Teacher Letter: Christeen Curran

T’ai Chi Chih has been moving through very heavy, hot air in Fargo, North Dakota this month! Our classes are going strong regardless of the drought and heat. The students light-heartedly visualize moving through very heavy hot air as moving through very heavy, cool air! Humor and sharing of the joy spread as we learn and grow together.

One particular movement was causing the evening class students some frustration–Perpetual Motion Taffy. Initially, with the ease and grace this movement portrays, the group wanted to do it all at once–combining the arm and leg movements–rather than practice the leg movements first, then the arm movements. Thus we did. Frustration won and students stopped in despair; faces in scowls, or breaking into peels of laughter with the tangledness of self.

Remembering what Teen had said about the Taffies in the VITAL FORCE a couple of years ago, I stated that the Taffies can be pretty sticky stuff. Especially if one begins to think too hard on the movement. The balance of mind/flow is the key. So, we took the movement apart and began again with immense success. The students still felt awkward and acknowledged this as we started and stopped in Perpetual Motion.

During all these learning steps the suggestion of videotaping before, during, and after came up–which led to the inspiration of doing a videotape titled “T’ai Chi Bloopers”! The entire class hooted with laughter (we were all still doing the movements when this discussion transpired) and amazingly after this comment, the whole group smoothly and effortlessly flowed with Perpetual Motion. One student, Dale Carrier, a counselor, commented that often times all it takes is a little finger-pointing in our shame-based culture, and then change can occur. The class chuckled, yet the hint of a truth we all encounter had been named.

That same evening of class in the atrium garden, we watched two baby robins watch us do T’ai Chi Chih while we watched them trying to scale the high wall surrounding the garden, bouncing literally off the wall, which further added to our lofty and meaningful experience. The bird audience: robins, sparrows, crows had sung while we practiced. It was of interest to us that initially the sparrows had seemed to be tending the baby robins until the mother robin revealed herself to us.

We enjoyed the nature scene while the birds observed our efforts in learning Perpetual Motion. During all of this, we each continued with the perpetual movement of life. Regardless of the species, it is found that life does get a bit sticky at times, and throughout it all humor and mutual support can be maintained.

– Christeen Curran
June 1988