Heron

 Stepping with such poise, watched by Rosemary and I this week in Bushy Park. So single-weighted...

Today's lesson is now on Dropbox

Thanks to all who came along for the Zoom lesson today, it was great fun. We looked in more details at Wave Hands In Clouds. The video is uploading right now and will be on the school's Dropbox by 1pm. If you can't access Dropbox, just send me an email and I can send links to any files you need, including all the lessons so far. 

We both appreciate all your messages, emails and calls. It was nice to hear of the Aberdeenshire / Sweden Zoom meet up last weekend. I hope you all had a good session. 

I just did a morning practice outside by the boat after the class (and another cup of tea...) It was a first for me being watched for a whole short form by a pair of swans (Naughty Hinkleponkle and Landy). They seemed not at all bothered, but neither were they impressed, which is as it should be. As they'd been such peaceful onlookers, I rewarded them with Scottish rolled oats for breakfast, which they love, and are good for them. We basically have the same breakfast, but I prefer mine in a bowl rather than on the slipway. 

No definite news re the Summer workshop yet, until we know what the government says for the summer, we are leaving it open. The Scouts don't know either, so for now, although we know it might have to be cancelled due to ongoing social distancing measures, we will not yet make a final announcement. If it is cancelled, I hope to plan at least a weekend of outdoor T'ai Chi near here, where all the correct protocols can be easily followed. All we can say is, watch this space.

Much love and best wishes to all. Caro.

Calendars on the way

Pax is the cover star of this year's calendar, which Mark and I have just spent time designing and ordering. We have also followed requests for more Pax and nature pictures, and we think it looks great. All those who ordered them should get them this week. Flu caused a brief delay in ordering, but we have used express delivery so they should arrive on Tuesday in time for classes and for taking up to Scotland. Prices are noticeable dearer for so many things this year, and the calendars have also gone up in price for the first time in a long time, they are £7 for the desk size and £12 for the wall calendars. I have ordered one extra of each just in case...

News and Aberdeenshire workshops next weekend

I am really looking forward to seeing you all next weekend and have been working with Mark on some great work to share. I have booked all my tickets north up until March and am just about to order the calendars for the year. Let me know if you have not yet told me you want one, small or large. I will get a few spares just in case. This year there will be more pictures of Pax and of nature, as requested...

Our local lime trees full of mistletoe,

for your enjoyment.

A cheery wave

I have been posting here very little the last two months as family and work commitments have been intense. Today while I work I am listening to a BBC Radio 3 program recommended to me recently that T'ai Chi colleagues may find interesting, in a thread that you might like to explore, (I know some of you do already).
The Three Second Rule

A good program, yet still dispiriting how much people refer to themselves as machines, with programming, wiring, and so on. A hall of mirrors... with ego at the centre... but worth knowing about, so that we can offer and inhabit a creature-like resistance, an embodied response, a connected way in the world.

The common frequency of waves on the shore, 0.3hz, the same rate as the electrical activity of the relaxed brain. The pulse of the Short Form, when it feels just right?

Superb quote near the end of the piece, from the artist who made the program, Susan Aldworth: 'That idea of Descartes that the body and the soul were two separate things - I think he was profoundly wrong.'

Yes! So do I... So does Iain McGilchrist, so do most indigenous and traditional peoples... Yet the dichotomous view of 'haunted meat' (a great Charlie Brooker quote) is what is trashing the world today. How would we live if we knew that our embodied animal selves were not our 'inadequate vehicle' but instead our true means to great connection? The laying waste of the planet is the result of the hubris of joy-denying, left-hemisphere dominant people, forming a way of life that separates body and brain, people from other people, creatures and life-forms from each other, and puts the needs of the worst part of humans at the centre of the story.

What would it be to sit on the shore of our own lives, inner and outer, to watch the waves of our thoughts, feelings and desires come and go. To notice their rate, their quality. their roughness or timbre? The colour of the foam, the texture of the shingle. Sometimes there will be sharks, at other times turtles. Maybe it is full of waving fronds of kelp, or tickle by cormorant wings. I am not fighting the natural rate of my life-waves any more, or indeed its tides. Perhaps I would like the storms not to return, but that's just a preference, not a demand. And look, there're shells...

********

I am working on softness, left side form, some weapons ideas.
Greetings from the river.

Classes in London with both myself and Mark continue until 18th December.
Aberdeenshire workshop will continue as planned, more info next week.

