Let Go of All Your Assumptions

Tonight I taught my final class session in one location and tomorrow I'll finish up in another. Then I have three months off until my outdoor summer class starts in mid-July.

I look forward to this teaching break which allows me to focus on other interests and priorities in my life. By June or July I'll be anxiously awaiting the start of another group practice. (It's such a joy to move together in harmony!)

In the interim I have several TCC events scheduled. I teach a TCC workshop at a mental health conference in June at the new casino in Red Cliff. And in May I give a presentation to a Parkinson's support group that serves the Bayfield Pennisula (and so I won't be totally bereft of opportunities to spread the word about this healthy and healing practice).

I saw changes in how several students moved during our practice tonight. What does that tell me? It indicates that these students are practicing AND that they're becoming more comfortable in their practices and more relaxed in their bodies and minds. That feeling of comfort and peace in one's body (and mind) is easy to spot when you've been teaching as long as I have.

I read #48 from The Second Book of the Tao by Stephen Mitchell (p. 96) at class tonight. For me it's a wonderful reminder of why I do a daily practice of T'ai Chi Chih:

          Let go of all your assumptions
          and the world will make perfect sense.
          In movement, be fluid as water;
          at rest, be bright as a mirror;
          in response, be simple as an echo.
          Keep your mind serene,
          like the still surface of a lake.
          Clear-eyed and imperturbable,
          walk through life
          as though you didn't exist.
          When nothing is left to argue with
          and there is nothing to oppose,
          you will find yourself at peace
          and in harmony with all things.

No more--not a word--needs to be said.