T’ai Chi Situations

After reading Justin’s message…”Please be willing to share by contributing your writing to the Vital Force (June 1990 edition), it gave me a boost and perhaps the courage I needed to share what I call “T’ai Chi Chih situations.”

1) One evening we had to call 911 because our chronically mentally ill daughter looked like a limp ragdoll who could only grunt and had a fixed trance-like look on her extremely pale face. After riding in the ambulance with her to our local hospital, the paramedics asked me to stay in the emergency room with her so she wouldn’t be frightened and to help keep her calm. As the hours progressed she rested, was tested and monitored, and I did T’ai Chi Chih. As I was doing “Daughter on the Mountain Top” someone poked her head through the curtain around the bed where my daughter was sleeping and said to me…”What are you doing?”

“Practicing T’ai Chi Chih.” I said.

“Oh, we thought you were doing some secret ritual or something.”

2) Doing all the movements one or two times a day helped me to spend several hours with an extremely difficult relative who was staying at the same inn I was staying at while attending my son’s university graduation.

3) My husband enjoys eating out often, particularly at steak houses. Whenever I can’t sleep at night because I ate too much and/or ate too close to bedtime, doing several of the movements helps my digestion and helps me get to sleep.

4) After waiting one-two hours at the emergency room for my husband to be seen for something minor, I slipped outside to do T’ai Chi Chih. A passerby said, “T’ai Chi?”… I nodded, smiled, and kept moving.

I’m sure we’ve all had T’ai Chi Chih situations and there are more to come. However, I am thankful for the knowledge that doing T’ai Chi Chih can help me cope with difficult situations over which I have little or no control.

Dear Justin, thank you again for T’ai Chi Chih.

Sincerely,

– Vicki Michele Brodie
Burlingame, CA