Twenty push-ups this morning without stopping — although I was pretty red in the face by the end. The two qi gong forms were excellent this morning, and it was nice to do tai chi under the waning quarter moon. Beautiful day.
Today’s movement is Snake Creeps Down. In this movement, the left arm comes into the crook of the right arm, the thighs and calves and hips pop a squat-down, and the left and right arms uncoil at about the level of the knees if one were standing — in other words, it’s a sort of low sweep.
Draw the left hand back, and coil the right,
and sink your weight down into bending knees.
As much as you can, drop to half your height:
avoid being in space your foe will seize.
Your weight’s in the right foot, but shift to left
even as you squat closer to the ground.
Left arm inside bent-right, acquires heft,
and swings upward, outward in clockwise round.
Or sweep can go sideways like Hebrew script,
or hand can grab an ankle or a calf.
Unbalance whatever is swept or gripped,
or pushed, or bent. But when you’re down by half,
other risks appear. Stand up again with force,
so you’re not kept down — and finish the course.
I do get to return to this one later in the sequence, but I’m not sure quite when. Fairly near the end, as I recall at the moment. A big day today: driving to western PA tonight, so I can drive back tomorrow after some rest and unpacking my lady’s daughter into her college dormitory.
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