Plan It & They Will Come

TCC Retreat in Estes Park, Colorado, October 2014
By Marie Dotts, Loveland, Colorado

In the movie, Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner hears a voice that whispers, “If you build it, he will come.” This voice inspired him to build a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield. It is a great movie. If you have not seen it, I recommend it. We know as T’ai Chi Chih practitioners that the voice is prajna, the wisdom of the Chi. It is that voice that kept telling me after only teaching six months in Northern Colorado to plan a TCC Retreat. The voice kept saying, “If you plan it, they will come.” And they did. Seventeen students and three Denver-area teachers attended. It was truly gratifying to see my students from surrounding communities come together for the first time united by their love of TCC and their desire to deepen their practice. I felt like I was witnessing a birth, a birth of a new TCC community. Pam Towne’s grounding presence from 30 years of practice held the perfect space for the birth. I am deeply grateful for the field Pam created.

What did students share most from the experience? They did not expect to find family and community. They felt a gentleness and a sense of safety that allowed them to be themselves. For some it was the first time they experienced this in a group. I am reminded of Sandy McAlister’s words from her December 2014 newsletter:

“When we come together titles, personalities, life experiences, accomplishments, and social and economic status fall away and we accept each other where we are, right then and there. We are interacting with each other in the present moment. Doing T’ai Chi Chih helps protective barriers and cultural imprinting dissolve and a more real, unencumbered person emerges. … Could it be that when we do T’ai Chi Chih, to varying degrees, our worldly persona, defenses, and ego melt away and our true nature shines through and this is what attracts us to each other? We are not ignorant of each others faults, but we see the beauty of each other and it seems we become less judgmental from practicing T’ai Chi Chih.”

A strong desire to nurture and support the growing community arose. We spent an evening sharing ideas about how best to do this, including:

1.) 100 days of Love Energy – Nov 7th to Feb 14th
A Community Commitment to 100 days of TCC
Starting and maintaining a daily practice is still difficult for many – even with a love of TCC. The gift of community is that we can support one another in this journey. One participant shared that the key to making a commitment was making it doable, kind and inspiring. Her minimum commitment was to do Rocking Motion. That minimum commitment will be different for everyone.

2.) Community On-going Connection
It was clear that the students wanted to stay connected. Some people use Facebook and some only use email. To be flexible and inclusive we decided to create both a Yahoo group for practitioners of TCC in Northern Colorado and a Facebook page. In the Yahoo group students can share their joys, inspirations, successes, frustrations or difficulties with their practice.

3.) Social Gatherings
No one wanted to wait until the next retreat or event to see each other. It was clear that group practices needed to be planned on a regular basis where we come together to practice TCC and have a chance to socially connect and celebrate. Location and responsibility for these gatherings could alternate between the neighboring communities.

As a teacher, I find there is no greater joy than seeing a student’s heart light up with their love of TCC. I know that as they light up with love for TCC they are lighting up with love of their own essence or the truth of who and what they are. They are one in the same. It is why I teach. To see a community ablaze with this love is a joy my heart is still stretching to receive. Thank you, Justin.

“I found a sense of serenity that I’d been grasping for. It can’t be created through physical or mental effort. Instead I need to allow the space for becoming still enough to find it. I wasn’t expecting to find community, but that showed up in exactly the same way.” – Lisa Stroyan

“I was overwhelmed at the very first session; I felt I had come home – in spirit and with a new family. A year ago I didn’t believe I could ever genuinely feel my own joy again. Thank you for the joy in motion.” – Rebecca Paulson