Many, many years ago when I was not at a very happy time in my life I started to do Tai Chi; it was a small group of people of all ages and abilities, and all backgrounds. There was a fireman called John who was very good, an ex-sailor called Ted who no-one liked to work with as he was very rough, a young guy my age who was a civil servant, another woman who was a teacher like me, and several other people whose names and faces have faded.
Our main teacher was a small, blond quietly spoken man called John; he was an amazing teacher and so patient and kind and so skilled. His wife, Barbara helped with the class and she was a very nice, smiley person too. There was another man, also called John ( what a lot of Johns!) who helped teach and he was very serious and committed and very nice; he reminded me of one of my cousins and he worked in a paint factory. We followed a particular sort of form, which was made up of 24 moves… I have to admit I wasn’t very good but I really enjoyed it; Tai Chi helped me physically with fitness, balance and posture, but ti also helped me with various problems I was struggling with.
I had to give up Tai Chi for various reasons but have looked to join a class for some time now. There don’t seem to be many classes in our area but quite by chance I found one… and I attended it today. It was a different style from what I had originally learned, but that doesn’t matter, I’m just very pleased to have found a class I can attend again!
My former style:
My new style
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/swtaichi/index.htm
Lois Elsden 