The Power of Togetherness

Just over one year ago I began teaching a beginning T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) class at a senior co-operative housing place. We were all still handling COVID-19 and masks were required. The students had been taking a T’ai Chi easy class, but the instructor did not want to come back to teaching indoors. 

The social worker for the building had been told that there was a T’ai Chi teacher in the area and shared my name. When I shared that I taught TCC (not T’ai Chi) she looked me up on the  website and felt that I would do. Two students who attended had learned TCC long ago and were so excited to have it offered in their building twice weekly. 

Attendance has expanded and contracted over the year, with a steady core of eight. Last week they wished aloud that other residents would come and just do it. Practicing together helps them to feel part of something larger than themselves: “I feel as if I am moving with a whole community across time and space — it is so powerful.” 

Practicing together knits us closer. We move in sync — sometimes a bit rough around the edges when knees or feet are not cooperating. But the intention is there to “move softly as in a dream.” One participant can only move one hand, but he now moves effortlessly at one with the rest of us. 

Practicing with others who love TCC is a gift. The Chi infuses us and unites us. We are connected on a deeper level like a stand of trees rooted together to withstand whatever comes. I am humbled.