The Vital Force Archive

Kathy Grassel tells her Albuquerque class about ospreys diving at the Tingley Fishing Ponds, and her student Peg likens an osprey beaten under by a wave to the power of softness in Seijaku.

Laurie Jacobi arrived at the 2023 teacher conference convinced 24 years of practice had taught her all there was to know about body mechanics, then came away with new refinements in Bird Flaps Its Wings, Around the Platter and the Six Healing Sounds.

Jungmin Lee offers a few spare lines on Bird Flaps Its Wings, asking practitioners to soak into the soles of the feet and be ready to rise in the mind.

After a question about Bird Flaps Its Wings arose in Sandy McAlister's Zoom teacher practice, Amy Tyksinski returns to Justin's written notes on flipping the wrists quickly while returning slowly.

Justin Stone's point-by-point reminders for the movements a beginner has just learned, from loose arms and flat landings in Rocking Motion to drawing energy from the most distant star in Pulling in the Energy.

Diana Bahn recounts climbing onto a ledge in the Columbus Circle subway to free a trapped pigeon, and how the rescue loosened her struggle with teaching "Bird Flaps Its Wings."

Lisa Stroyan gathers advice from April Leffler, Carmen Brocklehurst, Marie Dotts and Caroline Guilott into a hybrid-car metaphor: the adrenaline-driven mind as gas pedal, the t'an t'ien running quietly on chi.

Ev Hanson-Florin and Nancy Werner-Azarski gather comments from attendees of Sandy's May 2017 intensive, who describe breaking each movement apart and rebuilding it, including a weight shift insight for Bird Flaps Its Wings.

Pyramid poems by Leya Cragin, Veronica Fleming, Brock, Jerry G., Larry Saun, Corine, Joyce Veerkamp and Donovan on Rocking Motion, Bird Flaps Its Wings, Bass Drum and Around the Platter.

Carol Mockovak recounts the July 25 gathering at Hannah's Bend Park in Cannon Falls, where 28 Minnesota-area teachers and students practiced beside the Cannon River, then shared a potluck.

Justin Stone gives teachers the keys to the first five movements, from flattening the feet before raising the toes in Rocking Motion to keeping the hands a steady distance apart in Bass Drum.

Linda Braga pairs the CD "Seaside: Solo Piano" with Rocking Motion and Bird Flaps Its Wings, then teaches a visualization of a footprint in wet sand, washed away each time the weight shifts back.

Justin Stone names the aimless hand-waving he sees in Bird Flaps its Wings, Pulling Taffy Variation #2, Light at the Top of the Head and Daughter in the Valley, and explains why he corrects it at Albuquerque practices.

Judy Hendricks hosted Carmen Brocklehurst's daylong Seijaku workshop in Albuquerque and returned to the practice with two bags of clothes to give away, plus refreshed detail on Carry the Ball to the Side and Bird Flaps Its Wings.

Detailed refinement notes from a retreat, covering hand angle and wrist release in Rocking Motion, the Chi between the palms in Bird Flaps Its Wings, and letting the T'an T'ien initiate Around the Platter and its Variation.

Marie A. Myszkier pairs her love of Bird Flaps Its Wings, wrist circles and all, with the story of Bird, the New Mexico Center plant that sprouted a leaf for each year of her training and now has nineteen.

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.

Anita Vestal offers a jumping rope image for the wrist circles, Daniel Pienciak links knees to wrists with a paper cup balanced on the head, and Linda Braga lists six purposes of Bird Flaps Its Wings.

Dora Derzon teaches Bird Flaps Its Wings as the second movement, right after beginners have stirred the Chi with Rocking Motion, and Dorene Krause compiles tips from the New Jersey Teachers Retreat, including the pelvis as a basin of water and softness kept al dente.

Marie A. Myszkier tells the story of the plant at the T'ai Chi Chih Center she named Bird, which sprouted a new leaf for each year of her training, from first class to teacher presentation and conference.

Margo Carpenter recounts a snowy April weekend in Edmonton where Canadian students learned Seijaku with Pam Towne, joked about Bird Flaps Its Wings, and passed a basket to start a Canadian Teacher Training Fund.

Four short anecdotes: a beginner renaming Bird Flaps Its Wings "The Chicken Flap," Sr. Viola's swinging foot in Working the Pulley, a New Folsom inmate stunned to meet a nun who practises TCC, and gag gifts from the Santa Barbara retreat.

Justin Stone warns against decorative, dance-like gestures, correcting the aimless hand waving he sees in Bird Flaps its Wings, Pulling Taffy Variation #2, Light at the Top of the Head and Daughter in the Valley.

Four single-panel and strip cartoons joke about Bird Flaps Its Wings, a pun on Justin Stone's name chiselled in stone, floating in very heavy air, and students told to empty their minds while remembering the next move.

Ann E. Federspiel offers two class images: an imaginary jump rope for the wrist circles in Bird Flaps Its Wings, and a torso on a glider rod for upright weight shifting.

Selfa Robin Boyd's pyramid poem moves through Rocking Motion, Bird Flaps Its Wings and Around the Platter, finding roots growing from the soles of her feet toward the earth's center.

Barbara Joy practiced at the seashore on Monhegan Island, Maine, where a sea gull approached each time she did Bird Flaps Its Wings and walked away when she switched to Around the Platter.

Hope Ridley noticed that every one of the twenty movements holds both tension and release, citing the wrist flip in Bird Flaps Its Wings and the inward circle of the platters.

Carolyn Shaw recounts breaking her fibula on December 9 and rebuilding her practice after the cast came off, starting with Rocking Motion and Bird Flaps Its Wings alone.

Steve Ridley answers students who ask which movement cures asthma or helps the heart, noting Justin Stone never prescribed outcomes, and giving only general chi influences for a few movements.