Movement. That’s what I need. Moving in any way. But how?
It’s spring 1999.
I moved away in another city on my own. I had a new job and I wasn’t in balance. A friend gave me a book about aikido. Words as harmony and training body and mind appealed to me.
Let’s give it a try.
Tuesday evening. Trial lesson. Our sensei, Ludo Peters, invites me to join the training. He indicated that looking alone wouldn’t let you experience what aikido is. He said: “It’s like eating a kiwi, if you look at it, you don’t know how it tastes. That’s how it is with aikido. You have to experience that.”
And it was an experience!
Everything looked so easy. While I’m working as a physiotherapist and busy with movement all day these natural movements seemed almost impossible for me. What a confrontation! It was very frustrating. I ask myself the question, do my patients also feel that way? The agreement with my work immediately made that first lesson clear. In the course of time it became clear to me that in addition to exercise, physical, other things are playing an increasingly important role to develop myself. A Dutch word helped me. It’s difficult to translate it in one word in English because it’s one word with two meanings: houding. On the one hand it means posture and on the other hand attitude. Both meanings are important for me in aikido and daily living. Aikido helps me to control difficult situations during the day. That doesn’t always work. Regular exercise is important to get progress. In this way aikido becomes intertwined in daily life.
I am very grateful that I can practice aikido, especially with all those beautiful people I can train with.
Wilma Minten from Roermond, NL, 2. Dan Tendoryu Aikido, 1999
