The Vital Force Archive

Lynne Roberts describes losing all six of her weekly Missoula classes to COVID-19 on March 13th, then finding a way forward through Zoom teacher practices she thanks by name.

Writing during the social distancing of 2020, Dorene Krause reminds her students that T'ai Chi Chih cannot be learned overnight, that movements soften with time, and that it is practice, not perfect.

Denise Emanuel Clemen lists the 2020 trips she canceled, from Oaxaca to Athens, each month returning to practice in her condo on Dakota land taken by the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux.

Lisa Stroyan replaced canceled travel with a birthday "staycation" of naps, nature walks and a distanced picnic, then invited her Zoom class to wear vacation clothes and travel inward.

Rick Davis wakes with chest pain and a whisper of fear, then finds during the next evening's neighborhood walk that his grounded weight shift has turned walking into moving devotion and gratitude.

Linda Minor imagines the stress, resentment and ingratitude her life might have held without T'ai Chi Chih, and describes the sobering responsibility of now passing Justin Stone's gift to her own students.

Dorene Krause practices alone behind a deserted high school during the pandemic spring and watches her own shadow on the concrete, noticing an upside-down heart form as her hands carry the ball.

Lisa Otero, the first teacher to post on the new online directory at taichichih.org, describes logging back on after COVID-19 to find nearly 90 teachers' photos and bios waiting like a reunion.

Jeannette Stotts describes how her senior class moved to Zoom during the COVID-19 shelter-in-place, with teacher Benjamin Brisjar opening each session with Spiritual Odyssey readings and Justin and Carmen videos.

In a letter to the editor, Paula Weiner credits T'ai Chi Chih with saving her life and describes how recalling Hannah Hedrick, Maria Tallchief and fellow teachers stirs an energy flow that feeds her artwork.

Doriane Tippet compares the T'ai Chi Chih community to a forest where trees communicate through mycelium at the roots, crediting Northern Colorado's teachers with nurturing her from a weak seedling into a stronger practitioner.

Hannah Hedrick describes practising three times a week in her yoga shed during the pandemic, private sessions for students with cancer, energy work for a dying fellow organizer, and a Down Syndrome class cut short by lockdown.

Elizabeth Ebrahimzadeh, a self-described born worrier who met T'ai Chi Chih in a park 18 years ago, describes how daily practice grounds her through pandemic fears about loved ones, postmen and plumbers.

Sandy McAlister writes from the first weeks of COVID-19 lockdown, taking John Lennon's Imagine and two Mayo Clinic doctors' viral performance as a way into Justin's teaching on impermanence and her own admittedly false surrender.

S. Becky Shinas draws on Justin Stone's Spiritual Odyssey to argue that the disrupted, uncertain time of COVID-19 is Kairos time, and that kindness in ordinary acts reveals our own divinity.

Nan Nelson recalls the evening her community education teacher described meeting a raging driver with compassion, the moment that turned a casual TCC class into a serious commitment, and cites Shantideva on repaying teachers.

Rachel Rilinger, a music therapist covering for a recreation therapist on an inpatient acute psychiatric unit, led Rocking Motion and watched pacing, blanket-covered and muttering patients join staff in flowing practice.

Daniel Pienciak recalls his accreditation trainer's disappointment at a sloppy Anchor Taffy repetition, and how doing thirty-six Rocking Motions at the start of practice brought a new grounded feeling through every weight shift.

Nancy Werner-Azarski reports on nineteen Minnesota teachers gathering in November 2019 to practice, read from Spiritual Odyssey, watch Mary Strom's conference video, and thank outgoing leaders Mary Weddle and Susan Sobelson.

Justin Stone contrasts Indian Buddhism's escape from suffering with the Taoist love of life and longevity, concluding that daily contemplation and gratitude serve most people better than asceticism.

Sheryl Adair writes from her grandfather's rocker with coffee and the latest Vital Force in hand, thanking KG and contributors, followed by eight Pyramid Poems on Rocking Motion.

Merle Freidin Smith began T'ai Chi Chih after a 1998 rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis, and practiced it mentally through 18 days in hospital after cervical fusion surgery, keeping her attention in the soles of her feet.

Carmela Beck recalls watching Justin Stone demonstrate at an Albuquerque bookstore while her toddler roamed unsupervised, then finding his photo online a decade later when back pain sent her looking for something gentler than yoga.

Asked at a Pennsylvania teacher accreditation how T'ai Chi Chih brings her joy, Kathleen McAllister recalls the angel card reading JOY that she wrote on her hand during her own accreditation week.

Connie Shaw writes to her teacher Marie Dotts about an insight five months into class: scanning people's vibrations rather than their words revealed the draining habit energies behind familiar smiling masks.

Linda Zelig, writing for the 2019 conference committee, recounts the 452-day climb to mount the Return to the Circle conference in Minnesota, from April 2018 planning to June 27 arrival.

Newly accredited in April, Connie Krumrai booked a last-minute trip to the June teacher conference on scholarship funds, and a typewritten letter from Justin Stone about ego doubts gave her the nerve to arrange classes at Harvest Farm, an addiction and homelessness rehabilitation center.

Tracy Immordino's account of her first T'ai Chi Chih conference, Return to the Circle, from checking the attendee list for old classmates to the twice-daily silent group practices and the auction that raised over $7,000 for the scholarship fund.

Nancy Werner-Azarski traces her encounters with Justin Stone through teachers Ron Barker and Ed Altman, conferences, retreats and postcards, likening him to the elephant described by blind men.

April Leffler taught T'ai Chi Chih to 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders at a Catholic school in Chester, and the boisterous third grade class did Six Healing Sounds for her dying dog.