Taoist Tai Chi comes to St. Peter's, the first class of its kind in the village. The instructor is my friend Don Henry, a member of the vestry and a recently retired regional operations manager of Verizon. A couple of fellow instructors from the Syracuse Chapter of the International Taoist Tai Chi Society are helping Don start a local branch here in Cazenovia. Classes meet on Monday and Wednesday evenings, 6 - 7 PM.
Beginners stand in the parish hall and observe Don as he demonstrates over a period of a couple of months the full set of ritual body motions that comprise the practice. There are 108 movements in the set. To inspire the new beginners Don and the other two instructors did a full set. It took about 17 minutes. The beauty of the slow ballet like movements was both inspiring as intended, we clapped at the end in appreciation, and intimidating. How does one ever get to the end without falling over or into the others or more fundamentally, forgetting what comes next and how to do it?
The answer is practice. Getting it right in practice after repeated observations and attempts, and putting right practice together sequentially gradually leads to the full set.
A first insight: if one looks only to the end as a work to be accomplished, the practice becomes daunting and unmanageable. If on the other hand one approaches the practice as a daily, ongoing and cumulative joy of body movement and awareness, breaking the goal down into a repetitive series of related actions, the whole exercise becomes not only manageable and attainable, but also satisfying and fun. Life is a journey. Enjoy the way.
