Last night at 9:45pm while watching the Nuggets vs. Lakers game coming down to the wire... I realized I had less than 15 minutes to book my flight to Maui! I originally put this flight on hold 2 days before and prices jumped over those 2 days, so I knew I had to book my flight.
All in all, with taxes and everything, $373 round-trip to Maui on United Airlines. That's with one stop-over in LAX and one in DEN on the way back. Oh yes, there's a catch, I have to fly out of Colorado Springs instead of Denver. I'm going to see if I can just stay in DEN on my way back up though. Haha. Saving $100 seems to be worth the extra 1 1/2 hour trip down to COS ;) So, it's official, I'll be home June 4th - July 28th. I gave heed to my mother's request to stay longer, at least till the end of the month. My mom deserves it and I did promise to take care of her.
I have quite a few things to take care of when I get home. I don't want to be a slave to my thoughts and ill-feelings toward numerous parties. My mother won't say anything and I can clearly see the burden that everything is causing. Therefore, I'm going to take it upon myself to let all the assholes of the world know that karma is alive and kicking. Frankly, I'm tired of all the bullshit and ungrateful people. My mother is too great a woman to confront others, but I love her too much to let anyone else hurt her.
My mom can't afford to be stressed about anything right now. These things can prove to be detrimental to her health as she continues to go through therapy and is recovering. Unforunately, things just never stop though. Today, we received word that Mr. Suzuki (Suzuki Sensei in the Aikido world) passed away in the early morning hours. He was 92. Mr. Suzuki was my mom's patient and lived with us for about 2 years or so under the care of my mom. She called him "Papa" and really loved him. As for myself, I really respected him as a person. He was a legend in his own right. It's rare to witness a humble spirit in a man with his status.
I wrote a 10 page paper about him my senior year of college. I need to re-write it to fit the occasion and probably condense it to no more than 2 pages. My mom wants me to send my paper to his family. All I know is, Maui lost a great soul today. The Aikido world lost a great teacher. Some things I'd like to highlight about Mr. Suzuki:
- At the age of 90, he attained of kyudan, or 9th degree black belt in Aikido.
- He is the first non-Japanese citizen and only the fourth person ever to achieve a 9th degree black belt rank in his martial art.
- His promotion made Suzuki Sensei highest-ranked aikido instructor in the world outside of Japan.
- He was a police officer for the Maui Police Department for 32 years & retired as a Major.
- He volunteered his time to teach new MPD recruits the art of self-defense from 1953 until 2007.
- Shin’ichi Suzuki Sensei: Head Instructor, Maui Ki-Aikido
- Maui aikido ’sensei’ attains 9th-degree black belt rank
- Honored Teacher
He had quite a life and I am grateful and honored to have met someone like him. I wish he held on just a few weeks more. I would've liked to visit him and present him with the paper I wrote about him. I'll always remember him sitting at the table with a pile of Christmas cards, painstakingly hand-writing a card to each and every person that sent him cards & well-wishes. We talked and talked and talked that day. Until we meet again Mr. Suzuki. 'Let your ki flow like a stream.' May the waters embrace your soul and like a river lead you home.
Photo: Iao Valley circa 2007. Cotton candy effect.
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