2014.04.22 _ 0

Happy Earth Day everyone!

I'm beginning concentrated study and practice of Qigong today, working with materials (book, cd, video) from a teacher named Kenneth Cohen. I've begun some practices over the last few weeks, but intentionally waited for today to begin disciplined focus ( also known as following directions :P)

From wiki:
Qigong, chi kung, or chi gung (simplified Chinese: 气功; traditional Chinese: 氣功; pinyin: qìgōng; Wade–Giles: chi gong; literally "Life Energy Cultivation") is a practice of aligning body, breath, and mind for health, meditation, and martial arts training.

Wow, Eliza, impressive! Will be interested to hear how it unfolds for you. My seeking alignment during these 33 (or more) days has to do with trying to achieve a clearer, more steady. source of internal containment. Seems in the hustle and bustle of the day I can get a bit lop-sided re maintaining an internal composure. Hoping amidst the fellowship of others such as this group to be able to regain that quiet internal fellowship we so long for and which can so easily slip away.

Happy Earth day :-)

I am a word, a picture, a poem.
A play and a dance
I am myself always
and yet never myself
I move and change
with the wind of time
growing and pruning
resting and running
but in the end
alone yet not alone

I want to find my words again, find my poems
and here I will try to do that edited 17:05, 22 Apr 2014

I don't read enough.

Sure, I read online. But a book, a novel, a treatise? Rarely nowadays. And I've noticed I have an alarming tendency to buy books that either I think I "should" read, or that I get enthusiastic about for a day. My bookshelves are littered with books that I own but have never really read, as though the owning somehow assuages the need or provides the benefit.

This 33 days is not about my thinking I "should" change. It's not about saying I "should" read more. I'm not a "Shouldist", though the last time I checked, Shouldism seemed to be a world class religion.

Instead it's an experiment. In the pure, fresh and original tradition of Play as Being. I'm going to try it. A little. And regularly. And I'll see if I like it. I may not. Or I may. We'll see.

I'm going to give Hermann Hesse's magnum opus "The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi)" a shot. Wish me luck. edited 18:32, 22 Apr 2014

I fell off the wagon when I went to Canada in November to put my father into a nursing home, and haven't had the occasion or the spirit to get back on. This is my carrot or stick to do so.

Good luck, Storm! Enjoy one taste of carrot and stick, wol! Let voice and words effulge, Cat! Quiet internal fellowship - yes, Maxine! Let chi be, chi flow, Eliza! I think my intention is around being more present with myself, with others, and bracketing the day with periods of open stillness.

Good to see you all here, I am never the last man standing here but these 33-99 days have always brought me to the great friendship that this place has. I will get back on my Tai Chi horse, if there is such a metaphor and begin my practice that has lapsed since I stopped my classes more than a year ago.The spaces around me where I would practice seemed to get smaller and smaller only to realize you do not need a big space to do Tai Chi, just a big mind.

Tonight, in my basement, I began what I hope will be a daily event as well as in the small space of my office. I thank Wol for a new beginning and everyone else for just being here. I look forward to Eliza's adventures with QiGong, which is part a of Tai Chi as is Kung Fu. My Tai Chi warm up is Qi Gong. There are many QiGong exercises, each enhancing a particular part of your body and mind. May all that we do here bring us more in touch with something new and quiet in ourselves.

Bugger, missed it