The Vital Force Archive

Guy Kent announces the TCC Association's move to a larger Osuna Road center in Albuquerque, recalling the counsel that Chi follows community and the first center's 1995 opening.

Darlene Benton, who learned T'ai Chi Chih largely from Carmen Brocklehurst's YouTube videos, finally visited the Albuquerque center, toured Justin Stone's artwork and books with Guy and Carmen, and bought his "Joy" notecards.

Sharon Sirkis collects four TCC laughs, from a plumber who found waterfall music anything but soothing to a teacher candidate joking about the KGB over an autographed brochure.

Lanni Lantery recounts a 2003 TCC presentation where built-up Chi made her karate demonstration so fast she split her student's groin cup, plus a beginner's George Clooney remark during Pulling in the Energy.

Tara Stiles recounts coaxing travel companions into doing T'ai Chi Chih in airports before long flights to Australia, and choosing grounding movements like Bass Drum in a cramped courtroom corridor.

Marilyn Griffin describes co-leading a bi-weekly open practice at her YMCA with fellow new teacher Russell Stith, building her confidence while navigating the Y's rules about who teaches what.

Sharon Sirkis and Kathy Grassel collect classroom mix-ups and comebacks, from a college student renaming Rocking Motion "Rocking Horse" to a retirement center resident asking permission to complain about the cold.

Beverly J. Miles describes a year of practising Seijaku and arrives at the questions she still cannot answer, about holding the breath during hold fast, alternating sides in the Joy Song, and which movements are omitted.

Sharon Sirkis Columbia collects three teaching mishaps, including a retirement community student whose hearing aid batteries died mid-class and a college student who decided Pulling in the Energy causes heart attacks.

Rebecca Paulson describes the February 24th gathering at the Windsor Recreation Center, where more than 30 people from eight towns, some practicing in person for the first time since the pandemic, completed a full silent practice.

Sharon Sirkis Columbia recounts three classroom moments from 2001: a reluctant husband who called his practice "T'ai Chi - Cha Cha Cha," a quip to Justin about "umm" versus "OM," and her own trip up the stairs.

Sharon Sirkis, in a piece reprinted from June 2001, used a slow winter in her classes to go within, then coaxed a squirrel across a parking lot and read its antics as a message: sit still, leap, discard the garbage.

Sharon Sirkis collects four jokes first printed in March 2001, including a student named Murray who joked about the draft board and a beginner worried she was doing variations on the variations.

Diana Daffner mistook Bass Drum for a drum beaten on top, substituted the image of caressing a tree trunk, and later told beginners the story when teaching the movement.

Rebecca Paulson turned a snow day into imagery of snowballs for every circular movement and ball of energy, then pretended Working the Pulley launched them at a seniors class; Linda Braga adds how ten Chinese-speaking beginners learned by watching alone.

Jan Walker asks the private TCC teacher Facebook group why polarity matters, and Chris McLain, Jessica Lewis, Hannah Hedrick and Barbara Kristoff answer with quiet minds, universal principles and Randolph Stone's polarity therapy.

Sharon Sirkis reprints four classroom jokes from December 2000, including a senior worried his big belly would stall the waist's engine and a hubcap that became the Seventh Healing Sound.

Sharon Sirkus collects four moments of classroom comedy, from an over-achieving teacher candidate over-rotating her waist to a student whose cracking joints sounded like clicking castanets.

Sharon Sirkis of Columbia, Maryland collects classroom moments: two seniors interlocking fingers during Around the Platter, one wanting to push away worries, and a student pulling taffy at red lights.

Sharon Sirkis collects four classroom moments, including Ruth's shaking key-ring bracelet, silly putty mistaken for chewing gum during Pulling Taffy, and a student who called Anugama's music a funeral march.

Diana Hudson's Christmas parody recasts "The Night Before Christmas" with the WooWoos, her outdoor practice group at Veteran's Park, and a Santa pulled by honking wild geese who passes his COVID test before joining them.

Sharon Sirkis logs a fretful morning minute by minute until an insistent hunch sends her to the cable guide, where the 8:00 film is "Excess Baggage," followed by student accounts of Daniel Pienciak's June 2021 Seijaku weekend.

Laurin McDonald describes how Zoom sessions she and Lesley Nell run became a lifeline for isolated older UK students, and an anchor for her own bereavement after losing her husband in November 2020.

Sharon Sirkus collects three classroom moments: a Senior Center group breaking into "Down in the Valley," an Aspenwood resident asking to be poked more, and a student who skipped practice and put her shirt on backwards.

Bruce Lee describes how moving softly and slowly as though flowing in a dream draws attention out of the head into the body, letting thoughts float by and revealing the divinity within.

Sharon Sirkis collects five teaching mishaps from her early years, including a senior center student who wanted to push away his wife and a chat attempted with a man on silent retreat.

Trish Winger's students kept missing the mark on Working the Pulley, so she watched herself in the mirror and recast the movement as a pie throwing machine, with one pie handed over after another.

Mary Ann Johnson of Ponte Vedra Beach offers a New Year blessing in verse, wishing 365 days of deep joy and 525,600 minutes of peace to the TCC circle, sometimes gathered virtually.

Rick Davis finds time in the subtle pressure against the soles of the feet, arguing that each weight shift, settling and return marks one moment from the next during pandemic uncertainty.

Sharon Sirkis collects three classroom moments: a student telling her late, flustered teacher to get grounded, a class inventing its own Six Healing Sounds, and Howard's jigsaw puzzle Show and Tell.