Floors…
Hard floors, soft floors, concrete floors, dirty floors, clean floors…
I don’t recall thinking about floors all that much in the past several years. In fact, I sort of took floors for granted- at least consciously. Then I’ve recently had a few experiences where floors began taking on a bit greater importance in my life. (I’m happy to tell that story over some beers.) As floors became more meaningful, I realized that the practice of Aikido may be making all of us more aware of the surfaces in our environment. Honestly, where else will you find a group of people who spend this much time hurling each other at the ground? It’s possible that the Aikidoka relationship with floors might even make us floor aficionados. But really, so what? Well, the practice of Aikido is also designed to help us build our awareness beyond what we started with. More importantly, our reality relies on gravity pulling us and other objects toward the surfaces we stand, sit, dance, lie, and train on. So, as part of building our awareness, it follows that this often take- for-granted part of our environment is worth noting. Because you never know when the floor will be one of the most reassuring parts of the environment.