The Vital Force Archive

Jim Shorr collects comments from four practitioners at Creekside Village in Beaverton, finishing their sixth year of Saturday morning sessions, on balance, joint tension, new friendships and Qigong warm-ups.

Jim Shorr collects statements from four Oregon senior students naming the movements that matter most to them, from Ellen H.'s swimmer's affinity for Working the Pulley to Linda L. feeling God's presence in Passing Clouds.

Jim Shorr gathers statements from five practitioners in the five-year-old Saturday standing and seated class at Creekside Village for Seniors, who name Passing Clouds, Rocking Motion and Light at the Top of the Head as the movements that release old habits, steady balance and raise consciousness.

Marcella Box introduces Lovena Warren, an 86-year-old accredited teacher whose free weekday Zoom practice restored her daily habit, and who led hurricane evacuees in T'ai Chi Chih from a shelter stage in 2005.

Jeneth Rundle describes teaching seated T'ai Chi Chih over Zoom while her student Angela recovered from knee replacement surgery, and teaching from a chair herself during her own knee trouble.

Jim Shorr describes how Creekside Village senior housing uses Margie, a longtime student, as a seated demonstrator whom wheelchair and walker participants follow, with Wayne and Bob explaining what it gives them.

Jim Shorr collects student responses, including Becky F on climbing through clouds in Working the Pulley, Tom O on releasing worries in Passing Clouds, and a palliative care patient's new stability.

Jeneth Rundle expected Zoom teaching to fail and found it joyful, tracing how that surprise exposed a hidden belief that the Chi could not reach students remotely.

Jim Shorr collects November and December 2020 testimonials from Creekside Village residents who kept practicing through the COVID-19 shutdown, with balance the benefit nearly everyone named.

Jeneth Rundle traces her attraction to statues of Kuan Yin and Amida Buddha, then describes the sudden urge during the pandemic to return to daily Seijaku practice alongside Nei Kung recitation.

Linda Minor recounts playing prescriptive harp for a dying friend and being engulfed by a yellow light and overwhelming peace, then finding words for it years later in TCC, Anton Grosz and Rachel Naomi Remen.

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.

Unemployed as a non-essential worker during the pandemic, Neal Roy practices on waking and tracks the uneven weight in his feet, finding that softening his knees and sinking lower evens the shift.

Jeneth Rundle planned a year off from teaching after moving to Oregon, then agreed to teach a neighbor recovering from cancer treatment, a stroke and surgery who progressed from seated practice to standing for a full hour.

Jim Shorr gathers first-person testimony from residents and guests at Creekside Village in Beaverton, Oregon, who describe calm, loosened muscles, better balance and the group's shared Six Healing Sounds.

Lynn Porzig argues that classes, intensives, retreats and conference practice deepen wholeness, describing community as the place where practitioners share joys and struggles and recognize God's presence in each person.

Lynn Porzig recounts her accreditation course as both thrill and agony, from effortless Chi flow in "aha" moments to movements falling apart while mirroring the Six Healing Sounds.

Linda Minor describes preparing to teach a seated class for seniors aging in place, practising seated herself, attending Carmen Brocklehurst's retreat entirely seated, and checking the room for armless chairs.

Jim Shorr describes moving his primary class to a spiritual living center before Wednesday evening services, his plan to train students toward accreditation, and quotes from regulars Sandy L and Jason M.

Jim Shorr takes up the phrase "the flow" from Sandy McAllister's teacher newsletter, quoting the Dalai Lama by way of Howard Cutler, and describes the peace that arrived after years of practice.

Jim Shorr asked students what draws them inside themselves, and their answers about gym classes and home practice led him to describe the Oregon practice circles he and Neal Roy sustain, from a downtown Portland church to the Rose Gardens.

Jim Shorr counts three new students at his Wilsonville Joy with Movement group as a holiday gift, including a math teacher who calls the taffies and Working the Pulley a way to synchronize left brain and right brain.

Jim Shorr gathers residents' own words from Edgewood Downs in Beaverton, Oregon, on regained balance, practising half the movements without a walker, and the calm the first twelve bring, plus Pyramid Poems on freedom.

Patty Clement's prose poem watches koi and lotus blossoms in the Chinese Garden, followed by dozens of pyramid poems on joy written by 2012 conference attendees and compiled by Roberta Taggart.

Jon and Barbie Fortune describe six months of weekly practice in the Portland Rose Test Garden and how letting go carried over into clarity, planning and creative vision in their international correspondence chess games.

Jim Shorr led 7 a.m. TCC practice for fellow Road Scholar travelers during a 16-day tour of Turkey, culminating in a demonstration of the first nine movements for Dervish hosts.

Steve Marsh previews the July 5-8, 2012 Portland conference, listing nearby day trips from the Pacific beaches to the Columbia Gorge and announcing a pre-conference group practice at the Lan Su Chinese Garden.

Neal Roy announces the 27th annual TCC Teacher Conference, set for July 5th through 8th, 2012 at the Red Lion Hotel on Portland's Columbia River, themed Bridges to Joy.

Cheryl Hall describes eight years of teaching T'ai Chi Chih to first and second graders in her Oregon classroom, where a small daily group learned every movement and grew visibly calmer.

Jerry Johnson recalls waking at 4am in a luxury oceanfront suite at the Westin Maui, miserable and talking to the lobby parrots, and traces how humility and T'ai Chi Chih taught him real gratitude.