I was sitting at my computer, when my wife asked me if I could clean a bowl for dinner. In my mind I wondered why would she want a bowl cleaned for dinner if she was going to start cooking? Wouldn’t it be better to clean the pot she needed instead? Now let’s look at this from a different point of view: my wife is in the kitchen cleaning some vegetables and meat for dinner when she asks me to clean a pot for dinner. I answer “which bowl?” The ensuing discussion became somewhat heated as we both felt that the other had said bowl and not pot. She claims I said bowl, I claim she said bowl. After a few minutes of this we both laughed (not before the temperature was raised as well as our voices) and we both realized how silly this argument had become.

After giving it some thought, I realized that many times we are inflexible. We stick to our ideas, not budging, not open to dialogue or discourse. We are so certain that we are right that we don’t entertain for a second that the other person feels that exact same way. When we are rigid, we lose sight of the many opportunities that life presents to us. When we fail to bend, we have a tendency to break and shatter. In life, as in martial arts we must learn to adapt to new situations. Approaching each circumstance with an open mind and heart as to what the possibilities may be. When we do this and become flexible, no matter what storms life may bring us, we can weather them.

As for the bowl vs. the pot, well to this day it still remains a mystery, I’m going to settle on “powl”.

strong spirit-strong mind-strong body

Sensei Orlando