So, the Book of Five Rings? There were so many powerful messages in the short 106 pages, but it is definitely a book that must be read over and over (as mentioned within the pages…) because there are just so many layers to it.
Here are just a few of the passages that stuck with me:
- “The ultimate aim of the martial arts, is not having to use them.”
- “You must never stop studying the written passages of masters relating to the art you have chosen to practice.”
- “If you constantly disregard the possibilities of other methods and tools, then you become short-signed and may in fact lose the advantage of your own strength.”
- “Speed does not necessarily mean being faster than the enemy. It means being smarter than the enemy.”
Hopefully in the near future, I can get both myself and my daughter into some martial arts classes. I wish it was a free resource for all women and children, especially in this day and age.
So, the next two months I am going to do something different. Since I am currently in a class (child development refresher), I would like to read a child development book, but also a history book as well. So, tomorrow I will start my Two Months reading Two Books so that I can get the benefit of reading for my class as well as reading for my personal development contemporaneously. So from now until Monday, April 30 – I will be flipping back and forth between the two I have chosen below:
- The Black Jacobins:
- “A a 1938 book by Afro-Trinidadian historian C. L. R. James, a history of the Haitian Revolution of 1791–1804. He went to Paris to research this work, where he met Haitian military historian Alfred Auguste Nemours. James’s text places the revolution in the context of the French Revolution, and focuses on the leadership of Toussaint L’Ouverture, who was born a slave but rose to prominence espousing the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty and equality.”
- Infant Development:
- “Interdisciplinary in perspective and topically organized, this text provides a comprehensive cutting-edge overview of infant growth and development—from conception though the first years of life. It features balanced coverage of theory, research, and practical application, as well as a strong emphasis on the interrelationships between various developmental domains and the importance of the “whole” infant.”
>Respectfully Submitted<< ~Mai