The Vital Force Archive

Sharon Sirkis ends her college T'ai Chi Chih course with a show and tell circle, where students bring laundry detergent, a construction level, Pringles and a near empty cigarette pack to explain what they gained.

Pyramid poems from Kay Smith, Judy Hendricks, Bo Waddell, Caroline Guilott, Mary Ruiz and others on nightly Nei Kung and sleep, followed by classroom mishaps from Sharon Sirkis and Dee Burton.

Hannah Hedrick, prompted by conference discussion, began organizing "T'ai Chi Chih Connections" with contact people and home-based centers in Chicago, Vigo County, Matsu Valley and Big Island, followed by reader-submitted jokes.

Pyramid poems on silence and on Justin Stone from Jeneth Rundle, Joyce Veerkamp and others, plus Sharon Sirkis on a student hearing "sushi" in the Six Healing Sounds and Terry Slaney on volunteering at a cancer resource center.

Excerpted from Justin Stone's book Gateway to Eastern Philosophy & Religion, four short pieces: the greedy businessman's dying words, Ramamurti Mishra on mistakes, a Roshi's five fingers, and Zen's life-affirming earthiness.

Linda Watson recounts Justin Stone's visit to a November 2010 intensive in Albuquerque, where he arrived frail behind a walker, watched the students move, then trotted back through the classroom grinning like Coyote.

Short tributes from teachers and students worldwide, including Pete Gregory's elevator encounter with Justin at the 2005 Albuquerque conference and Sharon Sirkis turning conference "umm's" into "OM's".

Brenda Mounier resisted T'ai Chi Chih until her friend Caroline talked her into driving 90 minutes for eight weeks of class, and a year later she practices for herself.

Mariee Mitchell strings the names of the movements into a tall tale in which she falls into a hole and fellow "T'ai Chi Chih'uns" mount a rescue.

Ruth Lillie, new to slow and purposeful movement, matches T'ai Chi Chih movements to her household pets: Stu the perpetually moving dachshund, Lewie the hunter cat, and Jujube the calm Sulcata tortoise.

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.

Ten pyramid poems from Dianne Moody, Jim Shorr, Nancy Little and others on letting go and chi, followed by five of Sharon Sirkis's funniest moments teaching at an MS day group and a retirement home.

Peter Gregory plays carnival barker, pitching chi as free renewable energy with no pills or ruby slippers required, then steps the reader into Rocking Motion and quotes Justin Stone's Spiritual Odyssey.

April Leffler likens the tan t'ien to a built-in GPS, recounting how a gut feeling steered her out of being hopelessly lost on Long Island after even the police could not help.

Lucinda Kutsko describes how Working the Pulley went from difficult to favorite, and how Justin Stone's phrase 'swimming through heavy air' fell flat with students who had never learned to swim.

Jan Block thanks the 2009 Nebraska teacher conference for deepening her teaching of "why" as well as "how," describes adding intermediate and advanced classes, and recounts practicing TCC after airport security pat-downs.

Terry Engelhart recounts the years after his wife's death from cancer in 2001, when faith, a Special Forces friend's blunt intervention, a quiche mispronunciation and T'ai Chi Chih kept him from suicide.

Pete Gregory's two poems: a Beverly Hillbillies-style ballad tracing Justin Stone from struggling T'ai Chi Ch'uan classes to Albuquerque, and a verse about arriving at the Nebraska conference and hearing Justin's voice.

Tony Johansen recounts Sandy McAlister's five-day Santa Barbara intensive, relocated after the Tea Fire destroyed Mount Calvary Retreat Center, using a cooking metaphor for how she chopped and diced the movements.

Jerry Juzdan, a 57-year-old retired teacher, imagines TCC bumper stickers, credits instructor Bill Moore, and describes practicing in pools and parks before choosing celery and carrots over Burger King.

Pete Gregory answers Justin Stone's "Impatience" column with I AM, the Impatient Anonymous Mindset, a recovery-program parody tracing patience through grounding, regimen, skill and clarity toward peace and grace.

Michael Isaacs practices in airport waiting areas and visualizes the movements in cramped plane seats, Pete Gregory draws squad cars twice while practicing outdoors in Indiana, and Stephen Thompson finds stillness within the shifting.

Sharon Sirkis recounts three encounters: an adult daycare student's quip about wine, a UMBC student demonstrating Around the Platter with her legs on the floor, and a skeptic in back pain who conceded she had a point.

Jerry Bumbalough tells his senior class to bring water because moving chi makes them thirsty, and asks where the water goes; one gentleman answers, "In my pants."

Sharon Sirkis recounts a student raising his hand for Working the Pulley and declaring "I solemnly swear," plus a UMBC student whose watch-free assignment coincided with a bank robbery.

Linda Braga's first class at an assisted living residence, where a walker ran over her foot, a leak from upstairs brought in a noisy HAZ-MAT crew, and ten seated beginners stayed anyway.

Three short pieces: Sheila Leonard names her snow-shovelling moves Passing Snowflakes and Carry the Shovel to the Side, Linda Braga brings a stuffed cat to teach the taffies, and Kathy Grassel lets a Juvenile Detention Center student keep his beach-ball-sized ball.

Ron Richardson stayed an extra day after the Albuquerque teacher conference, rode the tram and visited Santa Fe, then slept through his connection and got off the plane in Dallas thinking it was Little Rock.

Kathy Grassel taught Tai Chi Chih to 30 sixth-graders waiting to testify at the New Mexico legislature, renaming every movement with wildlife themes, plus classroom quips collected by Sharon Sirkis.

Four Pyramid Poems from Sr. Antonia Cooper, John Rodgers, Kathy Grassel and Phil Frost, moving from daybreak renewal through blaming others to a hissing snake, a bleating sheep and a demand for quantum proof.