The Flow of My Life

I was wide awake at 5:00 a.m. Gee. Could my early morning wake-up be due to the fact that I taught three T'ai Chi Chih classes yesterday and didn't finish teaching my last class until 8:00 p.m.? Clearly I was taking in a lot of energy throughout the day and evening.

I realized after teaching my first beginners' class yesterday morning that I'm struggling to reconnect with my beginner's mind. It's been so many years since I began to study T'ai Chi Ch'uan and then T'ai Chi Chih that I've forgotten much of what I thought and experienced as a newcomer to these forms. I asked myself whether I was doing a good enough job meeting my students at that place of new beginnings.

One of my new students in the evening class told me that she was impressed with how attuned I was to each person in the classroom. And so, with that feedback, I felt reassured that I'm doing a decent job (there's always room for improvement).

Wisdom tells me I am nothing.
Love tells me I am everything.
And between the two my life
     flows.
          --Nisarjadatta Maharaj
          From: Daily Good, 2-14-12

This morning's T'ai Chi Chih class practice was incredibly relax-rejuvenating. One student commented afterward: I needed that. I did too. And now this afternoon I have energy enough to go out and pull some sledfulls of firewood in from the forest....