Barnstable Fall Retreat 2025

A three-hour trip to Barnstable on Cape Cod in Massachusetts turned into four hours of stop-and-go driving on I-93 South from the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. Slow down, speed up, slow down again. It’s Friday afternoon on a beautiful autumn day. Most of the traffic is headed north to look at the colorful leaves of New Hampshire, but everyone else seems to be headed for Cape Cod. Will I get there in time for the 6pm start of the weekend retreat? There’s lots of stress before I can arrive, relax, and meditate.

Finally, I see a classic old New England church building and stretch my legs for the first time in four hours. I stagger from the parking lot and see the T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) sign by a side door. Long exhale. Inside, I see Jessica Lewis, who I’ve known for years. She’ll lead the retreat. There are few familiar faces in a group of nearly 30 seated in a circle. I hear them introduce themselves, and then we stand up and move. Now I know that I am with my people, my tribe. I’m where I belong.

I first learned TCC in Texas from Sister Carletta LaCour in 1997. I taught it from the time I was accredited in 2011, until COVID shut down my classes in March of 2020. Because of extended family caregiving commitments, I haven’t resumed. Up to that time, I had taught at a yoga studio, a county jail, a library, a church basement, and Adult Ed. One of my first students became a teacher but later moved out of state. Most of the time I taught, I did not have anyone to practice with but my students, so I’d have to drive or fly for ongoing teacher connection. There was Zoom, but it’s not the same as being physically present together.

Jessica’s teaching was joyful and made every movement seem easy, even the “Taffies,” which many of my students seem to find difficult. She taught each move seated before teaching the move standing. It was a powerful, new awareness. I have taught seated TCC a few times adaptively as students needed it, but now I was feeling the Chi, while experiencing how seated can be an essential way of teaching the arm movements before demonstrating the weight shift. Further, it takes the attention off anyone who needs to do the practice seated.