I think this might also be true of California.

What is a transition?  The change from one time zone to another, from today to tomorrow, shifting landscapes of flowers, American squirrels become Japanese stray cats, communication transforms into guessing, daily assumption becomes unquenchable curiosity.  How many steps between the transition from one place to another?  How many ways can one divide the time and space?

And where is the center of gravity?  It is said that should a bench dissolve under an aikido master, he would not fall.  He does not give himself entirely to it.  But I wonder if he does.  There is time between one state and another, they do not exist at once.  Might transition be the state of being in two places at once?  Of bench and no bench?   Does the aikido master see a transition?

One foot to another, shifts of weight.  An act of living.

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