Classes, glass jars and acorns

Classes resume tonight with Mark. I am on a train from Scotland, so won't be there, but I will be at Holly Road tomorrow. Thursday class resumes at the Hampton Court studio this week too.

Randomly unrelated: most folk know I am a keen forager and maker of things. Thanks to all who have been saving me clean dried or frozen avocado skins and stones and worn-out coloured T-shirts, I still need these. I currently don't need glass jars, but if you find any acorns on your walks this month, and can be bothered, please bring them to class for me. A handful or a bagful are all welcome. I shall not divulge the (legal and wholesome, I promise) use yet!

Wild practice

I am off to the woods for my yearly pilgrimage to sit with trees, practice in the open air, and challenge myself in both mental and practical ways. When I am not busy making my shelter, getting water, foraging or cooking, there is, strangely, enough time to do T'ai Chi, standing or sitting practice. I hope you will think of me and send good luck, as rain and cold are forecast!

See you at class when I return. Tooting class will be covered by Kevin this week.

This week I will mainly be doing T'ai Chi while wearing a woollen 

homemade Viking hood. Thanks to Alison for the fabric, it's cosy!

Also, no sword, but plenty of atlatl practice. 

Summer workshop news

All is set for the 14th Annual week-long intensive and we look forward to seeing you there. Details are here on the blog to the right, and also on Mark's website. Please feel free to get in touch if I can help with any details. Camping is available at the venue again, just let me know if you'd like to stay.

Regular workshop guests...

(gratuitous cygnet picture)

Art and Writing course in nature

The Wild Twins course I run in Ireland in early May with writer Paul Kingsnorth has one more bursary place, as a student had to drop out, and the non-refundable deposit means we can reduce the price for someone on lower means, it is 699 Euros rather than 950. All the details are here. If you or a friend you know would like to come, get in touch. Sarah and Anja from the T'ai Chi schools came last year, so you can talk to them and see if it's worth your time... Please feel free to pass this info on.

The venue Sherkin Island North Shore is amazing... Wild Atlantic beauty.

We even had time for T'ai Chi...

Raising the Spirit

Here we are, a few weeks later than I'd hoped, some notes from a wonderful conversation with everyone around the table last Aberdeenshire teaching trip, and also the bones of what I taught, beyond the physical T'ai Chi, last time. This is not a serious essay, nor a prescription to set the world to rights, but it may help if you are down, in the way chocolate, a beautiful sunset, or finding a fiver in your pocket also helps.


Winter comes, to the higher latitudes, and sometimes the spirit sinks.
This is entirely normal, and a certain slowing down must occur, if we are in any way in sync with the natural world. But the mood and can drop, the heart grow a little cold, and the spirit can be dampened. This is not so good. I could say: 'Just do daily T'ai Chi practice'. Aha, good idea, you answer, but it ain't gonna happen as I am already stuck on the sofa. So, what are the things that have been dampening our spirit? Looking at both traditional Taoist sources, and modern experience of life, here's a little list.

Taking oneself too seriously
Pain (physical or mental)
External influences (almost anything that is 'not self': culture, events, climate, disaster, war, constant bad news, politics, neighbours... life)
Too much or too little sleep
Addictions
Grief and loss
Too much, too little, or the wrong food
Too much or too little company or solitude.
Overthinking
Anxiety


You could probably add a million more, but these were the main ones we discussed. External influences are all lumped together for good reason, they'll be different for everyone, in every context, so can't be enumerated. For instance, one could list 'patriarchy', ''colonialism', 'mass extinction' or 'poverty', and these would all fit nicely, you get the idea. By the way, these are sometimes denied by the just 'think positive' brigade. Great! How's thinking positive making all of these real things any less oppressive for those on the actual sharp end of them? Not encouraging negative thoughts is indeed good mental hygiene. But saying everything is a mental creation is a delusion. Awful things do actually happen, in the real world, and sometimes correct anger at these things can lead us to right action, rather than wishful thinking, and the habit of always looking away from what we find difficult or distasteful.

