The Rushing Stream and the Falling Tears

I had a deeply powerful experience while camping alone on Morgan Hill on April 2nd. I had just completed my third T’ai Chi Chih class from instructor Ralph Garn. I spent the night alone in a tiny tent in a snowstorm and got up in the morning and walked out into the snowy forest. Heading toward the rising sun, approximately east, I followed old grown-over logging trails, walking quietly through the soft snow, taking whatever trails appealed to me. I discovered fresh wild turkey tracks and looked up to see the turkeys hunched and hustling into the cover of spruces heavily laden with snow. Deer stood alert and watched me pass. The storm dwindled and the sun came out warm and bright, and very quickly, the new snow on the southern slopes began to melt.

On a steep hillside, I came to a deep fast-moving stream that crashed and plummeted down over shale in small flumes and miniature waterfalls. The old trail I followed along the north bank of the stream’s sharp ravine took a sudden turn to the north, flattening out into a perfect little platform in the center of the forest, right beside the rushing stream. The sun, flowing through an opening in the trees, had not only melted all the snow on this little spot, but had dried and warmed the spot.

I decided it was a perfect place to do T’ai Chi Chih. I took off my backpack, coat and fleece, stood facing the sun, and began doing the movements I had been learning in class. I decided to do 18 sets of each movement, and I felt the need to bow after each set on each side. As I did my T’ai Chi Chih movements, I became very aware of the sun gifting me with its warmth and energy and the stream gifting me with its music and its source of water and the earth gifting me with its stability and strength and all of nature and the life around me gifting me with sustenance: air to breathe, food to eat. I continued doing the movements as my heart became fuller and fuller with a feeling of joy and connectedness until my eyes overflowed and tears streamed down my face. Energy flowed through the forest and into my being. During the entire course of T’ai Chi Chih, I continued to cry and cry, tears of pure and utter joy.

Ralph Garn, teacher from Syracuse, NY, shared his student’s story with Justin, who in turn shares it with us.