The Vital Force Archive

Sandra Freda visited Jerry Bumbalough's twice-weekly class at a Salinas adult day health center, where he teaches seated TCC to Spanish-speaking students with Alzheimer's beginning with "Copy me."

Pat Moseley collected answers from two conference sessions asking how T'ai Chi Chih affected participants' personal growth, from ending the desire to drink to grief work, PTSD, inner ear incidents and recovery after leg cancer surgery.

Ann Rutherford recounts Justin Stone confirming Seijaku is a heightened awareness practice, and describes placing a hindrance such as fear in the resistance section so the weight shift deepens letting go.

Patty Clement's prose poem watches koi and lotus blossoms in the Chinese Garden, followed by dozens of pyramid poems on joy written by 2012 conference attendees and compiled by Roberta Taggart.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst describes leading a Pyramid Poetry session at the 2012 Teacher Conference, laying out Justin Stone's seven-line syllable form and posting teachers' poems on a bulletin board.

Margery Erickson describes returning from the 2012 teacher conference and re-reading booklets of Justin Stone's talks published by the Albuquerque center, hearing his voice again in the words.

Nancy Werner-Azarski, who has attended every conference since 1996, lists what one weekend gave her, including lectures and meal talk, and how an injured knee upended her bias against seated T'ai Chi Chih.

Hannah Hedrick gathers testimonials from two conference breakout sessions on "T'ai Chi Chih: Part of All You Do," from animals drawn to practitioners' chi to skeptical spouses coming around and teachers steadied by grief and volatile situations.

Carmen Brocklehurst carries Justin Stone's greeting to the 2011 conference, noting that at 93 he no longer travels or answers mail, and invites everyone into a silent group practice.

Ann Rutherford describes her own method of teaching Seijaku: the student holds the mind in the t'an t'ien, chooses one obscuring habit such as anger or resentment, and passes through it during the resistance section.

Roseann Heinrich describes practising at home the day after the 2011 conference, applying a correction to her head position while memories of friends and hugs streamed in and lifted her practice.

Ev Hanson-Florin recounts her first TCC conference, from practices led by guide Antonia Cooper and teacher trainers Sandy McAlister and Pam Towne to talks on Seijaku, children and the scholarship raffle.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst recounts arriving at Sawmill Creek Resort for the 2011 Ohio conference, praising Lucinda Kutsko's organization, the blue satin "Love" logo, students who came to serve, and Alice Holden's lecture on joy.

Steve Marsh previews the July 5-8, 2012 Portland conference, listing nearby day trips from the Pacific beaches to the Columbia Gorge and announcing a pre-conference group practice at the Lan Su Chinese Garden.

Sky Young-Wick recounts coordinating the 2010 Teacher Conference despite never having helped with a TCC event, and describes the 40-plus volunteers, deepened relationships, and unexpected joy that resulted.

Roseann Heinrich reports from the three-person Cleveland planning committee preparing the 2011 conference on Lake Erie, crediting Lucinda Kutsko's registration spreadsheets and inviting readers to register and recommit.

Hannah Hedrick reviews a Respiratory Care pilot study of T'ai Chi for COPD patients, praising its 61-item bibliography and two T'ai Chi Chih citations, then previews the 2011 Ohio teacher conference at Sawmill Creek Resort.

Susan Kissinger describes noticing at the 2010 conference that other teachers transitioned between movements differently than she did, and returning to Seijaku after six years away from it.

During the closing practice at the 2010 conference, Cleo Roemele saw the circle of teachers as a living cell, with membrane, cytoplasm, nucleus and organelles mapped onto bracelets, bowl and carpet.

Carol Houtkooper's poem, offered at the 2010 conference, moves from centering and sinking into Mother Earth through letting go of chaos and buried dreams to the flowing Chi and the refrain that the circle of life goes on.

Quotes on gratitude collected during the 2010 conference, including Justin Stone's 2005 Albuquerque talk on gratitude as the secret of a happy life, Paul Reps, Meister Eckhart and the Dalai Lama.

Sue Bitney recounts a four-day late May intensive in Minnesota where Sandy gave each participant an empty pottery bowl to keep as a reminder of standing ready to receive, closing with a poem.

Marcella Box recounts the three-hour retreat Roberta Taggart led on the last Sunday in May for 30 Portland-area beginners, longtime students and teachers, reviewing the movements and flowing from the center.

Larry Bloom recounts Carmen Brocklehurst's Atlanta workshop, listing the questions and corrections that stayed with him, and the morning days later when he stopped planning his day, practiced, and felt gratitude bubble up.

Ron Richardson and Stephen Thompson recount the April 2010 Tupelo workshop led by Carmen Brocklehurst, the fourth in five years of hosted visits, and the local interest it generated afterward.

Dan Pienciak recounts Pam Towne's four-day April intensive in Ringwood, likening the participants' growing softness to a perennial that blooms only once rooted, plus another attendee's discovery that trust underlies effortless movement.

Barbara Clark recounts her second annual teachers' weekend at Lonnie's by the ocean, where the yinning and yanging sea, group softness and insights from Antonia and Dan enhanced her practice.

Susan Kissinger's account of Sandy McAlister's April 2010 intensive in St Louis, where 13 students and eight teachers from seven states gathered, and of her own softening since her first class in 1996.

Justin Stone welcomes teachers to the conference, warning that those isolated from other teachers drift into strange habits, and hoping one day every accredited teacher will attend.

Sky Young-Wick and the 2010 Conference Team invite teachers to the August teacher conference at Arbor Day Farm in Nebraska City, with registration deadlines, scholarship contacts, and a raffle funding future scholarships.