Understanding

If it weren't for the commitment I made last Thanksgiving, I would have skipped t'ai chi chih practice today. I started and ended the day with a severe headache and spent much of the day riding in the car.

When I arrived home around 9:00 p.m., I simply wished to head for bed. But, no, thanks to my personal pledge to perform a daily TCC practice and blog afterward I gathered my energies and perservered.

Of course, it was worth it. I feel a bit better now. And I'm grateful ... grateful that I feel obliged to maintain this bargain with myself, first and foremost, and also that I have others--you, my readers--who silently and unobtrusively hold this expectation for me. I have one tangible goal to aim for every single day and I often feel inspired and deeply satisfied when I accomplish it.

It's more than the movement, more than the circulation of Chi, more than the silence, the centeredness, or the peace. Each day, each practice is an effort toward greater self-care and a regular acknowledgement that I'm but one small part in the circling and cycling of the Universe. I reestablish my connection with the Tao.

As Shunryu Suzuki writes in The Little Zen Companion (p. 317):

When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything.