How Does One Notice

Margy Emerson, whom some of you met at last year’s conference in Menlo Park, offers some thoughts on “Noticing” that seem very much in line with Justin’s and Steve’s reminders to us to continuously be aware of ourselves and everything in our world. We have the sense of integrating all that is in our environment into our inner being. Conscious T’ai Chi Chih practice, of course, assists in this awakening process.

Relating incidents of progressive awareness in one of her daily practice sessions, Ms. Emerson mentions the various aspects of nature she sees–from the foggy morning to different plants to a bobcat nearby. She comments:

“The sequence draws to the surface that part of me that notices and in so doing unleases all the rich and delicate detail of my surroundings.

“Wakening to details. Moving at a pace which admits them. The journey of a thousand miles which at its end looks like magic to onlookers is only one person attending to every step of the making.”

This short excerpt is from Margy’s book A Potter’s Notes on Tai Chi Chuan, which Good Karma Publishing distributes. More such gems can be found throughout the book, an extended analogy between the two arts of practicing T’ai Chi and of making pottery. If you’ve not yet had an opportunity to read this book and share it with your students, you will find that it offers a contemplative supplement to our other books that are more specifically related to T’ai Chi Chih.