It Will Pass: A Zen story A student went to his meditation teacher and said, “My meditation is horrible! I feel so distracted, or my legs ache, or I’m constantly falling asleep. It’s just horrible!” “It will pass,” the teacher said matter-of-factly.  A week later, the student came back to his teacher.“ My meditation is wonderful! I feel so aware, so peaceful, so alive! It’s just wonderful!’ “It will pass,” the teacher replied matter-of-factly.

"Nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."  - William Shakespeare, Hamlet.

The path of Aikido has no destination - the training itself is a journey.  Along this journey, there are ups and there are downs, but what the training is teaching us to do is how to take the ukemi of life.  We get thrown down, we get back up.  We throw others down, they get back up.  It is not possible for us to be only the uke or only the nage.  The cycle continuously repeats, but as martial artists meet each encounter with equanimity.

If we do good, we accept it.  If we do poorly, we accept it.  It is all par for the course in that we are learning how to meet the turbulence of life with a sense of calmness and poise not being pulled this way or that way.

With this, we can see how training affects life.  Training is training and whatever the outcome it too will pass.  We will never get any where on the the journey of life if we get too pumped by the highs or get too bogged down with the lows.  Life is too short.