Tai Chi and Me

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.

The Graduate

Here we are in the usual graduate photo of the honoree and his paternal grandparents, But, Wait! There were many more grandparents making up this amazing village that reared this amazing young man.

Diego had this special suit made for him for his graduation from Bard College on Saturday. He had his claque sitting for hours in the tent waiting for that glimpse of him making his way across the stage and flicking his tassel as he received his diploma.

Truly, it was a great two day celebration for this boy, youth, young man we have all loved and nurtured for almost 22 years.

This Diego was my first grandchild, and for that reason and for so many others, he was first under my heart. I have no doubt that he'll make his way and change a part of life on this earth.

There we all were- the family of parents, siblings, half siblings, in-laws, ex-laws, outlaws, godparents, aunties, uncles, cousins, friends, lovers, and everyone else. We were there to celebrate. And of course we did.

The party food was spectacular. The Puerto Rican and Spanish contingent provided much of the food (to die for!), people made cakes and desserts and fried cod fritters and heaps of salads and quiches and everything else one could imagine.

The weather in upstate NY where we gathered was a perfect clear bright blue, the little kids danced on the lawn, the recent graduates were polite to their parents, and everyone was glad to see each other, despite the history that would make some families cringe.

It was a real nice picnic and we're very glad we came..

Back in the Garden

Here are Wilson Blount and Andrew digging potatoes today. We filled two five gallon pails with the spuds - enough for every child to take home enough potatoes for a meal. Everyone, kids and adults, love this potato harvest when we find such treasure underground. Our hands are black with dirt and we exclaim about every worm we find in this good soil.

It was so hot today, but no one complained. We removed many spent broccolis and gone to seed lettuces and the collards that were riddled with holes from the caterpillars. We examined the one tomato horn worm we found on a pepper plant. It was HUGE and I wanted to squash it, but it was taken away to the side of the woods.

There are still a few rows of beans about to produce and a full bed of cabbage, summer peas, peppers, okra, and the cheerful flowers along the walkway.

I love this companionable time with interested kids in the garden. I have no need to shoot out the teacher energy to get them on track. There is enough time to examine everything and we don't mind that some kids are sorting through worms, catching insects, washing the potato harvest. They are not thinking about what plants need to be removed to the compost or what cover crops we should plant for the summer. They are doing what kids should do. I celebrate this.

This is the best of the best!

What I love!

I'm back! I tried Tumblr and it was so gadgety and complex I couldn't spend the time navigating it.

I still find that I want to write about this paradise where I live, and I hope this site will still accept me.

Tonight we are having thunderstorms, most appreciated in the usual spring droughts. I always thank the gods of rain when I do not have to water the gardens for a day or two.

I am not about writing of fashion or aging any more. Tried those, but it's not me.

Today my spouse was not here. When I went outside I noticed that one of our traps had an enormous opossum, and so it was up to me to dispatch him. I chunked the 'have a heart'cage' into the trunk of my car and drove it out several miles close to the state lands where I intended to let him go.

This opossum would NOT go out of the trap! Here we are together in a vast field, and I, this 75 year old woman in shorts and flowered gardening gloves is trying to get him to please turn around and skedaddle. This is a BIG opossum and he is spitting and drooling and hissing and I think he would bite me if I gave him half a chance and I am thinking rabies and stitches and god knows what else.  So, I walk back to the edge of the pasture where I think I could find a sturdy stick. When I return the opossum is still there in the trap and the door is still open. These critters must have very small minds.

Plan B is to poke him from the rear.  The elicits just more snarling and hissing but he doesn't turn around. I turn the trap on its side so that he won't activate the door. But he leans against the activator pad so I must keep on releasing the door anyway. Finally, I realize that this animal is out to thwart me so I just jam the stick into the release mechanism to keep the door open. I leave the trap and the opossum in the middle of the field. I have other plans for the day.

Later, when I went out to retrieve the trap, it was empty.

So often, I think about what an unusual life I lead here in Green Swamp West. A day that includes critter release, so many bird sightings, deer everywhere, and, tonight, millions of fireflies in the palmettos gives me inordinate pleasure.