In the Hands of the One Who Loves Me

A samurai and the love of his life had just gotten married, and were traveling by boat to their honeymoon, when a massive storm hit.* The samurai's wife began to tremble in fear, for there was no shore in sight, and their boat was being tossed and turned in the massive waves that were sure to capsize it at any moment! She ran to find her husband, a brave warrior who she thought would provide her comfort in their seemingly perilous situation. But when she found him, he was peacefully looking out at the sea, as if the sun was out and the waves were calm.

Lightning cracked across the sky. Thunder rumbled from all directions. The boat lurched forward violently.

"How can you be so calm?!" the wife yelled, frantically clinging to her husband. "We are about to die! Do you not value your life?"

When the samurai heard these words of his wife, he looked down upon her, pulled out his katana, and put it to his wife's neck. She looked at him. And laughed.

"Why are you laughing, woman? Are you not afraid?"

She smiled. "I know you love me, and would never hurt me. In your hands, there is nowhere more safe."

The samurai sheathed his sword, looked his wife in the eyes, and said, "I too am in the hands of the One who loves me, so how can I be afraid?"

*Adapted from the book "Secrets of Divine Love" by A. Helwa, from a much older legend.

Comments

Classic Bodybuilding: Don Howorth's Massive Delt Training

Before we get started on this "Classic Bodybuilding" piece, one word of note: If you really pay attention to this blog, then you will notice that in the "sub-header" at the top of the page, I have added "Ageless Bodybuilding" as one of the subjects that will be discussed. This is for a decided reason... I have been developing a system of training that I have been using on myself and a few "older" lifters that occasionally train with me, but still follow my training program that I have them using even when they are training at a commercial gym instead of my "garage gym". This system is for those of you who are 40+ such as myself, but it may be even more effective for those of you 50 and older. In fact, of my two occasional training partners, one of them is 51, and the other is 55. I wouldn't be so arrogant as to call this ageless bodybuilding system revolutionary, but I can say that it is radically different from most syste

Old School Arm Training Secrets: John McWilliams's Arm Training Routine

Old-School Arm Training Secrets: John McWilliams’s Arm Routine My most popular posts here at Integral Strength typically fall into two categories: old-school bodybuilding programs or serious strength and power routines. With that in mind, I thought I would do a series of articles on various old-school lifters and bodybuilders (the two overlapped once-upon-a-time), and on various old-school methods for training different bodyparts or lifts. Thus, this first entry is on old-school arm training, but others will be on old-school chest, shoulders, back, legs, squats, bench presses, overhead presses, power cleans, etc. And for this first entry, I decided upon an old-school bodybuilder cum powerlifter that many of you may never have heard of: John McWilliams. McWilliams's back double-biceps pose. He was impressive even in his 40s. When I first came across an article about McWilliams (written by Gene Mozee) in the early ‘90s, I had certainly neve

Classic Bodybuilding: The Natural Power-Bodybuilding Methods of Chuck Sipes

Chuck Sipes as he appeared in the pages of the original Ironman Magazine. For a while now, I have wanted to write a piece on one of my favorite bodybuilders of all time: Chuck Sipes. I had relented in doing so until now only because there are so many good pieces that you can find on the internet just from doing a cursory search. But I finally figured, you know, what the hell, you can never have too much Chuck Sipes. Also, in addition to my own memories and thoughts on Sipes' totally bad-a training, I've tried to find some of the best information from various sites, and include a lot of that here. For those of you that don't know much about Sipes, he was one of a kind. I know that's a bit cliché, and I've used such terms before when it comes to other "classic bodybuilders", but there was nothing cliché about Sipes, so it's completely true in this instance. Don't believe me? Then read on. First off, he was natural. In fact, he was one of the l

C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Search This Blog