The Way of the Sword

Kendo... the Way of the Sword. I never thought that something I have never experienced nor watched live would teach me something so profound.

Today is my first day working from home. It was not by choice, it was encouraged by my doctor, mandated by my boss. My surgery is scheduled in a mere two weeks. For now, I need to stay as healthy as possible. Well... as healthy as it can be possible for me. Even a little cold could send me to the ER and delay my surgery.

The option of working from home was always there. Thankfully, I work for a company that has been beyond accomodating. But I always saw it as defeat... to say I can't handle it and thus needing to work from home. I took for granted the mundane motions of getting ready for work. When you had no choice, it was seen as a chore, something you'd dread when the alarm clock goes off early Monday morning. But when I'm not allowed to go to work, as you can imagine, all I wanted to do this morning was... go to work.

There have been numerous lessons I've learned on this journey. I call it a journey because it's temporary. Like a coat I'm wearing for a little while. It changes how I look, how I feel, sometimes it can be heavy on my shoulders, but in the end, I will take it off and it will hang in my closet as a simple reminder...

Right when I feel defeated... I am once again smacked in the face with another lesson. Kendo... the way of the sword. Much like all Japanese traditions, honor and humility permeate in everything they do... even in defeat. In Kendo, the winner and the loser don't celebrate nor get angry when they win or lose.

They're measured not by how they fall but how they've carried themselves... by how they get up. And that is how I plan to measure myself through this journey.