The Vital Force Archive

Christeen McLain describes the tingling, heat and other sensations beginners report, then recounts a ten-year student and cancer survivor who felt none of them yet practiced for peace and health.

Lisa Renee France signed up for a T'ai Chi Chih course only to earn one CPA credit, then a hospital stay made Sharon Sirkis's lessons about bamboo, patience and a too-full plate suddenly matter.

April Leffler argues that the world's turmoil mirrors the cumulative inner landscape of billions of people, and offers attention to the soles of the feet and deep breathing as a way to slow down.

Anne Hollek, left balance impaired after surgery removed a tumor from a balance nerve, writes that nine months of classes with Donna McElhose let her walk heel to toe and ride a bicycle again.

Robin Spencer recounts Pam Towne's three-day retreat at the Mago Healing Garden outside Sedona, where 30 participants refined "How to Move," practiced among red rocks, and received nightly gifts in white cups.

Diana Vrba, wedged into a middle seat on a five and a half hour flight from Virginia, recalled Virginia Cepeda's teaching and practiced Rocking Motion entirely in her mind.

Dan Pienciak hosts the first T'ai Chi Chih Intensive at Mount Saint Francis Retreat Center in Ringwood, where Pam Towne led teachers and eleven students through the principles of moving from the center, with attendees' own comments.

Four light-hearted anecdotes: Margery Erickson's student Kristin rolls off a log into a Sedona creek, Debbie Cole's finger movements are diagnosed as a neuromuscular disorder, a college student finds silence in her head, and Supreme Ultimate sounds like a restaurant dish.

Donna McElhose recounts hosting the second four-day Intensive in Illinois, from the opening potluck at Bobbie Weichman's home through Pam Towne's work on emptying the cup, with comments from fifteen attendees.

Clare Bradley's poem casts the moon inviting the sea to dance, their ebb and flow tracing a balance in which dark follows light and all lives intertwine.

Ed Altman answers concerns about the new T'ai Chi Chih Intensive courses, explaining the one-year practice prerequisite, the 20-person limit, optional attendance, and how instructors may give a second referral signature.

Noel Altman recounts the first TCC retreat at Camp Sloggett in Kokee State Park on Kauai, where Ed Altman taught flow, a rooster seemed to call "From the CENNNN-ter!" and the group formed a Healing Circle.

Sarah Williams summarizes her master's thesis study in which twenty adults aged 20 to 39 were assigned to T'ai Chi Chih or walking for five weeks, with significant blood pressure drops in the TCC group.

Lynn L. Gerdes remembers Sister Merrie Frances Seidl, SSND, who taught T'ai Chi Chih at Mount Mary College in Milwaukee through six years of cancer and chemotherapy until this spring.

Leo Labonte writes to thank his teacher Janet Oussaty, describing lunchtime practice in nearby parks among birds and flowers, better coping through the day, and an end to his angina attacks.

Debbie Cole reports on "CHI by the SEA '03," the second annual New Jersey shore weekend where 21 East Coast teachers traded terminology tips, wrote Pyramid Poetry and shared Sister Antonia Cooper's rededication ceremony.

Sr. Antonia Cooper recounts a June retreat at Kokee State Park on Kaua'i, where White Ginger blossoms recalled an earlier afternoon when honeysuckle scent met her outdoor practice and returned her to center.

Terry Gay Puckett's teacher training visualization became real when she led thirteen artists and students to Hotel Atitlan, practicing on a lakeside helicopter pad until an actual helicopter needed to land.

Letters from Jean Michel Victoire in France, ten months into learning the form and hoping for accreditation, a stained glass artist who credits practice with endless creative flow, and two readers with subscription and teacher directory questions.

Pat Flynn got through accreditation during a Lyme disease flare, then began teaching a small class of friends, neighbors and her parents, adapting Rocking Motion and seated practice for a stroke, a pregnancy, a ball walker and a fused spine.

Justin Stone tells teachers that pointing out where the hands go is not enough, explaining how ending movements with hands parallel to the floor and the Cosmic Consciousness pose let yin and yang rejoin.

Monica Simorangkir enrolled in Sharon Sirkis's class only for graduation credit, then found her hands warm after the first session, slept sixteen hours straight, and saw her anxiety attacks grow less frequent.

Ed Altman writes from his first year living on Kauai, linking Justin Stone's words to Folsom inmates about all living the same life with the Aloha spirit, geckos, waves and impermanence.

Three beginning students, Zena, Nancy and Carol, describe gains in energy, posture, knee strength and sleep, with Carol practising the twenty movements along the shore of Lake Superior.