In Episode 5 of Chief of War, Kamehameha is speaking to Ka’iana about reaping what is sown. There is a prophetic message here for us. Kamehameha: “I am doing this for my kingdom. I was trained by Kekuhaupi’o, the tiger shark of Ke’ei. Before he taught me to kill he taught me to cultivate life. He said something I never forgot. The quality of the taro is seen in its shoots. I want to build a kingdom of peace. If we can grow it, our children will do the same. But if we do not, the fruit of our peace will wither and die.” Kamehameha - A Chief With The Heart of a Farmer

Chief of War is a thrilling, unprecedented telling of the unification of the Hawaiian Islands from an indigenous perspective. A Hawaiian war chief joins a bloody campaign to unite the warring islands in order to save them from the threat of colonization. Streaming now on Apple T.V. https://youtu.be/owdGcwufWK8?si=Ol7D4xOuS-QfSGzK

Im writing this to learn about a block where we place one wrist over another like we do in a spot in kenpo in form 1 and probably other forms. They say you can learn a lot by noting what happens spontaneously in the moment of. Today I was cutting dead branches out of the pine tree and there was a long branch that was on the ground but too tangled to move out so I cut it in half. I had a very small rechargable chain saw that was small enough to use with one hand if needed. I cut that branch into 2 lengths that were then about 5 to 6 feet long. When I cut thru one of those branches fell toward me and I automatically raised both hands up as it is natural to protect the head. I remember having that conversation about a week ago. The branch was not all that large and if it had struck my head it would have resulted in a scrape and maybe bruise but nothing more threatening. Anyway without thinking my automatic response was to raise hands over head and cross at wrists. I have no minor injuries. Im just wondering why I crossed the wrists, I havnt had that motion in a technique but I think some of you have. I know the advantage of that position is crossing hands results in a triangle shape. Are there times when you would take that position as the first move like I did? What does it tell you that I crossed wrists to block instead of hands apart? I guess the disadvantage is then both hands are high. I don't know if thats a good or bad thing that my response was to block that way. Anyway i learned from that, I know there will be a lot of upper belts reading this, I just wondered what those of you that are upper belts could add, thanks