The forms this morning took about 45 minutes altogether. That’s pretty good.  If I had to guess, I’d say that the two qi gong forms took about 6 minutes apiece, maybe 7.  The tai chi form took a little more than half an hour. The sun started behind the building and trees over to the east, but by the time I was done it was above the horizon of the roofline and treeline.  Not bad.

I worked outside, and I was doing roughly a four-count breathwork in conjunction with the tai chi form.  My breathwork wasn’t anything special for the qi gong forms, but I stepped up my game for the tai chi portion of the morning’s work.  And about three-fourths of the way through, I stepped on something sharp.  Ow!  There was a slashing sensation between my toes on my right foot.

I’m embarrassed to say that it was something really quite unpleasant: a blade of grass.  I’m not injured at all.   There was just the shock of a blade of grass sliding against my skin, hard, in a way that simulated a deep and dangerous cut to my foot, without cutting my foot.  At all.  I repeat, I’m not injured at all.

But I am embarrassed. That momentary sensation of cutting, of slicing, shocked me out of my program of movement, and damaged my sense of success.   What felt like a great day of perfect movement turned into this shock of “Ow! my foot! Ow!” followed by the humiliation of discovering that I wasn’t hurt at all.  Harumph.