Inspired To Find A New Purpose

I came to T’ai Chi Chih from the opposite side of the lifestyle spectrum. I consumed effort, tension and stress as if they comprised an energy drink. My career was rewarding creatively but a constant series of unmovable deadline pressures. It required me to be clever, witty and entertaining on command. The need to be consistently “on” is a vocation in itself. There was no downtime. I reveled in it.

Several years ago this all came to a crashing halt. Medical interventions saved my life but my frenetic occupation would be no more. Neurological “rewiring,” resulting from surgery, cost me my skills and, by association, my purpose. That resulted in the expected depression. As a male of the Boomer generation, my persona was defined by my profession, and now I had none. I had tried several things to distract myself and find a new discipline when the November 2010 AARP article on TCC caught my attention. I sought out a TCC instructor and began a weekly class that not only brought me a sense of calmness and a physical discipline, but a realignment of energy that has soothed aches and pains, both old and new. It has also inspired me to a new sense of purpose.

I am not certain I am actually “drawing in the energy from the most distant star,” but there is a contented conspiracy of mind, body, movement and the moment when I am practicing TCC. I believe that. I can feel it. I still cope with residual fallout from minor physical failings, but it no longer defines me. At present I am attempting to pursue a course that will lead me to certification so that I, too, can rejoin the world of fruitful purpose and pay this forward.