Way to Go – Ode to April

PULL QUOTE: TCC induces in us a feeling of well-being that we usually associate with vacation getaways

My husband and I have our exercise routine, as predictable as the sunrise. On Mondays and Wednesdays, we rise at 5:30 and head for the Y, where we walk, bike, lift and swim, in that order. Then home to breakfast, feeling smug as we pass sleepy drivers heading to work. On other days, we take long walks in a nearby state park.

About a year ago, we decided to add a group activity. We tried Movin’ to Motown, Chair Yoga, Total Body Workout. Nothing “took.” Then we happened into April Leffler’s T’ai Chi Chih class. After one session, we were hooked. We’ve been regulars ever since. We tried to analyze what about TCC drew us in from day one.

We are not young. The idea of a moving meditation emphasizing “the effort of no effort” is obviously appealing to people of a certain age. I’m convinced, too, that the evocative language of the movements is designed to put students at ease and to make them dream. All those references to nature: passing clouds, distant stars, bubbling springs, mountains and valleys, earth and sky.

Even Pulling Taffy is associated with the ocean, since salt water taffy is a specialty of the New Jersey coastal towns where we often vacation. April compares the arm movement of Pulling Taffy to tossing a frisbee, a favorite beach activity. For us, the name Anchor Taffy evokes pleasurecrafts moored offshore, dancing on the waves. As for Working the Pulley (the only time work is referred to in our routine), we are asked to imagine swimming through very heavy air – swimming at the humid, salt-infused air of the seashore. Bird Flaps its Wings brings to mind seagulls beating their wings as they jockey for position to sweep up our funnel cake crumbs. And all those balls we carry from side-to-side, dropping and picking up … where but the beach do you see so many balls?

Even the movements that do not evoke nature have pleasant connotations for us. Platters suggest elegant dinner parties with butlered hors d’œuvres; bass drums evoke marching bands and Fourth of July parades.

At the beginning of each session, April encourages us to bring our attention into the room, to be here now. Are we in conformity with this injunction when we let our minds travel to mountains and seasides, to parties and parades? We think so.

Because we’re usually successful at obeying the command to leave our to-do list at the door, and because we’re getting better at dropping our attention to the soles of our feet, we allow our minds to be occupied with pleasant images as our bodies are relaxing, gliding, shifting, softening, feeling, moving as rhythmically as the ocean, with its endless ebb and flow.

We may not yet have absorbed the philosophical concepts behind the practice. Nor is our meditation on the connection between TCC and the evolving universe as profound as that of others. What we do know is that TCC induces in us a feeling of well-being that we usually associate with vacation getaways. And for that we are grateful not only to Justin Stone, who originated the practice, but to our skilled teacher, April Leffler.

That gentle giant who lifts us up by the waist in several of the moves, where we’re expected to raise our heels from the ground, not always easy for the somewhat unsteady seniors that we’ve become? It’s April, a giant in our eyes, endlessly creative, evocative, soothing and encouraging. She punctuates her class with compliments (excellent … wunderbar … fantastique … you guys are great), corrects students kindly and without singling them out, and has so many variations on the routine that we never become bored.

How do you do it, I asked April after a recent class. Always unassuming, she took no personal credit for her stellar teaching. “It’s the Chi,” she replied.

As Above, So Below

walk

dogs bark,

highway noise.

soft vibrations,

sun shines

ommm

breathe in.

black panels

shine in shine out.

energy

revealed.

breathe

– Rorie Measure