Life In The Slow Lane

After several weeks of whirlwind activity, with no end in sight, I arrived at the T’ai Chi Chih Center in Albuquerque, NM, and immediately felt a tremendous abundance of peace. It had built up through repeated TCC classes and practice sessions. For my part, I was very grateful. It’s one thing to practice alone but, as great as it is, it doesn’t compare to what one feels as one enters the New Mexico center. What I felt was the genuine heart of many hearts beating as one. TCC reaches across time and space – and no time and no space. It brings together that which is refreshing, reviving and life giving. The amount of activity in my life hadn’t changed the moment I entered the center. But I had changed; life changed in that moment. The moment had slowed down.

The awesome thing is that we get so involved in the daily that we can forget that a space has been created for TCC. That space is always with us because of our TCC practice. Even if we haven’t forgotten (even if we remember with each breath and step), we still might not touch the depth of that knowing. What knowledge of the Supreme Ultimate do we have? What can we hold on to – even though it can’t be held on to?

Later, entering a busy nursing home, I could feel the importance of knowing that life slowed down. What one had done in life was gone. How one had looked in life was gone. Sleeping, resignation and lack of interest: none of these touched the life slowed down. Activities abounded, food was plenty, people came together. None of these slowed life down and yet, life kept calling to all: Come live life in the slow lane. Come and experience yourself fresh in each moment. All that is worth knowing lives here. When visitors came to Justin’s room in rehab, he often said, ”We don’t have to talk. Let’s just sit quietly.” What a special gift Justin gave to each of us – life in the slow lane. It is a gift of learning to love and share the Chi.