2024 Teacher Conference and Class Laughs

We have not had an in-person teacher conference since 2019, pre-COVID. This will be a special year to gather again to deepen our personal practices, our teaching ideas, and our connections with like-minded practitioners. We will celebrate the journey of TCC practice from its founding by Justin Stone to today. We will also look collectively at where we want this amazing practice to go in the future. Your presence is requested for this special opportunity. It’s a once in a lifetime event.

For details, visit the main conference website, (under the ‘Become a Teacher’ drop down menu). Registration is $495. Scholarships are available. “There is only one thing going on…”

The Lighter Side

By Sharon Sirkis, Columbia, Maryland

Originally printed in March 2002

1. At my visit to the senior center just before Christmas, I brought an assortment of small gifts that I placed on a table in front of the room. The items were unwrapped so the seniors could pick out whatever they wanted. One by one they would come up with a smile on their face, pick an item, and then go sit down. All of the seniors were happy with the assortment of gifts, all except one. This particular lady walked up to the table with a pained look on her face and said, “Do you have any knees up there? What I really need is a new pair of knees!”

2. One morning at the retirement center before class, I noticed a gentleman hanging out by the doorway. “Would you like to join us for T’ai Chi Chih (TCC)?” I asked. “I don’t know,” he said, “It just looks like a bunch of old ladies in there.” Upon hearing that, spry 96-year-old Dell got up and walked over to him and said, “I’m not old, I’ve just been around a long time!”

3. One of the college students told me that when she was practicing Rocking Motion at home, her dog stood up on its hind legs and started waving its paws to imitate the move. 

4. Every time we do Daughter on the Mountaintop and Daughter in the Valley, one of the seniors, Bob, jokingly tells me how sexist it is. “Why aren’t there any sons?” he asks. During the last class, he added something new. “See,” he said, “It’s the sexism again. Daughter on the Mountaintop, Daughter in the Valley, and now it’s the Lazy Man’s Exercise!”

5. One evening at the end of TCC class, one student said she felt so wonderful that she wanted to have sex with everyone. Without missing a beat, a guy on the opposite side of the room nervously said, “Well, you just stay right over there!”