The Vital Force Archive

B. Ryan offers six pyramid poems written in chronological order instead of a journal, moving from a wish to transcend empirical reality to a prayer and a dream of swimming in the sea.

Ann Rutherford gathers memories of Michael O'Connor, an Albuquerque teacher and physical therapist who died after relapsing, from Bruce Childs, Molly Grady, Beth Cameron, Kathy Grassel and Sr. Antonia.

Gregg Bradley offers four pyramid poems titled Outlook, Sensations, Thoughts and Aftermath, tracing life before T'ai Chi Chih, vibrating hands, a calm clear mind, and solid steps afterward.

Dorene Krause traces her 2003 path from the first East Coast intensive to Sandy McAlister's first accreditation course, and explains why she refuses to sign for any candidate who has not attended an intensive.

Ann Rutherford recalls being invited to a class combining soul travel with T'ai Chi Chih, and Justin Stone's dismay at a mechanical accreditation checklist he said pulled the wings off the butterfly.

Glenn and Mary Laudenslager began TCC in spring 2000 after Mary saw it on PBS, taking an eight-week class with Lou and Joyce DeGidio that led to twenty-one years of daily practice.

Linda Braga's rhyming poem questions a practice mirror about stance, weight shift, heels down and relaxed wrists, until the comparing stops, ego drops away and the flow arrives.

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.

JJ Johnson describes the room where he and his wife trained with Marie Dotts, including a jolt of polarity felt during seated Working the Pulley and a thick, slow-moving practice with nurse Holly Trenary.

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.

Mary Cerullo substituted for Sr. Christa's seated Zoom class at the Franciscan Spiritual Center in Aston, and found the familiar main room empty of spirit before the center closed in June 2021.

Mission statements from twelve teachers accredited in Daniel Pienciak's Zoom course hosted by April Leffler, plus Barbara McAnamy's account of finally understanding her front weight shift with Marie Dotts.

Donna McElhose asked her current students to write to future beginners, and their mostly anonymous letters report a hip that stopped cracking, better balance, new friendships, and calm found in fifteen minutes of daily practice.

Richard Karasik takes Justin's DVD and 2007 teacher notes as a starting point and asks what layer of continuity you are actually watching, from a single wrist to a symphony to a pointillist painting.

Justin Stone introduces his out-of-print book on gurus, teachers and the mystery of Being, then argues in the chapter "Abandon Hope" that only dropping hope for tomorrow lets us live today.

Justin Stone describes human beings as shifting yin and yang energies, explains that blood follows chi and chi follows thought, and argues that T'ai Chi Chih balances energy before illness arises.

Dorene Krause gathers New Jersey students' accounts, including Carolyn Pogwist's story of leaving her first class convinced she could not do it, then feeling the chi shake her until grounding and the tan t'ien settled her practice.

Lisa Otero, who sought accreditation only to have people to practice with, describes returning to teaching in summer 2021 after COVID and argues that group practice requires everyone to sync up, like musicians following a conductor.

Larry Tolbert moves through a Monday morning practice in a public grove, crows and playing children all around, and takes Justin Stone's line about the form coming not from but through him into his own poetry writing.

Judy Kistler-Robinson recounts Sandy McAlister's October 9 Zoom teacher practice, where Huang Wen-Shan's 1974 foreword led into the Great Circle Meditation, its variations across Justin's books, and tongue placement.

John Marquez recalls his father telling him, as the first-born of his generation, to set an example, and describes how nearly three years of T'ai Chi Chih practice answered the skeptics around him.

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.

Jim Shorr collects student responses, including Becky F on climbing through clouds in Working the Pulley, Tom O on releasing worries in Passing Clouds, and a palliative care patient's new stability.

Sandy McAlister, in a piece reprinted from 2008, describes how unfocused attention lets the Chi rise into headaches and giddiness, and how attention below the waist keeps softness anchored in grounding.

Roseann Heinrich's rhymed verse traces her path from needing calm, through twenty years of teaching, to the chi that now leads her to write poems each morning.

Sandy McAlister, in a piece reprinted from August 2008, likens the rest between movements to dough rising, the stillness where yin and yang Chi reintegrate before letting go and moving again.

Hannah Hedrick recounts a long neighbor dispute over invasive Himalayan raspberries that reached court twice and even interrupted her class, and the intention of beneficence that came out of her practice.

Daniel Pienciak turns attention away from favorite movements and toward the middle of the weight shift itself, the bending and straightening legs and the grounding stillness between sets.

Hannah Hedrick describes how Paula Weiner kept T'ai Chi Chih alive through declining health, practising in bed on supplemental oxygen and showing a nurse the movements, supported by friends and cheerleader Howie Mogil.