Making a Difference

(With permission from TCC News, Albuquerque)

Why do the students come time after time to T’ai Chi Chih class, and then to a second class and then on to the advanced classes? They tell it best in the stories of what T’ai Chi Chih has meant to them.

She asked, as we started the third week (being very shy and moving as if she weren’t comfortable in her body), “Are you sure anyone can learn to do T’ai Chi Chih?” My reassurance to her was that if I could learn it, anyone could. It is always very touching that they are willing to believe what we say. She stayed.

During the last class I asked each person to tell us what T’ai Chi Chih had meant to them. This is the story our shy lady shared.

Her mother is an elderly woman and is now in a nursing home. She intended that her mother live with her until the end, but with her mother’s special medical problems, that was not to be possible. Watching her mother decline more and more each day became very depressing, until the feeling became a way of life. She started to take T’ai Chi Chih. Each class began to make her feel that something was happening, not on the outside, but on the inside. Then, about six weeks into the class, one morning she woke up and knew that she was going to be OK. The depression was gone.

Her mother’s condition has not improved, but hers has, and now when she visits her mother, she knows that things are OK. She ended her story with a shy smile, and said, “I’m glad I stayed with this. It sure has made a difference.”

As T’ai Chi Chih Teachers, we hear stories like this one all the time. The theme is the same: “T’ai Chi Chih has made a big difference in my life.” Justin has sometimes said, “Perhaps, some day, if enough people do T’ai Chi Chih, we will see a difference in the world.” As T’ai Chi Chih Teachers, I think that our answer to Justin is, “Not some day; it is happening NOW.”

Many, many thanks to all of you, who because you have been touched by T’ai Chi Chih, reach out to share with others.