TCC & Community

“We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.” – Dorothy Day

Tai Chi Chih becomes many things to those of us who practice regularly. It gives us joy, peace, calm, focus, grace, fluidity. The list is long, and the words appearing on the list are unique to each person. For all of us, though, they include words of gratitude, and here I offer one more: community. It’s heard less often but it’s important wherever it finds roots and wings.

In simpler times, it was easy to find and be part of a community. On farms and in small towns, before there were telephones and cars and paved roads, one relied on family and neighbors and church congregations. Individuals in community supported, comforted and consoled one another in times of need and crisis. In contrast, most of us now live in urban environments where anonymity is commonplace. Knowing neighbors and being an active member of one or more communities is no longer a given. Almost everyone has friends. Not everyone has community.

Fortunate as I am to have both friends and communities, I still count myself blessed to have a longstanding TCC practice community. We are together two times each week (with Lisa Otero). New people come into the group; all are welcome; some stay, some don’t. But a core group has stayed year after year. We continue to learn and to grow our TCC skills, gaining new insights and occasionally making breakthroughs. To suddenly understand some aspect of the practice that had been elusive seems almost magical. Of course, those breakthroughs, the wings of our practice, are not magic. They occur under a gentle but firm insistence that we practice mindfully. And we come together at least once a year with others in Ventura County, so we are part of a larger TCC community.

We are young and old, alike and different. What matters is that we care about our practice and each other. We are members of a TCC community.