October 23, 2026
It was a gorgeous fall day when I pulled into the parking lot for my Tai Chi class. All along my drive and around the building, the leaves were beginning to turn crimson, ochre and apricot. Quickly I noticed that something was off. The parking lot at the sleepy little church was full and it did not seem to be due to the pumpkin patch or the advertised Trunk-or-Treat scheduled for Saturday. Numerous parishioners, dressed somberly in black, were quietly filing into the church. Oh, I thought, I guess Tai Chi won’t happen this week due to a funeral. No worries, I had plenty of other things I hoped to accomplish so I almost drove out the rear entrance to the parking lot without stopping.
Then, I saw them. About a dozen folks from my Tai Chi class were moving rhythmically through their Yang form amidst the pumpkin patch. I parked and walked over to join them mid form. It was a gorgeous October day with bright sunshine and a perfect blue sky. The air felt crisp and I was grateful for the warmth of the jacket I decided to add as I walked out the door at home. The church forgot to notify our instructor that the parish hall was in use, so they offered to let us practice on the grounds. The pumpkin patch made for an exquisite backdrop for our warmup!
By 11:00 am, most of the regulars had arrived and sadly there no longer was enough room for us to practice amongst the pumpkins. Yet again, we pivoted and found a large portion of the parking lot where no one had chosen to park. All 30 of us could easily practice there without bumping into each other or colliding with parked cars. The traffic from Hilliard Road was noisy, so our instructor placed a few of the more skilled class members on each side and in the back of our rows so we could follow them when we turned away from him. Without our traditional music we practiced for 40 minutes, doing multiple rounds of the yang form and the “joy form.”
In Tai Chi, it is important to keep your knees slightly bent. This helps you to be more stable as you flow through poses and if you were sparring in a fight, it would make it hard for your enemy to knock you over. As I breathed in the fresh autumn air, I observed the colorful pumpkins near the church and I listened carefully to hear Jack’s directions, I felt more confident in my practice than I had over the past few months. Perhaps the extra concentration required to follow what Jack and other leaders were doing was easier with all the distractions from passing cars and the change of venue?
After class I felt deeply calm and centered. The reminder to literally and figuratively keep my knees bent was well-timed. I drove on to run errands and focused on some tasks I needed to do at home. All afternoon the peace stayed with me, and I chuckled a bit to myself as I thought about how easy it was to be flexible when I let go of my need for control.
