Years ago, I dreamed I was painting on one face of a 5-sided structure in the middle of a plaza. The panel was taller than I was and I stretched high, very high, up close to the canvas, using my whole body to paint. And it was a marvelous feeling, the physical expression.

That's what the practice of Shintaido is like: the sense of creating, of opening, of physical well-being. Though you learn basic forms that you repeat again and again, every repetition is a new expression, a new painting, a new merging with who and what's around you, a new reflection, a new offering. You open all the doors and windows with your work. You make space. You invite connection. That feels very, very good.