This past week was “Spring Break” for my martial arts school. Which isn’t really a vacation but a time to catch up with things and people you don’t otherwise have time or opportunity for, those of you who own a business understand what I mean.

Nothing about this break was typical. Normally there would be friends to lunch with, errands to run, paper work and cleaning to get done.  Instead it started with the funeral of a long time friend who passed too young. It was in the church waiting for the funeral mass when I had my first reflection. My eyes just welled up with tears as I took my mother’s hand and squeezed it, life is so precious and brief. We are lulled into thinking we have more time than we really do. That lesson hit us all just two days later.

The next day was a much happier occasion, but no less reflective as a student of mine competed in a national martial art tournament. I stood there watching young martial artists take the ring to compete and recalled all the times I competed and all the students I trained to compete. The endless tournaments often two in one weekend, and how and why I fell in love with martial arts and teaching. It looked the same but it wasn’t, the innocents was gone. What was once a format to test skill, in my view had become political and a little tainted.

Monday was to be a day of connecting with an old friend and enjoying time together, instead it was a brutal reminder of the times in which we live.  I was alerted of the bombings through the all too familiar ESPN notification sound from my i phone. I mistakenly thought it was the Sox score. My friend and I discussed how life can turn on a dime and without notice. That the most terrorizing thing is never really knowing when or how – Yet that’s the most comforting thing, because I don’t want to know when or how it will all change.

Tuesday  was a little closer to “normal” but there was still time for reflection and a bit of fear knowing there were fugitives on the loose.

Wednesday, was all about the bike, and riding a bicycle . Reminding me, there are still ways we can reach back to our inner child and reclaim our innocents.

Thursday I was able to workout my angst by cleaning my martial art school. It always gives me a sense of comfort to take care of things and people. I don’t feel as helpless and lost when I’m doing something to benefit something or someone. It’s also a great way to reflect, ask any monk…

Friday was all about old friends, flowers, and looking through a camera lens. Photography was a gift from a mentor who passed last year. Shirley made me believe I could be creative and introduced me to the work of Adams and Stieglitz. Like the bike, the camera allows me to return to another time. A time when I learned to focus not only on the beauty in my view finder but the beauty inside of me.  Then the crazy insanity of the day’s events were shown through the view of different cameras, as we watched with the world the hopeful conclusion to the week of terror…

Today was shared with sisters from Nursing School. Thirty – Five years have passed since we all donned the blue uniforms and white caps of student nurses.  There are more grays and a few more pounds and laugh lines, but the bond is still there. Can thirty – five years be only a moment ago? When we get together it seems that way conversations seamlessly take on the same rhythms and animation. Hugs are just as warm and giggles are just as melodic.

So full circle, friends lost, friends found, security lost, terror found, lives lost, lives saved, the ebb and flow of life was never so evident as it was this week – Oh What A Week It Was…

Ironically I didn’t run…

Peace be with us all,

Ginnie