More than Valentine’s bouquets

In Willingdon, Alberta, Canada, it was Valentine’s Day and I received two awesome bouquets from my students. At the beginning of the second lesson, I was asking how the practice had gone in the first week. One student apologized for speaking about such things, but had to mention that a long-standing kidney problem was suddenly absent. Two surgeries had been done and countless medications with no result before her first Tai Chi Chih class. I asked if anything else had differed in her routine this week and she said no. She felt it had to be the Tai Chi Chih practice.

Later in the class another student (a mother of 10- and 12-year-old boys) said that what she found most worthwhile about doing Tai Chi Chih was that it gave her time to spend with herself. Even in the class she said she was with us only physically for most of the time she was moving.

The group is tiny but so very enthusiastic and open. I am so grateful to be involved with them and, of course, with Tai Chi Chih. The first lady’s comment somehow echoes that of another student who said the practice made her menstrual cycle regular for the first time in her adult life. The healing possibilities of the form are so very exciting, especially because they are — for me at this point anyway – so difficult to predict.

With gratitude and everlasting thanks to Justin Stone.