Training on the fire escape this morning was very different.

There was a strong smell of cannabis being farmed on the breeze (well it is Chatham) mixed with the scent of the flowers.

It’s 5 months since Ann died and the grief is still raw with the birds circling the feeding table in the garden and sitting on the nearby branches looking down at where their food used to be. They still remember her.

I can’t get down to the garden or to where they were fed so am unable to continue her legacy and I found myself apologising to them. I can’t suppress the natural emotions and thoughts that arise and can therefore only observe them as emotional ‘noise’.

The Yang Cheng Fu form had to be done faster, with a warrior mindset for a change, and the fierce energy from the grief channeled into the movements to be used with a different purpose until my body remembered the usual calmness and control that went with them and they dissipated.

My point in posting this is to show that no 2 days training are the same but every session is beneficial if you can understand what’s happening, why, and that all the time you have a body, mind and emotions in this dimension it will be in a changing state, your ‘ emotional and mental toolbox’ will work better all the time you’re training it.

I didn’t write this for sympathy and TBH those comments don’t help me get my point across.

I’ve never met a fully ‘enlightened’ person.

Having a mind, emotions and body is a challenge until the day we die. We can ‘lighten the load’ with the insight and wisdom gained from studying that trilogy (the 3 battles of Sanchin) in our training system. If we neglect any part and don’t train all 3, however hard we train physically, we’re bound to suffer.