Gratitude (February 2016)

It’s plain and simple: T’ai Chi Chih fills me with gratitude. I am grateful for the ways it has healed me, from helping with my Fibromyalgia to my PTSD. I am grateful for its teachings: that I can speak in public without dying, that I can receive. And I am grateful for the wonderful teachers, mentors and students I have met.

I am especially grateful to teach at Folsom State Prison in Northern California. In fact, I said those very words to my students there upon finishing our practice on January 7th. It had been over a month since we’d last met, due to some prison construction. During this long lapse, I reached out to many in the TCC community, asking you to include the Folsom men in your practice, while we could not practice together. Thank you.

The Folsom class is no stranger to support from our community. In the late 1990’s Justin Stone went to the prison to meet with the men and offer his encouragement. (A video of this event is shown at teacher trainings.) Over the years many of you have sent me photo textbooks, Spiritual Odyssey and other books by Justin. For the past two years you have sent contributions to our annual banquet and retreat, an event during which the men get to spend a whole day doing TCC with guests like Sandy or Antonia. At last year’s first annual “Circles of Light,” we supported former inmate Franky Carrillo, who served twenty years for a wrongful conviction, in rejoining his old TCC classmates at Folsom. Many joined us in our synchronized, global practice.

Getting back to that last class at Folsom, we started as we always do, seated in a circle of chairs. The men shared about their practice. One had become overwhelmed by the amount of college schoolwork he had to complete. Anxious, tense and unable to think, he turned to what he knew would help. He did 45 minutes of TCC; he is fortunate to have a single cell with a bit more room to practice. Afterwards he not only completed his schoolwork, he did two weeks’ worth in advance. Another student shared that he floated back to his cell on his usual “pink TCC cloud” only to find the cell torn apart from an unscheduled search. His practice helped him keep his cool, and he ended up getting a single cell where he can meditate and practice in relative peace.

At the end of Cosmic Consciousness Pose, I shared, “I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the opportunity to share this practice with such an amazing group of individuals.” They returned my thankfulness tenfold. It had been one of those powerful classes where we all moved together in harmony, floating on the Qi. While that is not that unusual at Folsom, it was more beautiful and impressive considering they hadn’t had access to class for a month.

We all have students and classes we are grateful for, and that are very special to us. In many ways the men at Folsom are just like your students. They work and they have families. They’ve felt life’s triumphs and suffered losses. They come to class to heal their pain, whether it’s physical, emotional or spiritual. They stay because it is where they find peace and serenity. And yet, for obvious reasons, this class is different. And it is because of those differences that the Qi flows so strongly there. Nothing is taken for granted; life is truly precious.

Now that I’m a teacher, I understand why Judy Tretheway taught at Folsom for thirteen years, and why other TCC teachers have taught for so long. We do it because it is rewarding beyond words. Because it awakens inner qualities that we wish we had more of, more often. Because it helps us know who we are and who we can be. It reinforces the idea that material things do not matter; that it is the inner world and the spiritual realm that feed our souls. No words can express my gratitude for Justin and the form, for the opportunity to share it, and for my class at Folsom Prison. It’s plain and simple.

We will be holding our 4th Annual Banquet and Retreat at Folsom this spring.