Unique Times

Good Morning my Friends,

As I’m writing this morning there is a light rain which isn’t much but the first mist we’ve gotten for quite some time so I’m thrilled. Especially since we are having our daughters welcome party for her wedding here in just 7 weeks and everything is dry as a bone.

I’ve studied Tai Chi for the past 15 years and I love it. It is a place where I find inner resources to ground and root which is needed more than ever these days. Living in a construction zone, prepping for a wedding, revamping our yard (I haven’t told you about that… yet 😱) and getting ready to start the other side of the house in a couple of weeks while continuing to work has been nothing short of hair raising, especially with the mistakes that keep continuing daily.

Tai Chi, yoga, meditation, walking, writing and hanging with my 4 legged furry friends is my sanity.

Our friend Dawn wrote an amazing piece on Tai Chi recently which I highly recommend. Take a peek here if you get a chance.

I was really excited to share my private training session with Grandmaster William Chen when I was in New York a few years ago but sadly I may have lost the article I wrote when I switched from Constant Contact to Mailchimp. I’ll keep looking for it however. I study Yang Style Short form and he is a legend in the world of Tai Chi. I’m looking forward to returning sometime this next year to study with him again. He is astounding on every level. If you ever get the chance to take a class with him and have the desire, hurry as he is getting up there in age but I expect he will live into his 100’s.

I received a newsletter from a teacher Michael Gilman who has been studying for 50 years and I loved his words and got permission from him to share them with you. Thank you so much Michael. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Monday Morning Tai Chi Training Tip # 377Summer House Thoughts As I have shared with you in the past, I so enjoy sitting on the top of the outbuilding, at our house, which we call the Summer House, feeding the Stellar Jays, and letting my thoughts run around like the squirrels and bunnies. After 50 years of full time Tai Chi practice and study, thoughts sometimes pop into my head, from where, I sometimes don’t have any idea. Here are a few from this week, and I think they are interesting enough to stimulate you to let your own mind explore where it wanders to. “Most of the time, when I start a round of Tai Chi, I realize that today is the first day of the rest of my life.” “I am everything I am not.” Think about that.“Just as our Tai Chi forms move slowly and steadily from beginning to end, so does our life. We know the ending of the form, not the ending of our life. Possibly it never ends, just keeps evolving to rarer and rarer dimensions.”“Up Right and Be Right Make All Right.” Up Right means to use the physical to elevate the spirit. Be Right refers to stimulating the emotional body. Make All Right means combining the body, mind, and spirit to attain higher state of consciousness.“A person should be judged not by what they have, but what they give. A smile is worth a lot.”“Confidence comes from competence. Competence comes from practice.”“You don’t own a gift until you’ve thanked the giver.” I just sent a special gift to someone and I never heard back, not even to let me know if they have received it. Bad form. I had a wealthy relative who always sent me very generous gifts. When my mother passed away, I was 9 years old and I then stopped sending thank you notes. She stopped sending me gifts and she cut me out of her will. I learned my lessons on thanking. “ Balance is perhaps the major philosophical as well as physical idea in Tai Chi. Wasn’t it Michele Obama who said, when speaking of bullies, “ When others go low, we go high.”“Just as you “can’t judge a book by its cover”, you can’t judge a Tai Chi player by his or her outward appearance. You have no idea of where they are coming from or where they are headed.

Have a blessed week!

💖

Cindy