It's late, and I've been meaning to share this for days. It's by Patrick Cassidy Sensei, 5th dan, founder of Aikido of Fresno. He is a gifted aikido practitioner and teacher and general nice guy. He articulates very well some of what aikido can be beyond a martial art, if we let it. I've taken the liberty of adding paragraph breaks to make it easier to read.

Aikido is about expressing who we already are: timeless, immovable, harmonious beings with a limitless capacity to respond with Life. Placing our attention on surrendering to the discovery of that being, trusting the intelligence of that being, and placing all or our faith into the birth of this being in this moment, we are Free. Then the creation of what is known as Takemusu Aikido becomes possible. We can not take credit for it. We are it. We can not improve it. It improves this moment. We can not do it. It does us. We can create space for it to awaken. We can choose to be available to it. We can study and create a language for it to speak with. But we can not control or use it. Finally in the end we disappear into It and then we are It; Free finally to create and contribute to the rest of Life that is who we are as well. No longer looking for permission to live, we move into the space that Life offers without reservation or hesitation.

Embracing what arrives in this moment without resistance, we witness our response and relationship being born fresh in the moment again and again without end. We come to rest at the Beginning, a place of innocence and trust, hands open, welcoming the Unknown. As we meet that which is out of balance, that which is unresolved, we meet it with no walls and a clear heart, being open and available for transformation to occur. Where conflict is transformed into clarity of conflict. An alchemy of energetic opposites gives birth to an evolution of the event and all who are in it. We do not try to form the event into a preconceived direction but witness a Movement beyond concepts speak its Truth in this moment. The movement of this transformation is freshly revealed and always beyond what the mind may think to do. The movement of this transformation does not come to console or comfort us and our beliefs but rather with ruthless compassion reveal the conflict for what it is. It brings us kicking and screaming into the daylight of what actually is happening.

It's true. People have a light inside. You can feel it, whether you're consciously aware of it or not.