Live by Emulating the Sea

Our driveway desperately needs major care and attention after large portions of it flowed downstream with the rain yesterday. Unsure whether I could hold my TCC class outdoors this morning I walked carefully around the grassy yard of the Bell Town Hall to determine if it was waterlogged. Nope.

Hurrah! Our group joined together in a beautiful, sunny, breezy outdoor practice.

One class member arrived during the second half of the form as we performed Pulling Taffy Variation #1, Anchor Step. She told the group later that it was fun to see us move ... we looked beautiful. She also commented about today's reading of the Tao (Verse 66, "Living by Emulating the Sea,") that many people are drawn to the Bayfield Peninsula because of Lake Superior, our own inland sea. "It feels so peaceful and powerful," she said.

That, I replied, is how we also feel when we do our T'ai Chi Chih practice: peaceful and powerful. As we emulate water in our practice and in our lives we soften, flow, and release tension in our movements and we go with the flow in our life choices, decisions, and attitudes. When we maintain that feeling of flow, all is well.

Dyer's interpretation of the first line of this verse reads:

Why is the sea king of a hundred streams?
Because it lies below them.
Humility gives it its power.

His instructions and advice later in the chapter reiterate two key points: Be humble. Never put yourself above others or see yourself as superior to anyone.... Become a servant, not a dominator....

Many of us who live here on the Bayfield Peninsula are surrounded by watersheds, streams, and rivers that flow to Lake Superior. There is no question that Lake Superior contains a special power and beauty that draws us to her. We live in a location that allows us--perhaps more than others--to have insight into this verse of the Tao. To suspend the ego and release the need to control others, though, is an ongoing challenge.

T'ai Chi Chih practice is a gift and a tool that reminds us, teaches us, and encourages us to live by emulating the sea....