Class with Laura

It’s a short walk from the parking lot to the ramada where Laura Star is teaching the first ten movements of Tai Chi Chih (TCC). Tohono Chul Botanical Garden, located in Tucson and considered one of the world’s great botanical gardens, is a perfect setting for studying mindfulness through moving meditation. I stroll past enticing aromas wafting from the Garden Bistro, past towering saguaros and other desert plants just beginning to bloom under the bright March sun. I walk past benches tucked under trees, the Children’s Garden, and into Laura’s shaded space under the adobe ramada with a smooth cement floor. Small and serene, she greets us with her welcoming smile, blue eyes flashing, dark hair pulled back.

This is not my first class with Laura, who teaches in Wisconsin in the summer, and in Arizona in fall and spring. It’s an especially dedicated group of students, attentive and enthusiastic. As always, I learn something new from Laura’s instruction. Today I work on correcting a movement I’ve been practicing imprecisely. I am encouraged when she notes that Justin said we benefit from performing even just a few of the movements each day.

I feel the gentle, flowing strength of movements that cross the midline of the body, connecting both sides of the brain, melding brain, body, and spirit to the earth. As I relax into the familiar routine, the soft background music merges with birdsongs. I feel the presence of my husband from days when we studied TCC together. And long before that, there were many family reunions where my twin aunts and one of their husbands — all instructed by Justin — led us through TCC. The twins were registered nurses who also practiced healing arts, and their persuasive teaching inspired a special bond for my extended family members.

We are led slowly, peacefully, through the TCC movements that we know and the movements we just learned. Laura smiles us into Cosmic Consciousness Pose, and with it comes joy and gratitude for nature, for our connections, for life itself.