The Vital Force Archive

Terry Gay Puckett was practicing Around the Platter on her deck when a large cat appeared balancing along a twelve-foot fence, teaching her to move slowly and attend to the soles of her feet.

Patricia Spears Bigelow credits regular practice with strengthening an ankle after tendon surgery, easing asthma, and stopping the falls her glaucoma caused, and describes doves, squirrels and an owl watching her practice outdoors.

Terry Gay Puckett recounts how student Denise Richter contacted a San Antonio Express News columnist without telling her, and the resulting article filled her senior center class and a waiting list.

Terry Gay Puckett's Shih Tzu puppy chewed open a tube of toxic acrylic flow, and the two hours stranded in a vet's exam room became a slow practice of T'ai Chi Chih and Seijaku.

Judy Kistler-Robinson recounts Sandy McAlister's October 9 Zoom teacher practice, where Huang Wen-Shan's 1974 foreword led into the Great Circle Meditation, its variations across Justin's books, and tongue placement.

Terry Gay Puckett found the word "feelings" filling every page of her 2021 conference notes, and lists what she will carry back to her park class: grounding like tree roots, Judy Chancey's gold seal marking the tan t'ien, and softening hands and knees.

Judy Kistler-Robinson learned Tai Chi Chih from Justin's photo textbook, DVDs and FaceTime sessions with Lubbock teachers, then found that Sandy's Zoom practices supplied the angles and words she had missed.

Dr. Pauline Quimson-Miller, a medical doctor, psychologist and clinical hypnotherapist, describes weaving T'ai Chi Chih, Seijaku and Nei Kung into customized wellness programs for clients recovering from trauma, abuse and addiction.

Janet Knapp Starr invites accredited teachers to the T'ai Chi Chih Teacher Circle Facebook group, where members have traded advice on Zoom teaching and pandemic class agreements.

Janet L. Starr, practicing since 2004, describes trust as the heart of her T'ai Chi Chih: trusting mentors' corrections, letting the hips carry the shoulders, and rebuilding confidence after health changes.

Judy Kistler-Robinson, teaching a Saturday class at a 55-plus retirement complex, found herself telling students to pick up a burden from the shoulder, carry it forward and release it.

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.

Alice M. Holden links St. Dominic's standing prayer to the standing pause between movements, and Stephen Thompson recounts Sandy McAlister's impromptu 2016 conference discussion on whether to rise or stay down in rest.

Pia Knighton traces her path from a Cenacle Retreat Center brochure in 2002 to accreditation in 2011 and teaching adolescent and adult psychiatric patients in Houston hospitals.

Alice Holden remembers Texas teachers Renza Moscatelli Baker, who came to T'ai Chi Chih after cancer weakened her legs, and Richard Cutler, honored at his wake with nine rounds of Rocking Motion.

Alice Holden's account of the 40th anniversary conference at Kean University, where 102 participants heard Sandy McAlister refine the movements, Pam Towne present Seijaku, and Neal Roy's raffle raise over $2000 for scholarships.

Pia Knighton traces her path from a Houston retreat center brochure to accreditation in 2011, and describes teaching weekly 30-minute TCC classes to adolescents on the Menninger Clinic psychiatric unit.

Pia Knighton took over her teacher's classes at the Cenacle Retreat Center right after accreditation, then built classes at a community center, a retreat house, and the Menninger Clinic psychiatric units.

Alice Holden traces T'ai Chi Chih in San Antonio from a single teacher in 1992 through two teacher trainings, a weekly library group, the 2002 conference, and classes reaching teenagers, translators and Guatemala.

Richard Cutler, Austin's sole accredited teacher since May 2009, describes building classes at Austin Community College, the Dougherty Arts Center and Sundara Yoga Therapy, where local T'ai Chi masters gave up their slot for Antonia's visit.

Johanna Runfalo answers a newcomer's question by walking through all nineteen movements and the Cosmic Consciousness Pose, noting the basics of upright spine, soft knees, concentration in the soles of the feet, and the t'an t'ien leading.

MaryAnn Moran, newly accredited, names the pressure and worry of a fast-paced life, the peace TCC gave her, and an aging population's need to stay active as her reasons for teaching.

Moira Ann Holland describes a chapel meditation in a Texas spirituality program where her loud heartbeat was joined in perfect rhythm first by an insect, then a bird, and reads it against Justin's 1995 lecture Cosmic Rhythm.

Judy Hubbell's impressions of her teacher accreditation week at the University of the Incarnate Word, from Pam Towne's teaching and Alice Holden's hosting to the Folsom Prison DVD and a slowly peeled banana.

Richard Cutler recounts driving from Austin to the San Antonio teacher training, his impatience over "correct" movements, the guidance of Pam Towne and Stephen Thompson, and becoming Central Texas's first accredited teacher.

Larry Sava collects techniques for helping students feel their movements: focusing on the soles of the feet, dividing each foot into four parts, using the eight coins approach, and returning to the principles of circularity, continuity and polarity.

Three writers on harmony: Renza Baker regains mind-body connection after cancer when her rigid knees finally soften, Becky Watkins opens classes with a struck brass bowl, and Nancy Werner-Azarski's colleagues notice she is less angry at work.