Wayward Sword; AKA, The Empty Hand

          Last year, I was excited to wield my katana, a personal favourite of mine since I have a fondness for Samurai; however, I found myself hitting a wall with my form.  I was very frustrated with myself, to the point that I abandoned my weapon form and stuck with the hand form.  Taking from my only other experience with a weapon, the stick form, I tried to incorporate what I learned and translate it into a sword; and it proved to be much more difficult than I though it would be.
          Knowing that a weapon is an extension of oneself, and looking back to my approach last time, I discovered that I was trying too hard to put myself into a box.  What I mean, is I tried to match the stances of stick and hand forms and apply it to the katana, and it felt unnatural and unauthentic to me.  This year my approach is to stance myself like a samurai, whilst incorporating my lessons about grounding myself from Kung Fu.  So far, it has been a much more enjoyable experience, and I am thrilled to see my completed form.