The Vital Force Archive

Sue Kenney notes that most TCC groups gather similar people, and challenges teachers to carry the practice into mental health clinics, public housing projects and drop-in centers, raising funds to pay teachers when students cannot.

Sandy McAlister announces two new accreditation resources, the Teacher Preparation Suggested Curriculum and the Teacher Prep Coaches created by Lesley Nell, Marie Dotts and Lisa Otero, then passes the role of Guide to Marie Dotts.

Guy Kent announces the TCC Association's move to a larger Osuna Road center in Albuquerque, recalling the counsel that Chi follows community and the first center's 1995 opening.

Rachel Rilinger sums up the 50th T'ai Chi Chih Teacher Conference in a single line: the teachers came hoping to learn more and instead made lifelong friends.

Guy Kent and Judy Hendricks report on the July 25-28, 2024 Teacher Conference in Albuquerque marking 50 years of T'ai Chi Chih, where 134 of 150 registered teachers attended, and point to online conference artifacts.

Sandy McAlister recounts the 50th anniversary teacher conference in Albuquerque, from Skip Whitson's memories of publishing Justin's books to a raffle and auction that raised $6,974 for scholarships.

Mary Wichmann, who teaches just four one-hour classes a year for Survivors of the Fallen in Minnesota, questioned whether she belonged at the 50th anniversary conference in Albuquerque, then found connection and renewed interest in Seijaku.

Mary Karpin recounts the in-person 50th teacher conference and Sandy McAlister's closing charge, suggesting ways to spread TCC: sharing newsletters and the Vital Force, and demonstrating movements for mothers at the playground.

KG describes how her two presentations at the 50th anniversary conference honored the people and entities that brought Justin Stone's works into print and published the community's experiences in The Vital Force.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst, a member of the program committee, recounts the first in-person conference since COVID, held at Albuquerque's Marriott Pyramid for TCC's 50th year, and Judy Hendricks' rededication ceremony.

Daniel Pienciak recounts the July 28 Zoom practice he led for teachers who could not travel to the 50th anniversary conference, with comments from participants across the country.

Joan Weaver's pyramid poem marks the 50th T'ai Chi Chih teacher conference, naming the Zoom connection to Albuquerque, the small-group storytelling, and those remembered in absence.

Diana Bahn opens with a short poem, then recounts returning to a live event at the 50th anniversary conference in Albuquerque after years of laying low and being of service while her teacher Carolyn Perkins and husband Michael weathered obstacles through COVID.

Attendees at the 2024 Albuquerque conference answer five questions about why they came, what surprised them and what they carried home, from small-group talks to refinements in grounding and roundness.

Mary Strom recounts a Minnesota gathering for T'ai Chi Chih's 50th anniversary, where watching the leader's wrists during Around the Platter showed her the difference between softness and the collapse she long mistook for flexibility.

Amy Tyksinski invites undecided teachers to the July 25-28 Albuquerque conference marking 50 years of T'ai Chi Chih, noting deferred payment until June and the theme "There is Only One Thing Going On."

An invitation to the 50th anniversary TCC Teacher Conference in Albuquerque, July 25-28, 2024, with registration at $495, followed by Sharon Sirkis's five class anecdotes from senior centers and a college group.

Sandy McAlister calls on teachers to fund travel and hotel costs for overseas colleagues attending the 50th anniversary Teacher Conference in Albuquerque, and to sponsor candidates at in-person Intensives and Accreditations.

Pam Towne, accredited in 1984 and present at every teacher conference since Asilomar in 1985, urges teachers to come to Albuquerque in July for the first in-person gathering in five years and TCC's 50th birthday.

Daryl Isenberg describes her twice weekly practice group in Ajijic, and Hannah Hedrick recounts how Theda Gillespie sold her the book in 1985 only on the promise she become accredited.

Catherine Fedewa, who co-chaired the 2023 online Teacher Conference, names what Zoom gave the community and what it could not, and looks ahead to the in-person anniversary gathering in Albuquerque in 2024.

Roseann Heinrich's rhymed verse traces her path from needing calm, through twenty years of teaching, to the chi that now leads her to write poems each morning.

Glenn and Mary Laudenslager began TCC in spring 2000 after Mary saw it on PBS, taking an eight-week class with Lou and Joyce DeGidio that led to twenty-one years of daily practice.

Sandy McAlister marks T'ai Chi Chih's 45th year with retreat participants' reasons for practicing, and urges teachers to drop unwarranted fear, use World Tai Chi & Qigong Day, and let TCC shine publicly.

Judy Kistler-Robinson recounts stalling Sister Joan Schafhauser outside a birthday cheesecake at the Philadelphia teacher conference, hearing how Joan's smile, not perfect movements, kept men coming to her prison class.

Sr. Agnes Fleming, certified since 1992, recounts teaching in retreat houses, stepping back after cancer, and keeping a daily practice at her east-facing convent window with the dawn and birdsong.

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.

Linda Braga describes a November ceremony in San Leandro where fourteen students in their 80s and 90s received gold-sealed certificates for years of consistent attendance, and offers the template to other teachers.

Marcy Burns describes the annual candlelit holiday practice and party at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ventura, begun by Lisa Otero, where thirty-eight students and seven teachers moved in concentric circles.

Marjorie Erickson keeps a diary through her first two weeks of retirement, counting practice days alongside a broken air conditioner, an unhappy customer who ends up leaving five stars, and plans to teach in the park.