All along in tai chi class, we’ve been learning to stand with our knees bent, tailbones tucked under, back slightly rounded - a slight slouch of sorts. It’s a funny kind of stance, takes some getting used to. I’ve been doing ok with it, but have noticed that when I tuck under, my weight falls back on my heels. When I rise up out of the ’slouch,’ my weight shifts forward onto my toes.

We had been working on stances which have a lot of lateral stability, and it got me to thinking about the stability of this forward stance that tends to my heels or toes depending on where I’m at. It didn’t seem stable. So I started fussing around with how I might both keep my weight centered on my feet and my tailbone tucked in and lo and behold, I can do it. It uses some different muscles, but it feels great. Just a small change, millimeters, really, but totally different.

Edward often notes, as we come up out of the slouch, that we should feel our chests ‘opening’ as we rise. I’ve haven’t really felt anything I would call ‘opening’ before - til this morning, in this re-discovered stance. Very pleasing.

(Maybe when I’m 73, I’ll be as stable as this master!)