Mother falcon is back. Maybe she was never quite gone. With falcons is hard to tell. Standing along the road, you might as well miss them. A falcon stance is the natural ending of a straight tree, a vertical line aiming at the infinite blue beyond us, normal people that perhaps try, but not quite yet fly, not quite yet.
Anyhow, you could not easily miss Mother Falcon when in the dojo. Remember this time at half of the training, when your muscles do ask for a break? More often than not, you will allow yourself to give in, to accept the creeping tiredness of the endless kihon. More often than not your back will be less straight, your shoulders will sag to the front. If you are not too tired to hear, though, you are about seconds to be reminded, to be called upon your better nature. You are not a tired dog, after all, nor a diminished snail. The big eyes of Mother Falcon are there, looking at you. You are the proud student of an ancient art! Her voice and stance tells you should know better. And more often than not you will regain some of your poise, at least some. More often than not you will believe you might, some day, fly too. Have you ever seen her flying away? Have you noticed the wings opening in a flash, describing the accelerating circle that seems to fall down to earth but that suddenly is airborne? Is not the cry of the shinken piercing the air akin to the voice of a falcon flying away?
As I was saying, though, Mother Falcon was somewhere else, for a while. And then one day there she was, back. Straight and sharp as we knew her, and yet different. This time, Mother Falcon brought a little one along, a little sleeping one. As with little ones go, I can’t tell if she is also to grow into a falcon. That is for the future to tell. But what I can tell you is that in her sleep, the little one grabbed one of my fingers. It was then that I noticed her slender and yet powerful hands. We tend to believe that babies are humans to become, open possibilities of whatever the future will bring. But with my finger captive in the hands of that little one, I felt caught in some other wind, going to some other place.
Mother Falcon smiled, and I believe I did too.
