The Vital Force Archive

JB describes how an intuition arriving during Rocking Motion reminded her that TCC itself holds the patience she needed while her partner faced repeated hospitalizations for severe emphysema.

Lynne Roberts presented T'ai Chi Chih at an annual Parkinson's Summit conference, leading Kaiser Permanente providers, hospital staff, caregivers and Parkinson's teams in Push Pull, standing or seated.

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.

Mary Ann Benner found T'ai Chi Chih at the Mayo Clinic during her husband's three months of cancer treatment, then carried it home to Lorraine Lepine's church group and daily Zoom sessions through COVID-19.

Judy Chancey traces the fallow season that began with her husband Raymond's Stage 3 colon cancer and deepened with her sister Ankie's death, and the yinning and yanging that carried her into Zoom sessions for VA counselors and cancer care staff.

Nancy Hebert describes practicing TCC in a hospital family lounge while her mother-in-law was institutionalized for depression, her mother-in-law's suicide, and her 2019 accreditation to bring TCC to mental health facilities.

Anna Vaith honors her student Karen, who cared for her husband through cancer, and recounts how grief over her grandmother's sudden death led her to accreditation in 2005 and to teaching.

Margery Erickson's poem, echoing "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," pictures teachers caring for parents and grandchildren, teaching when they can, and saving coins in a jar for next year's conference.

Dixie Adeniran, a live-in caregiver for an elder, describes breaking her T'ai Chi Chih practice into fragments between eyedrops, showers and compression hose, finding serenity in the midst of activity.

Sue Bitney credits T'ai Chi Chih with keeping her grounded through the death of her husband Jim in 2013 and the many losses since, including her dying mother-in-law.

Pete Gregory, seven years into live-in caregiving for his 89-year-old mother and failing 91-year-old father, maps the TCC movements onto the falls, vigils and mini-crises of his days.

Denise Emanuel Clemen finds the movement names taking on new meaning through four years of caring for her mother and her boyfriend, who died in June 2014, and names the love she feels radiating from TCC.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst names T'ai Chi Chih itself as the greatest gift, recalling her sister Corine's gratitude for the practice while working all day and spending evenings at her hospitalized husband's bedside.

In a letter shared by Dan Pienciak, Fran Alexander describes breaking her ankle in three places, healing far faster than predicted with added bone density at nearly 70, and teaching elderly relatives in Florida.

Jeneth Rundle, a new teacher and stem cell donor for her brother dying of multiple myeloma, recounts the disabled veteran and her caregiving sister who walked into class and healed her.

Denise Emanuel Clemen recounts the divorce that wrecked her life in 2007, her skeptical first T'ai Chi Chih class at an Oxnard gym, and practicing in her living room after her partner Dan died of lung cancer in hospice care there.

Linda Braga recounts a year of teaching James, a student with dementia, and Angel his caretaker, including how she asked the class to welcome him and how he returned after a failed residential placement.

Roseann Heinrich recounts the 18 months from her son Joe's brain tumor diagnosis in May 2012 to his death in October 2013, and the daily practice she did in hospital waiting rooms to find peace and courage.

Sue Bitney recounts the five months between her husband Jim's lung cancer diagnosis in October 2012 and his death in March 2013, and how practice, Sandy's seated DVD and a visit from Antonia sustained them both.

Dr. Pauline Bacani Quimson traces her recurring loss of voice to overwork, including typhoon relief in Leyte, and describes how a week of cancellations returned her to daily TCC and Seijaku practice.

Jack Weaver recounts how a workplace survey flagging rage and depression led him to T'ai Chi Chih while his wife was permanently hospitalized, and how practice lowered his blood pressure, eased shingles pain and carried him through his dog Cody's death.

Mary Griffith traces a teenage memory of a couple practicing on the Encinitas bluff to her own first class with Joanne Thomas, and the practice that carried her and her sister through their mother's colon surgery.

Carolyn and Dennis, one week into their first TCC lessons, began home hemodialysis and found that doing a few movements dissolved the nervousness and jitters of a difficult treatment day.

May Swanson recounts eight years of donated teaching at The Wellness Community in Phoenix and the Veterans Hospital, including a dying student who sat through class and felt the energy.

Anthony Pagliarulo recounts directing chi to his wife during her lung cancer treatment, learning at retreats that TCC's innate intelligence made the effort unnecessary, and later returning to teach at the Phoenix Wellness Community that first helped him.

Peter Gregory quit a 30-year restaurant job, moved in with his aging parents in northwestern Indiana, and endured car repairs, cancelled classes and cold shoulders before a newspaper health feature brought 75 inquiries.

Kathleen Bente describes practicing T'ai Chi Chih with her sister on Tuesdays at their father's house while he rested on a bench with a cookie, watching them, after dementia and their mother's death left him needing constant care.

Sandy McAlister describes two teacher training candidates who transformed during the course: one a lifelong family caretaker who awakened to her own Being, the other whose tense shoulders finally released.