Pyramid Poems and Classroom Laughs

teacher

that you are

thanks for being

joyfully

with us

here

– Dianne Moody

i’m

trustin’

in justin

to keep us in

the circles

not in

trance

– Jim Shorr

man

of all

seasons he

full of chi grace

solid in

the knees

wise

– Jim Shorr

truth

can be

found within

why do we spend

so much time

searching?

be

– Judy

he

who loves

lives in the

heart of someone

else even

after

death

– Sana Masood

walk

around

looking down

weedy circles

going round

broke my

heart

– Cynthia

what

happened

broken winged

butterfly on

the graveled

circle

gone

– Nancy Little

the

hardest

thing of all

is letting go

of the past

to stay

now

– Maggie Smith

not

this way

not like that

netti netti

soft moves flow

come to

this

– Rhonda St Martin

I

do not

know which way

darkness surrounds

T’ai Chi Chih

lights the

way

– Dan Pienciak

1. At the end of T’ai Chi Chih class at the MS DayGroup, I said, “Feel into your body, see if there’s anything you need, such as stretching your body slightly.” Jai said, “I need some liquor.” Everyone laughed, including me, as I said, “I’ve been teaching since 1997 and I’ve never heard that request before. Great joke.” And Doug, another class member, promptly replied, “How do you know she’s joking?”

2. Margie was the substitute coordinator the day that I taught TCC at the MS DayGroup. She was impressed at how I was able to teach through the many interruptions and distractions, such as the door opening many times and the phone ringing off the hook. At the end of class, she said, “You are an excellent teacher, Sharon,” and without missing a beat, a gal named Sharon in the group jumped right in and said, “Why thank you very much.”

3. At the end of TCC class at the retirement home, I asked Syd, “Do you want to say anything?” And she said, “Can I take you to bed with me?”

4. As I was teaching the waist turn in seated TCC, I mentioned how you could shift your weight onto the butt cheeks – first one side, then the other. Ruth, a resident at the retirement home, said joyfully, “Oh, I see, we are dancing cheek to cheek.”

5. A huge double-sided billboard in front of Bon Secours Spiritual Center in MD, advertised my TCC workshop along with another workshop given by someone else. One side of the billboard said T’ai Chi Chih. The other workshop was “God is Trying to Tell You Something: Receiving a Vision for Your Life’s Mission.” However, there was only room on the billboard for “God is Trying to Tell you Something.” I had a good laugh as I read both sides of the billboard and thought, yeah, God is trying to tell you something, take T’ai Chi Chih.

– FROM SHARON SIRKIS, COLUMBIA, MD