I remember once I was walking back from the hardware store
where I had just
purchased a 4' x 8' piece of 1/2"
white foam board. Now, I don't have a car so I had to carry this foamboard back the 10 blocks to my house on foot. You don't know how much wind there is until you are
carrying something that if a small amount of
force is applied in just the right way
would easily snap it into pieces. So, I soon realized that the only way I would get my board home in one piece was NOT to fight the wind but to work with it.
So I started walking home with the board beside me holding it daintily with two hands along its edge, balanced between the two ends so the whole of the board floated on air beside me. As I was walking along I quickly learned where to expect the puffs of wind that would affect the balance of my board. When you came upon an opening in two buildings, or a car would pass you by, or you had to cross the street, the wind would spin the board up, around and over my head, and I knew if I fought to keep it still and down the force would snap the board. So ,instead, each time I let it go where it may, literally dancing with it spinning over and around my head, pirouetting forward and sometimes back until the board came to rest where it began.
I thought as I danced along with this board how aikido like this walk was. How you won in the end, with your board at home intact, by using force to an advantage, or at least winning by not fighting but flowing with the force.