The worst thing

 

 

I am not sure where I saw this a few days ago, but the question posed was what was the worst experience you ever had while training/practicing karate.

 

It was not the effort, or the sweat, nor the calls to workout at midnight or in snow storms.

 

Speaking of snow storms, it was not all the times I waited in snow storms just in case anybody ever showed up to train, and thankfully they did not, all were much smarter than I.

 

It was never the pain. As when I am sure I experienced broken ribs from a strong green belt side kick when I was a beginner, and continued to train through the pain the next several months. Or as I slowly learned the lesson of pain, pain was your friend telling you something was wrong and you had to better learn how not to experience that. Then pain would pass quickly, leaving only the memory you were in pain, no longer the pain. So you learned to move past pain, acknowledge it, use it and  keep training.

 

It was not that I experienced difficulties that required operations. Actually returning quickly to karate training got me past those times more quickly.

 

It was not the death of students, friends or instructors, all of whom I loved.  Those are learning moments that we cannot control when death occurs. For it does, but our memory of their presence can remain with us forever.

 

But when my disabilities developed and I had to greatly reduce what karate I could to. That was among the hardest things  I experienced, but all my memories and my studies remain, still driving what I do.

 

The absolute worst thing was having to move away from my friends that I trained with.

Living so far away, we can no longer train together.

 

However, my memories remain, my study into the arts goes forward, and I still train as I am able. So perhaps those events are not the worst thing.

 

I remain the beginner, learning the lessons in my karate continue to go forward into life.