I awoke the next day to the sound of sticks hitting each other. There were a dozen monks all dressed in black and practicing a martial art called Aikido.  They held long poles and were using them to leap around and then deliver lightening quick strikes at one another. 

I went closer to watch, but the Master handed me a pole. 'There are no spectators. You experience by participation.' 

I politely refused,  ‘I can’t just pick up a fighting stick and try to hit someone – there is too much to learn’

'Come with me and I will give you a crash course'

I am sure I heard the monks laugh as I followed him down a steep path to the river below. When he reached the water, he stuck his staff down and pole-vaulted over the river, landing effortlessly on the other side. He then looked up calmly, as if it had been a single step.

He motioned for me to jump, but it was obvious that I couldn't just leap over a river in a single bound! He smiled and pointed a little down stream where there were stepping stones I could use to cross.

I held the pole horizontally like a tight-rope walker, and started to step from one stone to another with my balancing pole. ‘Baby steps!’ I laughed! 'I get it! I cannot fight instantly because I must learn this skill step by step.'  

The master nodded and started to walk back across the stones towards me. When we met in the middle, he hit my stick with his and nearly sent me tumbling into the river. The fear of falling in icy water was enough to make me take the blow and instinctively hit him back!

‘Good! See, you are have started on your journey already!’  

With that he caught me under the leg and sent me spinning into the water, seeming to guide me in the air so he could drop me in the deepest pool. He left me there as he walked back to the hall and the distant sound of sticks clicking together, and tossed a line of wisdom over his shoulder as he left ...

‘Hurry! You will never learn to swim if you keep one foot on the ground!!’    

I rushed back after him, angry and determined to throw myself into this martial art. Over the next few weeks I spent every waking moment immersed in the study of Aikido. I did nothing else and had never felt so focused before in my life. 

However, although I was spending so much time trying to get better, he gave me very little encouragement. All he would tell me is that I had to work on my balance! This only made me more resolved to succeed. I practiced fighting on one foot, but he kept saying the same thing about my balance. When I finally asked him to show me, he told me to follow him into the garden... 

Finding Balance In the Garden 

For an hour I watched as the master followed his daily routine of watering all the plants. Then he put on his classical music and continued to clip his little Bonsai trees before he finally spoke to me. 

‘I love to garden everyday and listen to Mozart. Beautiful music from an absolute fool.'
‘Mozart was a genius!’ I blurted.

‘No, he was a fool! He burned himself out. He took no care of his health, or his family, or his finances.’
‘But he produced such great music!’ I was still defensive.

‘It is true that he put 100% of his effort into that one musical skill, but he died early--aged 35. If he had found balance in his life he would have lived more than twice as long and produced so much more of his marvelous music.’

The Master held up the bonsai. 'Learn from this little tree. All the limbs are growing together, supporting each other, balancing the form. So in your life you must have the balance of this bush.

‘Put energy and time into maintaining your health, spend time with your family, keep your house clean, gain control of your finances. At the end of each day make sure that you have spent some time in each corner of your garden.' He gestured around him.

'Sure you want to spend all your time on your vegetable patch because you want to produce something there, but you have to put a little time into all areas. Some call this a waste of time, but wasting time is an important part of living a balanced life.

‘If you focus only on things that give you fruit, then you will do so at the neglect of the rest of the areas in your life. You will end up like Mozart'.

He lifted up the Bonsai and I was shocked to see that as he had been talking to me he had snipped off all the limbs from that perfect little tree tree - all but one.

‘Mozart was a one-limbed tree. Without balance, it falls in the slightest wind.’ He took a finger and pushed the plant over. I gasped at the sacrifice!

‘If this little tree made you remember the lesson then its life was not wasted. Don’t be a one-limbed tree – be more like a balanced bush. Now drop that weapon and take a spade and get some balance in your life!'   

Next Chapter - But it's Raining! 

©1988 JB