Thoughts and Hope; An Owner's Manual

What a fantastic quote! "It's completely usual for me to get up in the morning, take a look around, and laugh out loud."
-Barbara Kingsolver

We all need a charge like this to start the day and realize our time is limited.

I love this poem as it reminds me of treasured memories, one being that my grandmother, Elie, always made me tapioca pudding for my birthday. Now whenever I have it, I think of her and the special times I had with her and my Grandfather. Treasure those special moments and try to make more of them in your daily life and with those who you cross paths with.

The ending poem of the Commencement Ceremony at Duke University, May 11, 2008 titled: "How to be Hopeful"

Hope; An Owner’s Manual

Look, you might as well know, this thing
is going to take endless repair: rubber bands,
crazy glue, tapioca, the square of the hypotenuse.
Nineteenth century novels. Heartstrings, sunrise:
all of these are useful. Also, feathers.

To keep it humming, sometimes you have to stand
on an incline, where everything looks possible;
on the line you drew yourself. Or in
the grocery line, making faces at a toddler
secretly, over his mother’s shoulder.

You might have to pop the clutch and run
past all the evidence. Past everyone who is
laughing or praying for you. Definitely you don’t
want to go directly to jail, but still, here you go,
passing time, passing strange. Don’t pass this up.

In the worst of times, you will have to pass it off.
Park it and fly by the seat of your pants. With nothing
in the bank, you’ll still want to take the express.
Tiptoe past the dogs of the apocalypse that are sleeping
in the shade of your future. Pay at the window.
Pass your hope like a bad check.
You might still have just enough time. To make a deposit.

Shuchu-Ryoku (Focused Power) and Multitasking

I came across this great article on multitasking by Ruth Pennebaker in the NY Times. The title is: "The Mediocre Multitasker" and

The opening reads as:

Read it and gloat. Last week, researchers at Stanford University published a study showing that the most persistent multitaskers perform badly in a variety of tasks. They don’t focus as well as non-multitaskers. They’re more distractible. They’re weaker at shifting from one task to another and at organizing information. They are, as a matter of fact, worse at multitasking than people who don’t ordinarily multitask.

This really connected with the Aikido concept of Shuchu-Ryoku or Focused Power.

Kancho Sensei wrote in Total Aikido:

By using shuchu-ryoku, all of the power that is brought together from the whole body can be sent out through one point.

In Aikido, as well as work or family life, if you are trying to focus on too many things, you lose being fully in the moment and appreciating the subtleties and feeling of connecting. As well as in Aikido, if you try focusing on too many Uke's at the same time during Jiyu-waza one will wind up connecting with a strike to punch.