The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

William Butler Yeats - 1919

Simplicity

Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail.

Henry David Thoreau

Center of the Sun

For a few weeks now we've been working the Tai Chi for Arthritis form. So far we have been reviewing section one and two. This particular form is based on the Sun style. It was developed by Dr Paul Lam and is the core of the Tai Chi for Arthritis program. It has been the subject of clinical trails and is widely accepted by Arthritis Foundations in many countries (U.S.A, Australia, UK, et.al.). The form is divided into three distinct sections joined by the characteristic Sun style Kai-He (open close hands). Each section can be taught and practiced as a complete routine in it's own right and each section is performed to both the right and left sides. Thus the form is symmetric and balanced unlike many traditional forms.

One of the hallmarks of the Sun style (as stated by Sun Lu Tang in his book on Tai Chi), is an uncompromising commitment to distinguishing the empty and full (Yin and Yang) in the stances. In the form, we really shift the weight fully onto one leg or the other. One the other hand, except when actually stepping, its important to keep both feet in contact with the ground. Just make sure that one foot is bearing all the weight and you are fully centered on the standing leg. Ideally, even though the empty foot is on the ground, you should be able to move the empty foot without disturbing your balance in the least. One result of this characteristic, is an enhanced awareness of center and balance. Another is the simple fact that your steps generally can't be too large or too small or you won't be able to make that full commitment to separating Yin and Yang and you will find yourself "double weighted," but that will be the subject of another post.

New Class Schedule

Our Class now meets Saturday morning and 0915 in the Mind and Body Room at Gold's Gym, 2380 Plank Rd, Frederickburg, VA.