No, this is not a metaphor. When I went to make myself breakfast after tai chi today, I found ants in my kitchen. They were swarming all over the jar of honey in my pantry. Even after I thought I’d cleaned them off, and then opened the jar to drizzle honey on top of my yogurt, they were there, trying to get into the jar, and making pathways to lead their colony back to my honey.
In another sense, it is a metaphor. Were I an ant, the flow of my chi would be all about getting at the sweetness and bringing it back to the hive. As I am a human being, though, my chi flows as I direct it — and as I learn to be directed by it.
Maybe.
The actual practice was not particularly inspiring. Back in year one, I was still doing hermetic work and using reiki to clear out my sinuses along with Qi, and now I’m doing druidry alongside my tai chi (with some Hermetics on the side). Back in year two, I was experimenting with stopping each posture in a clear and obvious way, to see what I could learn from it.
Now? I feel like completion and perfection are complicated, and not necessarily necessary goals. Today. Tomorrow I might feel differently. Tomorrow the honey jar may be empty, for the ants will have carried all the sweetness away. Today, I taste honey in my practice, and I will devour its sweetness.
