About a year ago I decided to try Tai Chi. I had no real idea what this ancient form of martial arts was, but I had seen dozens of folks in a park in San Francisco a few years earlier and they looked so peaceful and balletic all practicing their moves in unison. I knew then that I wanted to do this too.
I had seen the sign for Tai Chi in a Karate studio along a route I often take on my daily rounds so I stopped in to sign up for a twice weekly class that met at a convenient time. I paid for three months of classes, bought a black Tai Chi tee shirt, found an old pair of soft and baggy black pants, and I was ready!
The Tai Chi master, Ms. Linda, a champion black belt, gave me a print out of instructions, really nothing but a list of all the 109 moves. Yikes!
There is a red square in the middle of the rubber floor of the studio, and that is where Ms. Linda placed me. I was surrounded by men and women who were so far beyond my competence! No one ever coached me in how to do all the moves. I just have to watch others carefully. It took weeks before I knew when and how to bow in and out!
When I decide to do something, I don't dabble. I commit. For Tai Chi I committed to going to each class unless there was a real reason.
I began to see what great exercise this is for the mind and body and breath. Unlike Yoga, one doesn't have to be nose to a mat. It's all upright with deep knee bends, plies and stretching. Before Tai Chi I had thought that I might be a candidate for a hip replacement, and now I can't remember which hip it was!
In Tai Chi there is no competition, just friendly silence and the sounds of all of us breathing deeply. We have no mission to find out about each other, though from time to time, the back stories appear. As in so much else of the life we lead here, the people are of all colors, ages, walks of life. I glean that the Tai Chi people are pilots, doctors, quilt makers, ranchers, snowbirds..
At the end of my first year, I received my first 'belt'-white. It will take many more months to get my blue belt. But who knows?
In the class we do a couple of the whole Tai Chi rounds. In between, the people who do swords and fans do that. After many months I decided to participate in the sword forms and so I bought a beautiful wooden sword and I fling myself and my sword around, hoping that I will not decapitate anyone nearby. People are patient.
What about all those 109 moves? Well, it gets easier. I still watch Ms. Linda, and mostly I can anticipate what is coming next. Sometimes it seems graceful and seamless to me. While doing this I only think of breathing. It will be awhile before I could lead the class, but I know that might be never. It is not a competition.
I have a wonderful wooden sword and I am working to perfect the sword forms one and two. Doing this is good for my arthritic wrists, not to mention my concentration! Using a sword also addresses my basic ten year old boy self. I think I will never be able to wield two swords at once as some of the others do. But today I received a beautiful red silk fan that someday I might be able to wield in that graceful Tai Chi fan dance. I will practice opening it, slapping it shut, throwing it in the air and catching it. And then, I will be ready to be a newbie in fans.
Tai Chi is so ancient, and yet so appropriate for today. It is the opposite of the digital world. Everything there is quiet and so relaxed. We are in the moment, and that is quite delightful.
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