The Vital Force Archive

Annie Braudy spent two weeks in Piraeus with a friend in deep grief, and her daily practice overlooking the city and the ocean kept returning her to grounding and flow.

Mary Wichmann describes leading twelve widows of fallen servicemen in one hour of T'ai Chi Chih on a deck at Holbrook Farms Retreat, with minimal instruction and no goal beyond peace and joy.

Christina Tillotson describes practicing daily near her 21-year-old cat Quanyin, conducting chi toward her as she purred, and continuing that practice at her death and over her ashes.

John Marquez's pyramid poems on darkness, gratitude and silence are paired with anonymous workshop comments, including one widow who found faith in herself after losing her husband of 48 years.

Julie Heryet reports on the Folsom State Prison class after a 15-month lockdown gap, including a student talked out of suicide, poet Lawrence's release, and inmate-assistant Stephen's death from cancer.

Linda Robinson recounts her 1999 accreditation in Albuquerque, the presentation to bereaved students that grew from her daughter's death, and the sitting period she adds after each class.

April Leffler introduces the ten teachers accredited in the fourth Zoom course with Pam Towne, with their mission statements and reflections on grief, letting go and finding softness during the week.

Rick Davis likens life's transitions, from pandemic isolation to the death of a loved one, to the weight shift, arguing that firm footing and real permanence are found inwardly.

Laurin McDonald describes how Zoom sessions she and Lesley Nell run became a lifeline for isolated older UK students, and an anchor for her own bereavement after losing her husband in November 2020.

Margery Erickson's poem asks when the strong women, imprisoned in their homes and paralyzed by fear of invisible attackers, will march forward again, acknowledging that some never will return.

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.

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.

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.

Dan Pienciak returned to teaching after three family deaths, and used Gene Kelly's remarks about being grounded to the earth and dancing from the waist down to re-focus his classes on grounding, softness in the upper body, and surrender.

Nancy Johnson argues that a broken heart holds more, urging readers to drop resistance, abandon jealousy and ownership, and practise calmness, patience and tenderness as a religion of the Open Heart.

Dixie Adeniran writes of three years holding the deaths of her parents, the loss of her home to fire, and her husband Jack's death, and the Justin Stone quotations and lines of verse that came to her mid-practice.

Sheryl Adair describes leaning on T'ai Chi Chih through births, illness, death and divorce, including doing Rocking Motion in hospital waiting areas for both her grandchildren's arrivals, plus a Pyramid Poem.

Sue Bitney marks five years since her husband Jim's death, crediting T'ai Chi Chih and the people it drew to her with steadying her, rebuilding purpose and forging resilience.

Diana Bahn writes about her sister-in-law Sarah's suicide, the scorched-field grief that followed, and how returning to the t'an t'ien and Justin's prajna led her to teach at a Mount Sinai cancer center.

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."

Susan Kenney remembers Clifford, a student of 44 who traveled by skateboard, called out the movements while stooping to read them off the page, and lived in a monastery-like studio apartment.

Sue Bitney buys a "Year of Thankfulness" calendar and recalls Justin's encouragement to live in gratitude, tracing her husband Jim's cancer surgery, his death three months later, and her new direction.

Bobbie Anderson returned to her first teacher conference since her husband Andy's death, where a dragonfly, old friends' condolences and seated TCC sessions led her back to teaching.

Mary Wichmann finds golf pros teaching circular motion, a soft grip and effortless swing, then turns her New Year resolve into written apologies and thanks to her parents, great uncle and family.

Sue Bitney recounts the five months between her husband's cancer diagnosis and his death, the four years of surviving since, and her decision to retire in March as a deliberate act of letting go.

Becky Watkins arrived at her family's beach vacation burned out, angry and sorrowful, and found that eight days of swimming, news-fasting and practicing in the sand left her healed and light-hearted.

Brenda Fisher credits T'ai Chi Chih with carrying her through two major losses, first with grief counselor Sharon Edwards in Arizona and again after 15 years away, leading her to accreditation with Daniel Pienciak.

Linda Braga remembers Mini, a retired library worker who joined her class as a beginner, kept practising through chemotherapy for a rare blood cancer, and was honoured in a memorial class where students sensed spirits filling the room.

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.