This was a lovely post to read. When we practise Tai Chi outside, our more urban version of this is having local dogs and squirrels join us. There was also a persistent wasp, but we didn't interrupt practise, and he didn't sting.
Find your centre in any hurricane.
I sat on a bench last night with my Tai Chi teacher after class, to ask his guidance about developing my training. He asked what I wanted from it. For me, it is about further personal and spiritual development, to increase my vitality, energy, to work with qigong, which we always do prior to tai chi, unblocking chi. To explore experientially what I know from clinical psychology and this non-Western practise, aligned with Traditional Chinese Medicine.
I laughed at my known impatience to progress, he did too. He won't let me rush at anything, there is balance in everything (which is hard when I get my teeth into anything). As I know in a different way from recovery, there are no short cuts, there is daily practise and intention and it will go how it does...but it does go. The internal arts, or intrapsychic work, however you get at it, has its own clock: the kairos to the chronos.
He's thoughtful, then allows me one more class a week.
These are whole life, whole person lessons.That is always what I'm looking for: evolution, to be my best self, to not let past things hold me back...they do less and less these days. I've worked hard on myself over the years so I can best help others. I'm content and often, I'm happy. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or Compassion Focussed Therapy, will tell us all that we are many emotional states always, different days, different things; happiness is just one of them. This is life. We get to happiness by focussing on all else that is meaningful, not by focusing on happiness alone. I follow my meaningful like a bloodhound.
Always learning. There is a whole world's worth of things to know out there 🌏🗺️
*The photo is of Cheng Man-ch'ing or Zheng Manqing. He was a notable Chinese expert of t'ai chi ch'uan, Chinese medicine, and the so called three perfections: calligraphy, painting and poetry. He was born in Yongjia, Zhejiang Province, Republic of China (b.1902- d.1975).