The Vital Force Archive
Eighteen years of The Vital Force (2007-2025), the journal of the T’ai Chi Chih community. Search for a word, a teacher, a movement or a place, or browse by category and topic.
The Lighter Side
Humor from the T’ai Chi Chih community: funny moments from classes, retreats and everyday practice.
Sharon Sirkis recounts Martin, a skeptical new student at a retirement home who predicted class would worsen his headache and then admitted he felt more relaxed, plus a college student inspecting his fingernails.
Susan Sobelson describes thirty-two teachers, students and passersby circling on Raspberry Island in the Mississippi for World T'ai Chi and Qigong Day, a singing bowl marking each movement as barges and trains passed.
Susan Sobelson
Minnetonka, Minnesota
Tom and Julie Schuster recount climbing Half Dome in Yosemite, where a fear of heights was met by visualizing the grounding and opening of Cosmic Consciousness pose, culminating in Daughter on the Mountaintop at the summit.
Tom and Julie Schuster
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Joyce Veerkamp and Mary White report on the weeklong November 2015 accreditation course led by Daniel Pienciak, where twelve practitioners arrived nervous on Monday and left certified teachers by Saturday.
April Leffler compiles notes from the October 2015 Philadelphia Intensive, including Fran Alexander's poem "Grey Ghost," Bruce Lee calling Sandy McAlister's teaching magical, and Sharon Sirkis finding a sign misspelled "T'ai Chi Chai."
Sharon Sirkis ends her college T'ai Chi Chih course with a show and tell circle, where students bring laundry detergent, a construction level, Pringles and a near empty cigarette pack to explain what they gained.