My martial arts teacher speaks recently about how every thing is “connected like a rope”, an analogy he often used in the past as well.  There is a belief or story here in Japan about  “the red thread” that connects you to your beloved.  This thread runs from you to your soulmate, if you could just follow it!  I know I have made many errors believing that it was the other end of the red thread only to realize, too late, that it was the other little “red thread” that was being pulled instead!

We are all emitting threads, red and others. We are all connected as Sensei might say, like a rope.  Or maybe a silken spiderweb.  Recently I joined facebook (an internet networking system)and within a blink of an eye, people from places all over the world and times and places of far away started to make contact.  Some wished me luck, some thanked me, and some I didnt even know claimed I changed their life!  We certainly are connected in the most surprising of ways!  We must cherish these connections and relations.  This is why Takamatsu Sensei told Hatsumi Sensei to “never severe your relations. Hold your relations dear”.  Cherish these connections.  We walk around as if we are individuals but we are really just one.  Like the individual strands of a spiderweb, when seen from a distance are just one big beautiful work of art. 

Isnt it interesting to think that the red thread that runs from me to you, is really just returning to you!  If you understand this, you will grasp the deeper meaning of the first of the “Go Jou”, Fumetsu no Fuse (see previous posts)and why the expression “give and take” should be written “give and return” or most eloquently as “give and give”.