The Vital Force Archive

Esther Matassarin-Jacobs recounts starting seated T'ai Chi Chih at a Cancer Wellness Center after chemotherapy left her feet numb and falling weekly, and standing to class applause after knee replacements.

Chris Norkus watches fifteen students at his FirstHealth class practice within their own abilities, likening them to blooming dandelions, and describes Christina falling mid-class and her hard-won gains.

Anna Vaith recounts recovering from abdominal surgery with a six-inch incision, using mental and seated T'ai Chi Chih for pain, sleep and balance, plus practical tips on limiting the weight shift.

John and Laura Schwartz of Spokane each describe two years of practice with teacher Pat Moseley: no falls in six months after spinal cancer and a broken hip, and fifty pounds lost.

Gloria Mancusco credits classes with Dorene Krause and Bill Moore for normal blood work, blood pressure and improved bone density, joined by Kay Spaloss, who stopped her bone density medication.

Anita Vestal closes out the 2007 to 2010 Student Reaction Questionnaire, reporting that 610 surveys from eleven teachers showed significant gains in energy, sleep, focus, balance and stress response, with creativity the sole exception.

Glenn Northern, skeptical that a non-Chinese teacher could create a T'ai Chi form, enrolled in Sister Morales's class four years after meniscus surgery and found his knee pain gone by the tenth lesson.

April Leffler, diagnosed with Meniere's Disease, describes canceling classes and waking to a spinning room, and how dropping her attention to the soles of her feet loosens her white-knuckled grip on fear.

Rachel V. Alvarado of Crown Point, diagnosed with Lupus 43 years ago, credits a year of daily T'ai Chi Chih with improved joint flexibility, better bone density and her doctor discontinuing three medications.

Barbara Pence offers a rhyming poem announcing that Northwest Indiana is not just cows and corn now that T'ai Chi Chih has arrived, pitching it to anyone short on balance or energy.

Marian Massman gathers written comments from students at the end of her Wisconsin classes and retreats, reporting eased shoulder tension, steadier balance after a stroke, lower blood sugar and first full nights of sleep.

Ron Richardson traces his own new beginnings, from Director of Pastoral Care to 2003 accreditation, then prints a letter from Pete and Kathy on their first two months in his Wellness Center class.

Barbara Pence signed up for what she thought was T'ai Chi, got confused by Passing Clouds, and a year later reports no falls, easier arthritis, returning hearing and blood pressure down 30 points.

May Young Chin took up T'ai Chi Chih in early retirement for balance and coordination, and draws on her Chinese roots and Feng Shui's wind and water to explain why she keeps attending group classes.

May Swanson recalls Justin Stone's joy song and finds joy in her Cancer Wellness Community class in Phoenix, where a student named Grace, living with Alzheimer's, remembers every movement.

Ten Pyramid Poems by Pat Flynn, Pete Gregory, Dianne Moody, Stephanie Dufour, B.J. Day and Rose Alvarez-Diosdado, touching on sobriety, Hubble's telescope, bare soles, yinning and yanging, and flowers.

Ev Hanson-Florin breaks the Anchor variation of Pulling Taffy into its four parts, then offers a teaching sequence: demonstrate, teach footwork and waist turns alone, then add the arms mirroring and back-to-class.

Diana Bahn recounts two falls, one crossing West 57th Street and one on the tennis court that strained her hamstring, and how acupuncture, physical therapy and a rebuilt daily practice brought Seijaku back within seven weeks.

Beverly Wrobel, a nurse of thirty-plus years, tells Theresa May how practicing TCC mentally while her leg was in a cast eased pain, followed by five Pyramid Poems.

Donna Aldous asked her poolside class what T'ai Chi Chih had done for them, and students reported less arthritis medication, easier flying, steadier footing on a bicycle and tingling fingertips from Pulling in the Energy.

Colleen Wuebben, diagnosed with Parkinson's at 52, describes moving from gym weights and cardio to a six-week beginners' class where her tremors eased and movement became sacred.

Marcy Burns, injured by falls in Tanzania, Spain and Vietnam, describes how retirement, widowhood and Lisa Otero's twice-weekly classes led to steadier travel through Turkey, Transylvania and, at 81, Morocco.

David Wasserstrom finds TCC more accessible than meditation in a busy life, while Laurenda Messer stops toppling over when she crouches and Margie Cala eases twenty years of chronic fatigue.

Four short reports: Debbie Cole builds a basement studio funded by six students, Ann Rutherford previews Antonia's brush painting retreat, Sheila Leonard's class airs on CBC, and Sr. Carletta LaCour coaches high school basketball players.

Pam Towne counts 23 years of practice in terms of balance: skating and tree climbing at 53, low blood pressure normalized within six months, thyroid and hormone shifts, and steadier grief after her parents' deaths and her divorce.

Lisa Otero concludes that Life balances itself and TCC balances her reactions rather than her circumstances, followed by Hannah Hedrick's account of easing computer-related forearm spasms with Rocking Motion and Bird Flaps Its Wings.

Jan Arrott recounts Sr. Antonia's correction to let the knees straighten before the heels rise in Light at the Top of the Head and Rocking Motion, plus Jerry Bumbalough on teaching seniors to balance before stepping.

Sandy McAlister gives a back-to-basics exercise for keeping toes and heels down through the weight shift, plus Pam Towne's announcement of new six-month practice requirements for Seijaku accreditation.

Ann Marie Wyrsch recounts a June workshop with Sr. Antonia in Warrenville, including outdoor practice and getting discombobulated in Anchor Taffy, followed by Pam Kamholz on recovering from a severe head injury.

Three reader poems: Bryan Fine, student of Donna McElhose, on silence and swimming in the sea of Self; Jerry Bumbalough on walking steadily after a workshop; and Sharon Sirkis on loud music.