The Lighter Side (April 2003)

1. I have been a T’ai Chi Chih student for a year now and I am lucky to have a chi goddess for a teacher. I’d want to share a funny experience.

Just this morning, I had a friendly visit with my dentist. As he was having fun drilling and filling two cavities of mine, I was trying to block everything that was happening around me (from the numbness of my gums to the goosebumps from the drilling) and I had my eyes closed. This went on for about half an hour when my dentist asked me if I was sleeping on him. I told him no, that I was just focusing on the soles of my feet. He stared at me kind of weird like I was crazy. Little did he know he was “sort of” right because I am really “T’ai Chi Chih” crazy.

– Pilar Triggs
Student of Athene Mantle

2. One evening at the home of our instructor, Donna McElhose, several of us were sitting around her dining room table going over our notes and talking about [a recent] Workshop. Donna had given us a special gift for helping with the Workshop. One of the students thanked her from the bottom of his heart.

Whereupon one of the other students replied, “Thank you from the soles of my feet.”

Then everyone chorused, “Thank you from the soles of our feet.”

Now we have a very special “thank you” to offer to anyone involved in T’ai Chi Chih Joy Thru Movement.

– Bobbie Weichman
Student of Donna McElhose

4. One night I gave a TCC presentation after I finished teaching karate. Earlier that day I practiced the presentation many times in front of a mirror, and I could really start to feel the buildup of chi.

Knowing that part of a presentation is to talk about my own personal experience, I asked one of my students, Eric, to stick around after karate class to help me out.

First, I wanted to show the group how 20 years of fast, hard karate moves had taken a toll on my body, how I had cooked up a recipe for chronic pain. And second, how the soft, slow, TCC form, for me, was the antidote for this pain.

When I demonstrated the karate technique on Eric, I was surprised at my explosive speed. I didn’t strike any harder, but I did move faster. And I realized it was because I was much more relaxed due to the build up of chi.

After the presentation, Eric asked me: “Sensei (teacher), does your foot hurt?”

“No,” I said, “why?”

“Well,” he said grinning sheepishly, “because you just split my groin cup into three pieces!” *

* The first and only time that has ever happened in all my years of teaching karate!

P.S. By the way, he was OK!

– Sharon Sirkis