While doing the form today, I was particularly aware of the floor under my feet, and each particular gap between the floorboards in my century-old apartment. I could put down a rug, but then it would bunch up under my feet during the spins. I could install wall-to-wall, but then I’d likely get rug burns on my soles. Instead, I occasionally feel a scrape or a twinge as an uneven floorboard slides, or almost stutters, against the sole of my foot – usually the right one, because the form is primarily weighted-right (I can correct this by doing the form by opening to the left, and weighting it left, but it’s unsettling to do it that way, and I usually get lost partway through. Pathbreaking is harder than following a known road).
I think that’s the main lesson of today, though. Following the forms of the masters has its advantages — in the study of history, in the practice of magic, in the teaching of students, in martial arts — but the real challenge lies in in finding a new way to walk on the earth.
