2026: Reflections

The COVID Pandemic is just a distant memory, and life has moved on. My time in Brooklyn has come to an end.  These days, I’m teaching at three Manhattan after-school programs, continuing to teach at the Isshinryu dojo, and steadily building One World Dojo. It’s a lot of transitions—different rooms, different ages, different energy—but the same fundamentals keep showing up in every place: attention, posture, breath, courtesy, and the quiet decision to try again when something doesn’t work the first time. 

The after-school environment is its own kind of dojo—kids arriving with the day still on them—while the traditional dojo asks for a different depth of commitment and patience. What’s surprised me is how often the lessons cross over: the child learning to stand still learns the same skill as the adult learning not to rush a kata, and both are really practicing self-control and presence. 

The One World Dojo continues online, and new this year, I’ve begun in-person Traditional Okinawan Goju-ryu Karate classes at Active Studios NYC, a fitness and holistic wellness facility on the Upper East Side of New York City. 

This year I want to write again—short reflections from the dojo floor, one real moment at a time—because if I’ve learned anything after all these years, it’s that the most important training is rarely the flashy part. It’s what happens beneath the surface.