Gratitude & Pulling Taffy

I had the great opportunity to practice T’ai Chi Chih with Steve Marsh and Jim Shorr in the Chinese Garden in downtown Portland recently. Usually I’m working on Saturday mornings, but my schedule opened up and allowed me time to join them and 13 others. I’d been so used to practicing on my own, and I hadn’t practiced with a group since the Albuquerque retreat last fall. I’d forgotten what a joy it is to share the Chi with a group of people with different experience levels. The movements let us know each other. The setting was beautiful – a wonderful balance of water, plants and people. Since we were surrounded by the bustle of a city on a Saturday, the feeling of Seijaku was so present – serenity in the midst of activity. I focused on the soles of my feet but also on the joy of moving together as a group.

While doing Push Pull, I was thinking about writing for The Vital Force. I was hoping the something would come to me through the Chi. Upon starting Pulling Taffy I observed the movements around me and then felt how I was doing the movement. I noticed how much up and down movement there was in the hips of many people. I thought, why are they pushing off with the insubstantial foot and rising up instead of staying on an even plane? Hips are supposed to stay at the same level as it turns and pulls your arms apart. (It’s not the arms pulling and moving the body up and down.) During the rest of that movement I focused on my waist and feet, making sure I was a good example for those that weren’t moving from their centers. I blessed that moment, and silently thanked that experience for deepening my understanding of Pulling Taffy, Variation #3, Perpetual Motion. The rest of the practice seemed to flow and grow. A few visitors joined the practice without, I believe, ever taking a class, and they did extremely well.

I hope I’m able to attend another group practice soon, and I can’t wait to share the Chi and joy of this movement in Nebraska in August. At the end of all of my practices, I take a moment and repeat the words of Paul Reps: I am grateful; I give thanks. I repeat that three times and feel gratitude for every moment that I get to live and do TCC.