Impressions & Insights on Becoming a TCC Teacher

Meandering by old historic villa walls on the San Antonio River in warm weather with the breeze in your face, colorful river craft sailing by, and meeting new and old friends during a week of intense and joyous training… The University of the Incarnate Word and Alice Holden, our cheerful and ready host, always with us on our journey… Pam Towne slowly moving and present in every teaching moment… Stephen Thompson from Mississippi and our experienced San Antonio teachers correcting our form and helping with our practice teaching… Learning from my fellow (soon-to-become) teachers in their varied presentations… A campus full of meandering paths with a secret gate to the grocery store and a glass elevator that takes you down what seems like hundreds of feet to a cliff where hawks roost… A grotto and fountain, angels above the chapel, and a bench by a cemetery… A live oak spreading and enveloping all the gravestones… The mystery of the Chi within and the world outside coming together in the newly restored chapel where we hear the story of Italian marble and inset wood carvings… History told through art of the sisters’ work with the poor and sick… And always more T’ai Chi Chih… Justin’s informative videos and talks to discuss nightly… The DVD from Folsom Prison where Justin’s radiant centeredness and openness shines through a stark place where men cannot leave yet… Rich discussions and sharing, moments of laughter and joy, each moved by what someone says about their reasons and experience… A visit to the Mission San Jose and listening to a jazz band while the full moon rises over the ancient walls of the mission… TCC in my room at midnight, alone and quiet… Arising each morning at 5:00 to reconnect to the work, sharing breakfast at 7:30, helping out… Life and TCC, all in one… Noticing that I was peeling a banana ever so slowly this morning, in the same way we had moved all week, while smelling its ripeness, just noticing more… Thank you, Pam Towne and Alice Holden, experienced auditing teachers, and my fellow learners. And most of all, thank you, Justin Stone, for the gift of TCC.