The Vital Force Archive

Judy Smith walks past saguaros and the Garden Bistro to Laura Star's class under an adobe ramada at Tohono Chul in Tucson, correcting a movement and remembering family members Justin taught.

Walter Charley, who learned T'ai Chi Chih in Sedona around 1976, recounts teaching groups of children in psychiatric hospitals, where depressed children lifted and anxious ones calmed; with pyramid poems by Beverly Miles and Johnnie Lee Marquez.

Jim Shorr gathers statements from five practitioners in the five-year-old Saturday standing and seated class at Creekside Village for Seniors, who name Passing Clouds, Rocking Motion and Light at the Top of the Head as the movements that release old habits, steady balance and raise consciousness.

Ana Royal describes injuring her left knee reaching for a carry-on bag in Boston, the years of injections and medicated gel that followed, and how a year of daily TCC practice ended both.

Participants including Pam Towne, Michelle Crowe and Neena Mitchell describe Daniel Pienciak's three-day January 2023 Zoom retreat for seven people, with a pyramid poem by Lisa Stroyan and the August conference announcement.

Marcella Box introduces Lovena Warren, an 86-year-old accredited teacher whose free weekday Zoom practice restored her daily habit, and who led hurricane evacuees in T'ai Chi Chih from a shelter stage in 2005.

Nico Borneman likens a practitioner to a breaching whale who surrenders to fluidity, followed by pyramid poems from Lisa Stryoan, Terry Gay Puckett and KayRydeen on tanden, rain and rooting in Hawaiian sand.

Linda Jones teaches seated TCC to beginners and to chemotherapy patients who regained feeling in their fingertips, yet finds mental practice, with its complete weight shifts, the most powerful of all.

John Marquez builds a pyramid poem from the firm resting position outward to friendship, morning reading of centuries-past wisdom, self-responsibility, and students absorbing Justin's teachings until teacher and student merge.

Rebecca Paulson's pyramid poem "One" grew out of re-reading Chapter 42 of the Tao Te Ching in Stephen Mitchell's translation, and her note on yin, yang, grounding and the dynamic Chi.

Denise Alire practices T'ai Chi Chih barefoot on the sand by the bay, fretting over unfinished shopping and no cash, then finds two rolled twenty dollar bills at her feet.

George Manning's prose poem urges readers to uncover the Chi already within and 'say Chi' to each new beginning, followed by pyramid poems from Elizabeth S. and Jan Kirch on ducks, spring trees, daffodils and mist.

Carmen Brocklehurst credits Zen master Paul Reps with prompting Justin Stone to leave the stock market, explains why TCC was originated rather than created, and urges attention over habit energies; Clare Bradley's pyramid poems follow.

After COVID-19 closed the Prescott retreat center, Pam Towne moved her spring retreat to Zoom, and a dozen students and teacher candidates describe corrections, naps in their own beds and practising where they live.

Denise Emanuel Clemen counts TCC as the most portable practice she owns, recalling sessions on the Grand Canyon rim, the Badwater Basin salt flats, and her brother's Maryland double-wide, followed by pyramid poems on silence.

Rebecca Paulson describes an afternoon of teachers gathered at Holly Trenary's in Loveland, comparing how each presents the movements and asking whether adjustments let them feel the Chi more.

Sheryl Adair writes from her grandfather's rocker with coffee and the latest Vital Force in hand, thanking KG and contributors, followed by eight Pyramid Poems on Rocking Motion.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst recalls Justin Stone doing a practice when writing stalled, explains the seven-line syllable pattern of Pyramid Poetry, and collects reader poems on beauty, Working the Pulley and gratitude.

Nancy Johnson's pyramid poem builds from harmony intended and expected to an energetic co-existing, where diverse dreams connect in surprising ways and form and formless intertwine.

Nancy Johnson's pyramid poem builds outward from the heart, through stillness, authenticity and letting go, toward reaching another heart while the heartland grows in truth.

Nancy Johnson writes of silence as an ever-present state hidden by noise, and of chi as the bridge from doing to being that carries us toward internal peace.

Nancy Johnson's pyramid poem watches dawn break over Mt. Calvary, where teachers gathered for a weekend retreat begin again amid emerging outlines of trees, hills and houses.

Nancy Johnson's pyramid poem walks a labyrinth with a lotus at its center, recalling Thich Nhat Hanh's counsel to step harmoniously while hills, trees, fountains and birds keep company.

Nancy Johnson's pyramid poem traces the lifelong friendship of Ruth and Nina, from meeting at the edge of a sandbox as children to travels, families, birthdays and healing moments together.

Nancy Johnson's pyramid poem takes an owl's point of view, puzzling over the white-robed Brothers walking slowly below and wondering whether those long gowns hide wings.

Nancy Johnson's pyramid poem sets a great horned owl against a satellite at dusk, weighing solo grace and the ability to meditate against metal, programs and waiting for commands.

Gail Nieto's account of a November 2017 intensive in Albuquerque with Daniel Pienciak, where detailed correction of feet, hands, shoulders and pelvis became lessons in grounding, trust and slowing down.

Nancy Rolph-Johnson's rhyming verse runs through all nineteen movements and the pose in order, from Rocking Motion to Passing Clouds, ending with an invitation to Tuesday's ten o'clock class.

Eliza Fulton hosts Carmen Brocklehurst's fall refinement workshop, where participants find Rocking Motion and Push Pull to be lessons in letting go and in receiving love, followed by Pyramid Poems on Chi.

Sharon Sullivan moves through the form one movement at a time, casting Around the Platter as a cosmic Eucharistic chalice, Bass Drum as an invitation to the feast, and the Six Healing Sounds as amen.