Afi Ruel One thing I loved about the movie The Last Samurai was how the warriors took time to recover in their remote village after their battles. Even further their homes and village were serene, beautiful and peaceful – then exact opposite of the battlefield. It dawned on me that this was part of their recovery from battle and that it helped the warriors live a somewhat normal life outside of their duties as warriors. Warriors get tired too and need to heal, recover and rest just like anyone else.
The calling of a warrior is exhausting without these kinds of breaks. Unfortunately warriors are called upon at all times to do the tasks others cannot. If you’re the one in your family, group, or circle who everyone ALWAYS asks to fight the hard battles it’s time to start saying no to some of those demands and start teaching them how to fight. One of the scenes in the movie proved that the Samurais taught their wives and children to fight. Perhaps it’s time for you (the fighter, the strong one) to show the others how it’s done.
You can’t fight every battle in life. You shouldn’t have to. Battles are like every other thing in life in community: everyone has to pull their own weight. Otherwise the strong become weak and depleted, then cast aside once they can no longer fight.
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