Newsletter #146 - October 2013

Thanks also to Philomena Kaarma who sent me this link to a very positive news article about the Tai Chi for Arthritis program:

 

It is with regret that I heard of the recent passing of Mr Loo-Chi Hu, from New Zealand, at the age of 89.  Mr Hu was a major player in New Zealand tai chi circles, and he will be sadly missed.  My sincere condolences to his family and friends.

In this newsletter

 

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My Search For a Master
Ann Swanson, Instructor, CMT

 

I spent my early 20's travelling through China and India seeking a master or guru to guide me.  My experience at Dr. Lam's workshop in June 2013 helped me realize that everyone has the potential to be my teacher if I allow them.  How?  Through the tai chi principles of song and jing.

 

I viewed my opportunity to go to the workshop as an educational business trip.  When I arrived, I quickly discovered that I was the only one with that perspective.  For most, the week was not about work - it was about family.  Actually, it felt more like summer camp for all ages.  During "tai chi camp," as I fondly began to call it to my friends and family back home, I studied the tai chi form of Sun 73.  The students in my class ranged from their 20's (me) to 80's, but we all laughed the whole time as if we were care-free children.

 

During that week, I grew as a tai chi practitioner and as a person.  I gained insight into the power of song and jing.  Song is relaxing and loosening up and can naturally transform into a mental clarity called jing.  This cultivates an openness to the ever-present wisdom around us. Laughing with my new tai chi family allowed me to open up to the universal knowledge that everyone had to offer (and I dare say they also learned from me).

 

Why search far and wide?  Through song and jing we can find masters and gurus all around us.  Now that I'm back from tai chi camp, I am more open to the wisdom those in my community have to offer, especially my students.

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Tai Chi Is Still Alive and Living Well in Northern Maine
Bruce M. Young, Ed.D., Senior Trainer, Maine

In the late winter of 2009 I was encouraged to write an article for the Tai Chi for Health Community newsletter about the progress Dr Lam’s Tai Chi for Health programs were making in Northern Maine, USA.  I had been told by a master trainer at that time that he could not believe a tai chi program could have such success in rural Maine.  I entitled that article, “Tai Chi Is Alive and Living Well in Northern Maine.”  When I wrote it, I was serving as pastor of the United Methodist Church in Lincoln, Maine; and had been teaching a small TCA for class on Monday evenings for 7 years.  The class had 10 to 12 students, eight of whom became regulars.  Three of those folks would eventually become TCA and TCD certified instructors, and would continue and expand the program in Lincoln when my wife, Kitty, and I moved south 50 miles to Bangor.  (By the way being 50 miles farther south does not change our status, we are still considered to be living in Northern Maine.)

Over those first seven years, we were fortunate to meet Master Trainers Marty Kidder and Pat Lawson.  They came to Lincoln for the first time in July of 2006 to conduct a TCA instructor’s workshop for Kit and me, and 6 of our students.  Since that time they have come back every summer to train instructors at workshops first in Lincoln and for the last 3 years in Bangor. 

This year Kit and I hosted our 7th annual Tai Chi for Health programs workshop in Northern Maine in early July.  Over the last seven years we have offered TCA, TCD, 73 Sun, and TCA Fall Prevention workshops in Lincoln and Bangor Maine.  As I said we started small with 6 participants and have grown.  Last year 12 folks attended a Tai Chi for Diabetes instructor’s workshop in Bangor, and this year the attendance was 19 for the Tai Chi for Arthritis and update workshop in Bangor.  We hosted a successful TCA workshop in the South Portland, Maine with Marty’s help for the Arthritis Foundation in 2010, and a TCE workshop with Dr Lam last fall, also in the South Portland.  When we started these workshops in 2006, Kit and I were the only continuously certified Tai Chi for Health program instructors in the state.  Now there are programs and certified teachers in Lincoln and Lee in Northern Maine; in Bangor and Augusta in Central Maine; and in Portland and South Portland in Southern Maine.  Those who have attended these workshops and classes have returned year after year; and they have shared with their friends and neighbors the quality and benefits of attending. 

I concluded the article for the TCHC newsletter in 2009 with the following:  “It is not always the location that makes a program successful, but rather it is the quality of the program.  The Tai Chi for Health Programs Dr Lam has developed are good enough to sell themselves.”  Because of these programs, tai chi is not only still alive and living well in Northern Maine, but it is now growing and thriving throughout the State of Maine!

NOTE:  The picture attached was taken in front of two of the many vaults in the Hammond Street Senior Center in downtown Bangor where the TCA workshop was held in July.  The building which now houses the senior center was at one time a Federal Bank.  You may note that the picture is captioned “Tai Chi for Arthritis: A ‘Safe’ and Effective Program”

 

Meditation, Tai Chi Style!
Dick Aft, Cincinnati, USA

Tai chi is for balance.  Meditation is for other people.  These things were clear to me before I had total knee replacement surgery.  I’ve learned better.

Whilst experiencing post-surgical discomfort in the hospital, it occurred to me that going through the 24 Forms positions that I had been practicing for several years might provide a helpful diversion.  Using slight hand movements and all of the focus I could muster, I worked at doing the routine.  The more I thought about the sequence of tai chi moves, the more I escaped from the moment.  Thoughts of my aches and pains were replaced by efforts to remember and visualise the slow and weight shifting moves that Michael Porte has been good enough to teach to me.

The definition of meditation that makes the most sense to me is “emptying or concentration of mind.”  While I never would have guessed that I would make use of meditation, I found it to be an effective tool.  It really did allow me to fully replace thoughts of my surgical wounds with the concentration required by my “mental tai chi”.  Remembering what to do while parting the horse’s mane and afterwards took every conscious thought.

Tai chi is still for balance.  But now, meditation, tai chi style, is for me!