I began my training in Aikido in 1974 with Bruce Klickstein in the children's class at the Aikido Institute in Oakland, California. My sister studied ballet next door to the dojo. One afternoon I went to her ballet school to pick her up from her class. Noticing the children's Aikido class I felt immediately excited and intrigued. It just so happened that a school friend was studying at the Aikido Institute, and let me come with her to watch a full class. I went home elated, knowing that this was something I had to begin learning immediately. I am blessed to have parents who supported me in whatever I felt passionate about learning. I began training the next day, and I haven't stopped since then.

Shortly after I began, I went to a seminar at the Turk street dojo in San Francisco. To a ten year old, it seemed like there were hundreds of people on the mat. I remember how much energy I had, and how much joy I felt training with all these people who were smiling and having fun together. The dojo was run by three senseis, Bill Witt Sensei, Frank Doran Sensei and Robert Nadeau Sensei. Although I had no idea that they would all become important teachers for me, and that twenty seven years later I would still be learning from them, I felt an urgency to meet all three of them. I made sure on that day that I was either introduced, or introduced myself to them. Since then I have had many opportunities to learn from these three gifted teachers. Bill Witt Sensei took over the Aikido Institute for two years while my first instructor went to Japan to study with Morihiro Saito Sensei.

The first time I went to Japan to study with Saito Sensei I was sixteen. I arrived at the Iwama train station already wanting to go home. I was homesick after one day. Saito Sensei was very welcoming and warm to me. As soon as we began to train he seemed like a different person. He was very hard on me, and I felt like I should go home and never do Aikido again. My friend Bernice Tom Sensei was also in Iwama at that time. I went to talk to Bernice who told me that the reason he was so hard on me was because he liked me. That helped a bit, but I was still so homesick, I cried whenever I wasn't on the mat. One afternoon I went to the Aiki shrine to sit and try to collect myself. I had been studying Vipassana meditation, so I knew how to quiet my mind. After about a half an hour I felt very light and almost unable to feel my physical body. After I got up I no longer felt homesick, only a burning desire to learn as much as I could from Saito Sensei. After that experience, I knew that a huge part of my life would be dedicated to the discovery of Aikido.

I had not planned to be an Aikido teacher, but soon after I returned from Japan, a group of people asked me to come and teach them Aikido in Benicia, California. It felt right, although I was seventeen and had only received my shodan two years before. I taught most of the ten classes a week at Aikido of Benicia for thirteen years. The Benicia dojo was successful, especially the children's program , which had forty children when I decided to close the dojo. I lived in Oakland and wanted to teach closer to my home, so I turned the dojo over to one of my senior students, who turned it into an Aikido club. I began Aikido Of Berkeley six years ago in 1995. Finding a space large enough for Aikido, and affordable, in Berkeley has been a great challenge. At the moment we share a space with two other martial arts schools. We have over twenty Aikido students. I have been told that Aikido of Berkeley is a supportive, loving, and challenging environment. We have four evening adult classes per week which I teach, and one Saturday afternoon class which is taught by myself and one of my senior students. We have two children's classes per week, and soon will have four, when we add another age group.

My most Memorable Aikido Experience
It's difficult to choose my most memorable Aikido experience, since Aikido has brought so much richness and beauty into my life. As many Aikidoka would agree, the training that we do on the mat changes the way we relate to our whole lives, and especially to the way we deal with confrontation. I have been attacked verbally and physically , and each time it has felt to me like there was a specific aspect of Aikido that I was being shown. I was shown that it worked!

For a number of years, I lived in what was considered a dangerous neighborhood in Oakland. I had a dog who was part Labrador and part Pit Bull; his name was Jasper. Jasper and I would take runs in my neighborhood. On one of our runs, a man blocked the side walk and told me that I had to give Jasper to him or he would hurt both of us. Without thinking, I immediately got into a hanmi, bent my knees and stood firm and grounded while looking the man directly in the eye. Amazingly, I did not feel afraid, standing in hanmi, only a few feet away from this large man who had threatened to hurt me and my dog if I didn't give him my cherished Jasper. I felt enveloped by compassion, and that my gaze only expressed compassion. In that moment, he got something, lowered his fist and walked away. What came to me right after he walked away was that I had just done a perfect Aikido technique. I was firm in my hanmi, which expressed the yang or positive part of the technique, at the same time I felt completely compassionate toward my aggressor, which expressed the yin aspect or receptive part of the technique. I had just been focusing on feeling the balance of positive and receptive, and working on teaching these in my classes, and there was the opportunity to experience it, and to feel the effectiveness of the spirit of Aikido.