AFSA Summerschool 2006

It still feels like there is a post missing on this blog. The AFSA Summerschool 2006.

Just to get everyone I the picture: AFSA (The Aikido Federation of South Africa) generally holds two major seminars a year, the Summerschool some time around December and the Winterschool around July.

This year the two main instructors were Sensei Mutsuku Minegishi, 6th Dan, visiting instructor from Guam and Sensei Franco Martufi, 5th Dan, AFSA Chief Instructor.

So much about the framework. Other than that I just want to say that I had an absolutely amazing time over the four days of this seminar. It was a wonderful experience to be able to share the love and passion I have for Aikido with so many different people and to practice together, sometimes beyond where I thought the limit was.
I want to thank each and every person on the mat and especially Sensei Minegishi, Sensei Martufi and Sensei de Beer for making this weekend such a special time.


It is impossible to summarize all the things we practiced over these few days so I have just posted a few pictures and maybe you can get some impression of how special it was.

(pictures by Sensei Ghalib Galant)

A different perspective

I’ve looked at you so many times.

Have seen your light and your dark side.

I have come to love you and sometimes I even find a piece of myself inside you.

I’m not claiming to know you, but exploring you for me holds so many treasures.
Silently I move and suddenly you catch me completely by surprise.

I stop breathing as you lay out your beauty before me.

It is not just another beautiful moment with you.

It is the sense that in this moment you allow me to look deeper than ever.

Hundreds of millions of years of your wisdom surround me.

There is no thought or words that can grasp what you are showing me in this moment.

The feeling reaches an intensity of pain. I don’t ask questions.

My eyes fill up with tears and I don’t fight them.

My chest lets go and your beauty in all its depth flows into me.

Gently offering me your shoulder to rest my head…

Well, this was not written for a man or a woman or any other form of human being (Not many of us make it past the century mark anyway ;-)
These words came to me in memory of a moment I experienced a few days ago. I went hiking with a friend in the Eastern Cape and this was a moment that I experienced along the way. The camera had given up by that stage and in a way I am glad about that. No picture could possibly come close to what it was like. Just to share a little bit of the trip with you I have posted some pics that will give you an idea of what it means to “hide in the bush”.

Inaugural Speech 1994, Nelson Mandela

Most of the South Africans that come accross this post are probably tired of reading these words. But I came accross this speech again yesterday and felt like I wanted to share them here. Maybe I am just trying to convice myself...