Peeling the Layers

Fat, furry flakes covered our snowshoe tracks near the house this morning. Now the sky is spotted blue amid generous clouds and occasional threads of sunshine weave their way through the trees.

Though my legs were tired from my two classes last night, today's practice felt good ... easy. Daughter in the Valley has always brimmed with energy and now that I've slightly revised Daughter on the Mountain Top that, too, feels more energized, fuller.

I'm aware as I move that I'm still readjusting, realigning, and revisiting each and every movement searching for additional ways to deepen my practice, relax my body, and  inspire a freer flow of Chi. As I reevaluate my moves I realize that t'ai chi chih isn't doing t'ai chi chih. Still, I believe that when these changes settle into my body and mind I'll return to a place of greater trust in my practice and the ABCs of TCC (activating-balancing-circulating the Chi) will take care of themselves.

I'm continuing to peel the onion, stripping away unnecessary layers of skin, carving out bruises and unhealthy spots, and moving toward the center. Meister Eckhart talks about this process in today's reading from The Mystic Vision:

A man has many skins in himself, covering the depths of his heart. Man knows so many things; he does not know himself. Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, just like an ox's or a bear's so thick and hard, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there.