The Path is the Destination

I’ll be speaking more about my weekend with the BKF, but some thoughts about being in the presence of Sijo, being acknowledged as the first “Icon” of the sixty year old International Karate Tournament, one of the oldest and most honored events in the world of martial arts.

I’ve always known what he was. In some ways, I knew from the first moment I saw him perform a mass attack demo. It ELECTRIFIED me, much as my first sight of Tananarive speaking her truth and brilliance tore the filters from my eyes and I saw HER. Not her ego shell, her being.

When you are in the presence of such unfiltered humanity, you either shut down or open up. I saw Steve Muhammad even more deeply, as he basked in the love of the warrior community, many of whom tested him severely in his younger days. Others were champions who spoke with tears how his leadership brought them to world-wide excellence.

I was invited to sit at Steve’s personal table, with family. I cannot tell you how mind-blowingly meaningful this was.

And I saw something with a clarity I’d not seen before, something beyond words, but I will try.

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I feel more and more every day that I am nothing, but my Path is everything. There are several that twine together: the path of the warrior, the Griot, the healer, the father, the lover. They interact, and while every one of those has a different focus, they all connect. All serve the same thing.