Teacher Letter: Lynne Blackford

Dear Justin,

Well, this letter is much later than I had planned to write to you. My intention was to write immediately following the conference when my thoughts were fresh. I will do my best to express now what I wanted to then.

First, I was/am so grateful for the conference, it was just what I needed in the way of encouragement, support, clarity, information…I could go on. After all, it had been 9 months since I had received my accreditation and within that 9 months I moved to Montana and felt totally isolated from any form of contact with T’ai Chi Chih. Of course, I felt totally isolated from the rest of the world too. It was cultural shock when we moved here, arriving four hours prior to the Alaska storm hitting Missoula. Temperatures dropped to 40 below with the wind-chill of 75 below. For an L.A. native the change was…well, need I say more, it was beyond words.

I honestly must say that I went thru times when I didn’t do T’ai Chi Chih daily, I was in a space of feeling I “should” do it and not from a deep desire: unfortunately, my depression overrode the desire for T’ai Chi Chih. Mind you, I did enjoy it immensely when I was doing it, and have many fond memories of blessing the world with T’ai Chi Chih while visiting Hawaii, Washington, Colorado, and most recently Idaho (which I will share a special story on later).

Now, T’ai Chi Chih is my life, it just took some sifting thru some strong feelings during my transition. I do realize that T’ai Chi Chih was the best thing for me during so many changes, however, I also recognize how we as humans choose to let go of that which is often the best for us.

I started my first T’ai Chi Chih class in April this year (1989) at the Unity Church of Missoula, where my husband is the minister. It was wonderful sharing this joyful movement with the loving people who were so anxious to learn. It was a large group of 30! I immediately called Corinn and said…”what do I do?” Don’t worry just do the best you can. Oh, yes…that’s all that is expected of me isn’t it. I did just that and I was blessed to gain so much confidence from my first teaching experience.

I also participated in a few workshops my husband held at some beautiful retreat sites in Montana and Idaho. Everyone is so open and receptive to T’ai Chi Chih; it has been such an incredible gift for me to experience the joy of giving and of course, the inner sincerity from which I am giving is a gift in itself. I recall what Steve said at conference–“immerse yourself in T’ai Chi Chih and every good thing will come to you.”

I am now teaching another class at a dance studio here in town allowing me to branch out into the community. I have 6 students (quite a change from the 30 in my first class) who are extremely anxious to learn and are interested in everything they can get their hands on to deepen their knowledge of T’ai Chi Chih. Of course, I remind them to practice, practice, practice.

Via the flyers I posted around town, I received a call from The Sports Fitness Center (a quite large and beautiful new center here) asking me if I’d be interested in participating in their Wellness Program beginning in January ’90. “You bet!” I said, and quickly provided them with the appropriate information. They are setting this program up on a seasonal basis, providing the promo materials, space, etc. They are also offering Aikido–two complementary courses, don’t you agree? I’m excited and that really motivated me to send off several proposals to the Community Hospital, St. Patrick’s Hospital, The Women’s Club, and the University of Montana.

I knew upon return from the conference I would be recharged to shout it out to the world. I share with you the following personal affirmation I wrote while at the conference: “I commit myself to daily T’ai Chi Chih and to being confident and peaceful in my presentation and teaching of T’ai Chi Chih. My purpose is to expand T’ai Chi Chih so people will be doing T’ai Chi Chih daily for their individual joy and peace and, encouraging future teachers.”

One Sunday last month during our church service, I did T’ai Chi Chih while my husband spoke the meditation. It was wonderful for both of us; the powerful feelings we each experienced in our oneness of giving and receiving. We received many comments: “I didn’t think I’d enjoy the meditation but I would open and close my eyes and the energy was powerful”; “it was beautiful to feel the energy as you shared the meditation time in such a powerful way with your husband”; and “when is your next T’ai Chi Chih class.” Even some of my students got up and joined me as they did the movements in the aisle. That I didn’t expect and was an added joy.

I mentioned I was going to share a story from an experience in Idaho. I do realize this letter is quite long, but I do think you will enjoy it.

My husband and I attended a Unity Church regional conference in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, at a beautiful resort on the lake. This resort has a floating boardwalk known to be the longest in the world. Anyway, I decided to expand my T’ai Chi Chih practice by allowing myself to do more T’ai Chi Chih in public (this became clear to me at our T’ai Chi Chih conference) so I asked my husband to join me outside somewhere on the boardwalk. We found a perfect place where we wouldn’t be run over by the joggers near the yacht harbor. By the way, my husband shared this story with our congregation.

He explained: “T’ai Chi Chih is very graceful and that it was designed to be a centering technique, in other words, joy and peace thru movement. The eyes are opened and it’s a letting go of the world thru movement and a return to center, which is a wonderful metaphor. It’s a wonderful example of what we’re here on this earth for. To be walking in this earth, being about this earth and not shutting people out because we’ve got to keep our mind on God, but being centered in God so that we’re completely aware of everything about us. The reality of us; that you and I are more than just bodies, more than personalities.”

As we found a place, there were people walking around and my husband said he didn’t want to do it and I said, “Oh, come on…if the joggers can do it we can.” I was persistent, we had gone thru this once before and he won, this time I was going to win. He later shared with me that he was even trying to dig up scripture as to why we shouldn’t do it, i.e. Jesus said, ‘when you go to pray, shut the door’. So, his mind shifted into “okay, I’ll do it just to prove you wrong. You’ll see when people come up and we both feel totally uncomfortable we won’t get centered at all because we’re dealing with all these people around.”

So we started to do our T’ai Chi Chih and the first couple came near us and he said he held his breath…and he went……: within. And, the next couple came by and he held his breath again…and went, within. 15 minutes into this experience and he said he was so centered. He discovered a whole new realm of this “joy thru movement.” As more people started to walk by he felt them as birds passing by as he was doing his (inner) work. He said: “I thought of Jesus and of beggars because if there’s one thing in this world I’m afraid to be it’s a beggar. To walk around and come up to people to say I have nothing can you give something to me. I thought, what a wonderful consciousness. Because the only place I had to be safe was within, and as I went within, then the world became my friend.” He had to let go. He was afraid that people would come up to him and laugh, saying “can you believe this, look at this idiot.” But that wasn’t what happened at all. It was “serenity in the midst of activity” in its purest sense.

Well, Justin, you asked me to write you and I have abundantly.

Blessings of Peace, Love, Light,

– Lynne Blackford
Missoula, MT