Creativity, Creativity, Creativity

Editor’s Note: Huge thanks to Hannah Hedrick and Howard Mogil who gracefully enticed this from Paula. As Howard wrote: “When I asked Paula about doing T’ai Chi Chih in her mind as she rode her stationary cycle, she said she does sometimes, and that she also does when she hears of Hannah and the famous dancer Maria Tallchief. Apparently remembering them stimulates her memories in this healthy and very satisfying way.”

Dear Kim, I so appreciate everything you have done for T’ai Chi Chih. Although I cannot access the many new services you provide electronically, I treasure my memories of my interactions with fellow TCC students and teachers.

I am grateful to have worked with both Steve Ridley and Ed Altman at conferences and teacher accreditation courses. We actually held one in New York, where I was first introduced to TCC through my beloved teacher, Hannah Hedrick.

As I have said in The Vital Force, at annual conferences and directly in conversations with Justin, TCC saved my life. I was amazed at the many opportunities I had to teach, including at the Field Museum, for arthritis organizations, at nursing homes, you name it. Along with my artwork, TCC was my primary avenue to serve others. There continues to be a direct connection between the energy I learned to circulate through TCC and my continued creativity. 

When I think about Hannah, Maria Tallchief (a committed TCC student) and my interactions with everyone from Steve and Ed to you and the women who became TCC guides and teacher accreditors, I feel a flow of energy that motivates me to engage in some kind of artistic activity.

I am wondering if other TCC students and teachers experience this connection? I felt it more strongly when I could do standing TCC, but all I have to do is think about TCC and our amazing community, and I feel the flow. It then manifests in everything I do.

As Hannah has said in several of her articles in The Vital Force, TCC is really a part of everything I do. In the beginning I did not understand this, but I eventually began to feel that energetic connection, as Charles Sasa described it in his article in the May Vital Force.

Again, thanks for all you do in maintaining and expanding our amazing TCC community.