Shared Thoughts

My belated kudos and gigantic thank you to Sandy and the other coordinators for my best training experience (last year at our delightful annual teacher conference in Nebraska) since my accreditation. I have been enjoying improvements in my own practice and sharing my explanatory notes of “why” along with “what to” and “how to” move, especially with my advanced class. I know that teaching requires us to find the most suitable approach to presenting a subject. Because I learn best when I understand some background “why,” I find it my best way to teach. The 2009 conference was most beneficial in that respect.

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After six years teaching T’ai Chi Chih at my suburban community center, I have recently added an intermediate class and now an advanced class. Occasionally, someone in the basic class comments that the previous (intermediate) students seem to float out. They ask what they’ve been on. It will be interesting to see if we attract and retain enough students for all three levels.

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I just returned from doing a TCC demo for my neighborhood library staff for their meeting on stress relief. Because of a recent break-in, they seemed very receptive and pleased to learn about and to do TCC. I shared a story that people urge me to tell newbies, one that Michael Isaacs wrote about in a Vital Force after I told him of some of the places I do TCC. When I set off alarms at airport security, guards ask me to go back through. I respond, “Don’t bother, I have two ‘titanic’ hips.” So I’m sent to the corner and laboriously “wanded” head-to-toe. Then I’m patted all over, up one side of my leg, down the other. Just when I’m ready to explode, I’m released. I gather my belongings and immediately find a spot to do my whole TCC practice. Within two to three minutes, a blanket of calm covers me and I’m completely relaxed. (Of course, I’m quite animated and then laid back as I relate this story, which emphasizes the effect of TCC.)

Even when I don’t set off alarms, I always plan to practice TCC at the airport. When people wonder if others stare at me, I’m fairly oblivious. I practice in many public places when I get agitated, bored, or just feel like it. Last week in a doctor’s office someone watched and inquired about what I was doing. Ask me later if Pricilla joined my class.

∞ ∞ ∞

Jan

Block and

Justin Stone

celebrate our

birthdays with

joyous

love

tan

t’ien

how life moves

from and around

you as t’ai

chi chih

flows

I

can’t think

so go to

sleep; arise quite

bright as new

daylight

breaks