February 23, 2006
We've been working on repulse monkey in class. I used to hate repulse monkey. I like it now - it used to feel like dance or something froofy, but now I've had a chance to work through where the power is, where the intention is, and it feels completely different.
Today I was trying to pay attention to the arm part of the movement, as that's where the last of the 'dance' feeling resides. The beginning of the movement has a lot of intention in the arms, but the whole opening up and 'ta-da' part of the end has bothered me for some time. Edward demonstrated for me and I got some insight - there's more of a twisting open into ...
February 17, 2006
An A string for a 12" viola costs about $3.50 at Shar Music, where the nice young man put the new string on and even tuned the other strings, too.
There are marvelous new
touch screens on our technological horizon.
When doing White Crane Spreads Wings, your head shouldn't really rise up much. There's a bit of an opening up, but not a rising up.
Not only can I write notes on card catalog cards, I can
share them, too.
January 16, 2006
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 ...
January 11, 2006
So my second course in tai chi has just started this week. I've tried to come at it with the sense that I've never done any of these moves before, even though I have. I'm hoping that will help me figure out what's going on better.
I still don't feel the chi. I understand the concept, and I'm sure that it's there. But my attempts to gather it in or focus it or move it or even sense it are going nowhere at this point.
Yesterday, we were doing some exercises on our backs, with knees bent, where we arched our backs to raise our feet. Curving your back the other way (tucking in the tailbone) makes your feet ...
