I did a pretty good job today.  Twenty push-ups, both qi gong forms, four walk-throughs of the form.  I’ve gone from cool, to sweaty, over the course of the last half-hour. All in all, I’ve done a pretty good job.

I have to admit, I’m tired of writing about it.  I feel like the last four years have helped me make most of the changes I intended to make. There’s some iteration of the process that I need to do—gradually increasing from a lackadaisical 10-15 minute routine to a 30-minute routine, to a 45-minute routine, reliably. There’s also the Five Ways of Doing, which I have to admit I haven’t completely integrated into my practice—if I did the form five times every morning, concentrating on each of these methods for one run-through, I’d make some progress and build in some time. And then I’d have to add in another one for breathwork, and another for footwork, and another for moving through water. (That’s actually not a bad idea.  Eight times through the form would be great).

But at the same time, I don’t want to be like Vic, who did tai chi for twelve years and then gave it up, and is now fairly decrepit.  Is the goal to do this well, and effectively, into my eighties and nineties?  Or is the goal to do it for six years, or twelve, burn out, and stop? If it’s the second, at some point I’m going to have to stop writing about my practice.  d

For now, I do my tai chi, and I tell you, readers, about the experience.

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