Polyphanes has a good piece today on offerings and work which I recommend.  One of his key ideas was that he’s first and foremost a magus, rather than a priest… and that he makes offerings in part with a plan.  A priest makes offerings because it’s part of their spiritual responsibility.  A magus makes offerings because it’s part of the way he or she makes the world work.

It was a useful reminder today. I’m not a master martial artist.  I’m not here to teach others how to be master martial artists. I’m not a holder of lineage in the tai chi line, nor a formal teacher of this style of martial arts.  I’m a personal practitioner, and this daily blog entry is a record of my personal practice — not a formal teaching.

And that’s important, because since Tuesday I’ve been sleeping on the ground in a tent, and my back is killing me. And I was able to get through my tai chi practice today only by being gentle with myself and not wholly committed to being a bad-ass practitioner.

And that’s OK.  Eventually, I won’t be sleeping in a tent. Eventually I’ll be sleeping in my own bed, and doing tai chi in the half-hour before I go to school in the morning. And then my practice will be normal.  In the meantime, it’s ok to do one tai chi form a day, until I’m able to go back to what I’m usually able to do.  And maybe soon my back won’t hurt from being on the ground in a tent.

With a hat-tip to my friend TP, I also note this article by Kocrates on making an Easter cross for her grandmother.  The key idea that I want to emphasize is that the solution to the problem, in this case making a wider cross-piece for the central part of the cross, involved using a basic technique (casting on stitches in the middle of the project) in an advanced way.  This is one of the key ideas of Making, generally — advanced techniques are usually basic techniques, repurposed and reimplemented.

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