An Interesting Week, Full of Interesting People

A quick post for the week: It's been an interesting week, full of interesting people.

UBBT team member Richard Hubbard came down to train with me and a group of my students — read Richard's post here.

I had the great fortune of receiving "darshan" from Mata Amritanandamayi, better known as Amma, "the hugging saint." She was conducting a weeklong retreat down the street from my day job, and I was able to drop in for the portion of her local visit that was open to the public during my lunch break. Neat.

Due to a mix up in scheduling for self-defense classes for children at the Carroll Center for the Blind (two different groups at the Center booked two different instructors for the same timeframe and in the same space), I met Erik Kondo, a parapalegic jujitsu practitioner and self-defense instructor. We made the best of the mix up, taught the class together, and promised to stay in touch for possible collaborations in the future. See Erik in action in the video below.



Lastly, I met several members of the team of martial artists who will be teaching along with me at the Boston Martial Arts Academy next month, as we all gathered together for a quick photo shoot to help promote the event. Imagine instructors from aikido, Brazilian jujitsu, kung fu, karate, hapkido, and capoeira all in one place, each wearing their traditional uniforms. We joked that we looked like a group of superheroes! Will post photos when I get them.

Fun times. I'm loving every minute, with gratitude!