This summer has been quite busy.
Weather in Maryland has been nothing short of oppressive; I took to practicing mostly indoors, focusing on re-engaging with my kettle bell and yoga practice. I have become a fan of Turkish get ups and have reduced my kettle bell workout to focus on swings and get ups interspersed with yoga asana and neigong after a warm up of sun salutations. I am finding my fitness improving over time.
I visited Pittsburgh twice, receiving the last two sections of the Bagua Yangling Dao form of Ma Gui and then fine tuning my practice. Also, I began working in earnest on Taiji spear, focusing on basic thrusting and circling practice and working through the first section of the Taiji spear form.
This Autumn is going to bring a great deal of change to my life. I am relocating to Seattle to take a new job and am in the process of moving as I write this. I am looking forward to a change of pace professionally and to living in a new city, but will miss many things.
My current plans with regards to training:
- I expect to spend a great deal of time on my solo practice and am excited by the greater amount of green space Seattle has over Baltimore, suitable for that purpose.
- I am planning on continuing to train in Yin Cheng Gong Fa (YCGF), continuing to visit Pittsburgh for training when I am able, albeit not as often due to the distances involved. A good friend is moving to Pittsburgh in January, so it will be good to see him and his family as well.
- I have received permission to teach from my teacher, Zhang Yun, so will see if there are people interested in learning the arts of YCGF in Seattle.
- A member of our group lives in Bellingham, WA, and I plan on visiting with him as well; he has reached out to other local taijiquan practitioners to form a push hands collective. I am definitely eager to participate if there is anything going on during a weekend.
- I am planning on continuing my practice of Jikishinkage-ryū kenjutsu. Jiki is something that one really has to practice with a partner, so my kenjutsu teacher, David Hall, has given me permission to work with other people to maintain my practice. Doing so will require reaching out to the local budō community to see if there is anyone interested in that art.
- I have a friend from the Hobyokan who is living in Portland, and plan to get together with him periodically while he is still there to practice some Jiki together.
It will be interesting to see how things go, moving forward. Seattle already has a great number of excellent training opportunities in martial arts, and at the same time I feel as though I need to keep working on my current practices to continue to refine my skill.
A collected set of works on Shinkage-ryū heihō is available as a book: The Truth of the Calm Spirit: The practice of Shinkage-ryū Heihō as Taoist Internal Alchemy (opens in a new tab), 2025.
