– – – by Elijah Roper-Moyes
I started my practice at the beginning of the school year.
At first I felt my movements as sluggish and unfamiliar; after the first week I had grown more accustomed to the sword which I used: it became an extension of my mind and body. I felt my feet hit the ground and continued to move to each side cutting. As time moved on I felt more and more balanced and after a while the spot where I practiced was noticeably more packed down and eroded than the other areas on the hill.
I spent so much time up there that soon I could tell the time by the sun. I would lose myself in thought and come in and out of consciously making the movement of cutting. Eventually I reached a point where I could make the movement on instinct and move with the flow of everything around me.
As I practiced I began to feel beauty around me: the light through the trees after the rain, the feel of the sun on my skin… My breath, everything, was so beautiful that I longed to practice at the park and looked forward to it throughout the day.