Last week subzero wind chills convinced me to stay home from Tai Chi. This week my Tai Chi lesson began as soon as I stepped out the door. The predicted snow that we didn’t get last night evidently was instead light rain. A thin coating of ice covered the sidewalks. I had a hard time getting traction to walk the half mile to the bus. So, I lowered my center of gravity—which is a lesson that Bob, our Tai Chi instructor, has harped on for years—and barely raised me feet off the ground as I walked, a type of skating movement. Years ago I took a class on Ba Gua Zhang from Bob which used that same movement. It worked; I didn’t have an issue with slipping when I stayed focused on the movement.
The actual Tai Chi was very helpful too, as always. We again focused our attention on different things as we did the form: neck and shoulders, arm and leg joints, ligaments, shifting weight from leg to leg, the fullness of each posture, and staying in sync with the participants around us. I realized I don’t have a lot of sense of my ligaments. The tightness in my neck and shoulders are my bane. Sometimes when I focus on them they relax. Other times they seem to be giving me the raspberries: “Yeah, you just make us relax. Na, Na.” Anyway, I have enough old and new things to keep me busy in practice this week.
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