I practised Yiu form this morning at about 10.30 on the northern side of Long Reef Aquatic Reserve. I love it there. It’s like I am on some deserted island. It was a perfect day, the breeze welcoming, gentle and calm, pleasantly relieving what would have otherwise been the heat of the sun. A delicious spring morning. I had not intended to do Tai Chi I was simply going for a walk but once I got to the edge it was such an awesome sight that the joy of being there could only be enhanced by some tranquillity in motion.
The bird life was a visual treat, a pelican, a duck, some kind of black cockatoo, seagulls and another longer legged water type bird. Embracing the location and atmosphere I started the gentle movements of the Yiu form. The spaciousness in my head growing effortlessly, harmonising with the water and sky around me. To me such a feeling is happiness.
The tide was coming in, on me, as I practised and also on the wading birds. Tai chi was feeding and enriching me, the tide promising the birds their next meal. Here in those moments I too was free as a bird, momentarily freed from my dusty busy world, focusing only on my breath and my movement, merging with the unpredictable flow of the incoming tide and the vastness of this beautiful place, aware of my microcosmic existence amongst all living things under heaven.
Focus your vital breath until it is supremely soft, can you be like a baby?
Lao Tzu
Happy practising.
SEP
2012
About the Author:
Tina Barry started learning tai chi in 1994. She became very interested and fascinated with tai chi having found a great and wonderful teacher, Grandmaster Ho Lo at the Tai Chi College of Australia. Tina has continued to study tai chi intensively under the guidance of Grandmaster Ho Lo since that time. Grandmaster Ho Lo’s understanding and teaching of the art of tai chi is deeply profound and Tina has grown, developed and nurtured her own immense appreciation for it with the aid of his incredible teaching. Tina’s understanding of the subtlties of tai chi continue to develop under Grandmaster Ho Lo's patient guidance. It seems the more she learns, the more there is to appreciate and understand and Grandmaster Ho Lo’s intensive teaching has remained inexhaustible after all these years. On occassion Grandmaster Ho Lo allows Tina to lead the students at the Tai Chi College of Australia through the tai chi form, appreciating her expression of tai chi. Sometimes Tina thinks perhaps she is getting it right!