As most of the readers of this blog know, I am constantly taking classes in various martial arts in hopes of gaining some new insight into my practice.  Currently, I have been taking classes at a local Aikido school.  When I attend classes at that school I wear a blue belt.  That is the rank […]

This week seems like a perfect week to write about the dandelion. It will soon be sprouting fresh leaves and sunny yellow flowers. I love it when dandelions coat lawns in yellow, then I know it is spring! While it is a little early for eating the leaves and flowers, the root is still around […]

This surprisingly common and useful plant is Hypericum perforatum. It is most often called St. John’s Wort. I have also seen it referred to as St. Joan’s Wort. Its flowers and leaves are both very distinctive. The small (less than 1/2 inch in diameter) flowers have black dots along the margins and appear fuzzy in […]

Koan (kong’an in Korean) is a Sino-Japanese word.  That is to say, it originated in the Chinese language (gong’an) and is now used in Japan.   The word is made up of two characters: 公案.  The first character, 公 (Ko) means “public” and the second character, 案 (An) means, “case”.  So together, the characters translate as […]

Greetings, Last week I was privileged to host Master Pearson here in Connecticut.  He returned to offer CPR, first aid, and AED training and certification to the teachers of the Noah’s Ark Early Childhood Learning Center at the synagogue where I work.  It was such a pleasure to have him return to the CT but […]

Considering the commonality and usefulness of the mint plants, I am surprised I haven’t shared them here already. This is a  plant (well, really several related plants) that can be found growing in many places including heavily populated areas, often cultivated and/ or escaped from cultivation. As my mom always told me, once you have mint, […]

Happy Valentine’s Day week! This week I thought I’d elaborate on a Valentine’s Day classic, the Rose: there are many species, in the genus Rosa. Warning: don’t eat the ones you got for Valentine’s Day! Growing wild (sometimes called invasively) you are likely to find Rosa multiflora, or multiflora rose. These have small white flowers, […]

For this post I would like to share an amazing  plant that I have recently had cause to use; Yarrow- Achillea millefolium. The quality it is probably most well known for is its ability to stop bleeding. It gets the name of its genus- Achillea- from its legendary usage by Achilles to stop the bleeding […]

Greetings, Before I sat to write this post I poured myself a delicious cup of tea.  What a calming effect this steamy cup is having over me as I begin to draft my thoughts.  It’s still a bit too hot for me to drink (I like to take long drags from the mug and that’s […]

Greetings, It’s a new year for those of us who count our years from Winter Retreat to Winter Retreat. Yesterday I returned home after 3 days of martial arts, meditation, contests, cultural studies, cold weather, hot rooms and not much sleep. Those of you who have experienced the Shin Ho Kwan Winter Retreat know how […]