making room to grow
Editor's Note: this is a long personal essay with minimal polish. If all you want is the business details, they're in the first three paragraphs. Keep reading past the photo if you're interested in how I arrived at this decision. Thank you for reading my work, taking my classes, and otherwise supporting me over the … Continue reading The end of Kajaswords
Today, I made the announcement to my students and colleagues that I will be taking an indefinite hiatus from teaching weekly group classes, effective immediately. This is one of the most difficult decisions I've ever made. I know it's the only reasonable choice right now, and that I've put it off for far too long. … Continue reading On Burnout
The video recording of one of my favourite recent Patreon chats is now up! On October 9th, 2021, we meandered through the parallels between the commodification and popularization of sashiko stitching/embroidery and the development arc of a martial art; the history of MMA; the challenges of determining an art's authenticity and effectiveness in HEMA; Phil … Continue reading Live Chat Recording: Sashiko, Martial Arts, and the Commodification of Practical Things
The trick to creating freedom to experiment, learn from error, and develop self-reliance, is a structure that actively supports those behaviors. I talk a lot about how you can't teach students to be independent thinkers and active problem-solvers if your class structure is built around obedience and rigid adherence to pre-set patterns. You also can't … Continue reading No Such Thing as Unstructured Space
I originally wrote this piece as two separate Facebook posts, published a few days apart. The first was a very personal vent about some of what I've been dealing with over the past few months, and the second a concrete call to action for folks in my martial arts community. I'm sharing both here in … Continue reading Disposable Women and Martial Arts: An Essay in Two Parts