Today’s practice, same as yesterday’s: two qi gong forms and four tai chi forms. In some ways, it’s boring. I mean, I’ve been doing the same thing for almost four years: 366 days, 366 days, 366 days, something like 8 days of rectifying the count, is 1457 days of continuous practice. Sometime around the end of April, then, will be my 1500th day of daily practice — but only the third week or so of doing tai chi four times and two qi gong routines.
What’s the change resulting from these alterations to basic practice, which was simply one tai chi form at the beginning? For one, I’m sweating every day now. My practice is up to about 45 minutes, occasionally almost an hour. My joints, particularly my knees, don’t pop and crackle like they use to. I move more fluidly. I have much better control over my balance. I’m becoming more physically strong — in the design lab the other day, I cut through a piece of 5-ply plywood with a hand-saw in about 0.7 minutes along a 17″ long cut. Around me, kids stopped what they were doing to watch. And I must admit that some of that is technique — I’ve gotten better at handling a handsaw, too (and I know it from my hawk), so that it does the work instead of me.
I had intended to write about Water today, but I’m still dealing with the side effects and hold-overs of working deliberately with Air and Fire. So I’ll be reserving that discussion for Tuesday or Wednesday this coming week. It will not be Monday; I’ve got early appointments, and I’ve fallen behind on working on Dabbling, and I’ve promised issues #8, and #9, and #10, on successive Mondays during the three of the busiest weeks of school (who am I kidding? They’re all busy).
