When Is Soft, Truly Soft?

Most of us have heard the saying about not “seeing the forest for the trees.” Either we didn’t know what we were looking for or our perception did not match what we encountered. The more we do T’ai Chi Chih and begin to see the elegant simplicity of the movements, the lighter we become. We might even find that the way we have approached TCC is hilarious. We have tried to do what our teacher asked with no real sensitivity for what we needed to do. In the beginning it seemed like our movements were like monkeys fooling around rather than elegant swans gliding through the water.

Have you ever been confident that the book you were searching for was blue, only to find that it had a pink cover? That is similar to trying to perform our movements based on what our teacher has asked of us.

A perceptive teacher listens carefully to his or her students. Usually the student is very capable of describing how they feel – like a bag of bolts rather than the inside of a feather pillow. By hearing what the student is saying, a teacher can turn what the student is saying from yang to yin, helping a student feel the softness and curves of feathers rather than straight, hard edges of bolts.

Caroline Guilott taught us an important lesson during her talk at the 2017 Teacher Conference in Colorado, by inviting us to feel the softness of a baby’s face by touching our own face gently with both hands curved around our cheeks. In that moment many teachers felt softness for the first time in their practice. It was so important and helpful that Pam Towne used it as a teaching technique at our teacher accreditation in Albuquerque in November. I later heard one candidate (whom I sent to the training) use it in one of her classes. The power of the lesson carries the yang strength of the Chi as it teaches softness.

This is the beginning of exploring with students the softness of which we continually speak. The experience takes us out of the mechanical and into the feeling nature. This softness spills over into our lives and begins to lead us toward learning to love and share the Chi.

2019 International TCC Conference

June 27-30, 2019

Minneapolis Marriott Southwest, Minnetonka, Minnesota

By Linda Zelig and Laurie Jacobi, Co-Coordinators, Roseville and Minneapolis, Minnesota

Greetings fellow T’ai Chi Chih revelers. When the Minnesota team elected to host the 2019 International T’ai Chi Chih Teacher Conference, we faced a mountain of decisions, not the least of which was the theme. We decided a variation of the previous theme – Encircled in Chi – would work best and came up with Return to the Circle. As we play with the image of a circle and ponder, “What does it mean to return to the circle?,” we discover a treasure trove upon which to build the feel, look and programming for this conference.

Consider how we use the image of a circle in everyday phrases such as , “I’ll circle back to you on that.” The carols many of us sang this past holiday season have a dancing origin and were intended to be sung and danced in a circle. Think about sitting around a campfire. Have you ever sat around a rectangular fire pit? Rows and columns might work for a marching band or a spreadsheet, but we tend to practice TCC in circles. You can see everyone; it’s friendlier.

But a circle can also be a hole into which things are dropped and lost. Some circles are drawstrings that if drawn too tightly choke off life and light. As our committee considers what it means to return to the circle, we’ll look for ways to ensure our TCC community is an ever-expanding circle that welcomes everyone within and radiates outward with laughter, peace and joy.

Minnesota will fling open its arms to embrace the possible and attempt the impossible as we invite you to Return to the Circle for a warm and enriching embrace of friends, new ideas and invigorating TCC.

The 2019 conference materials, registration forms and hotel information are posted at www.taichichih.org under the “Teachers” drop-down menu. You may register online or by U.S. postal service. Peek out from your winter hibernation and take a moment to register; it’s quick and easy. We are keeping the path shoveled.