There is a way through, to raise the spirit and to regain one's centre-line. Here are some enliveners:

Humour
Freedom from all of the above listed items!
Stretching or challenging oneself a bit, in activity, not too much, but significantly
Hobbies
The right company
Reaching beyond oneself, helping out, being charitable, volunteering
Daylight
Time in nature
T'ai Chi and Chi Kung
Physical activity: singing, dancing, walking, intimacy, etc
Being around beloved creatures, whether pets or wild beings
Conviviality and connection
Learning a new skill or developing an old one
Not dwelling on oneself
Noticing the good

Again, everyone will have their own list, but these came up with the group. Why do I have 'taking oneself too seriously' and 'humour' as top of their respective lists? I have noticed, after many years of teaching, that the very first sign of the blues, and a depressed spirit, is how very SERIOUS and IMPORTANT all one's thoughts are. There are many cures for this: having a laugh, especially at oneself, reading or watching something that always makes you chuckle, deliberately courting foolishness, taking the mick out of oneself, asking for a very big hug from a friend, time with swans / cygnets / kittens / puppies (delete as appropriate), playing games, yes actual board / card / or social games, singing loudly along with favourite music while dancing, even. All this will feel like pulling teeth to the serious person who is down because the world is so awful, and surely no one has any right to ever feel ok again... 'It's black, it's black, you throw me in the pit and feed me scraps...'

So the Fast Show used to sort me out, and the RAF airmen speaking modern slang from Armstrong and Miller. Or very good Sci Fi TV. Or writing to friends and sending little gifts. And have I mentioned swans?

Or going to T'ai Chi class.
Just saying...

Thanks to Davina for the prompt to get this written. I am off to drink a glass of cava. Have a good evening.

These cheeky faces always lift my spirit.

The local swans and cygnets.

Happy New year to the T'ai Chi family

The bones of winter trees

A two cormorant day, always a good sign.

Happy New Year to all The T'ai Chi Centre and Great River students and friends. I hope 2019 is peaceful and creative for you. I look forward to being totally fit and well again, and seeing folks old an new at classes and workshops in 2019, we have lots of good things planned...

Here's a few more great books to recommend, not new to some of you, but all kept me amused, intrigued or afloat in 2018.

Women Who Run With The Wolves - Clarissa Pinkola Estes

The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony - Roberto Calasso

What It Is - Lynda Barry

Picture This - Lynda Barry

The Power - Naomi Alderman

Collected Poems - Jack Gilbert

The New Menopausal Years - Susun Weed (buy this for all your female friends and relatives over the age of 35, it should be issued automatically)

A Branch From The Lighting Tree - Martin Shaw

China's Green Religion - James Miller

Dark Mountain 13

Music: having returned to music in October 2017, I have been listening to great things, old and new, here's a few to check out if you don't know them. in no particular order, these have been tickling my ears all year...

Portico Quartet, First Aid Kit, Lisa Germano, Bill Callahan (Smog), Wild Oldham (in all his many guises), Arve Henriksen, The Album Leaf, Atoms For Peace, Bon Iver, Sufijan Stevens, Gavin Bryars, Dead Can Dance, Ida, Iron And Wine, James Yorkston, The Unthanks, Sigur Ros.

Films... none of note, and I haven't been to the cinema all year, strangely. 

TV: much good SF - Altered Carbon, The OA, Star Trek Discovery (yes, I know, but it's good!), The ABC Murders, Homecoming.

Good things: Guppyfriend bag now means my washing doesn't shed micro plastics into the marine environment. Get one...

Extinction Rebellion.

Greta Thunberg

Swans, more swans, cygnets, mandarin ducks....

Landy goes for a dangerous walk. I had to herd him back to the river, stopping the traffic.

But the main highlights of my year have been days spent in nature, time teaching wild materials, drawing and painting more than ever before, doing T'ai Chi outdoors with all you guys, and quiet peaceful time at home on my own or with friends or family. For all this, I am very grateful. More from me in the new Year. Time to drink coffee now...

anastomosing

My new word of the day, used in botany, meaning 'forming cross-connections', but surely this can apply to certain people too, who love to put people in touch with one-another...

Good things

Living on the river, and fishing out plastic every day as I walk the bank, marine plastic pollution is very visible. However, much is invisible, and comes from our laundry, every day. There is good research into how we can reduce or stop this at home ourselves, and I have been following this, as have some of my T'ai Chi friends. I have just ordered this Guppyfriend bag, which catches a huge proportion of the synthetic fibres shed in a wash. There are also these Coraballs, which I read about in the BBC news last month, which I have not yet ordered. Have a look. I am also wearing and washing synthetics far less, not buying any more, checking labels very carefully, and moving back over to wool, silk, cotton, linen, natural skins, and so on. Many people despair at how little one can do oneself to help, but there is much that can be done by changing our habits right now, with a few tweaks. Many of us tend to keep clothes and shoes for many years, and mend them rather than trash them, these are habits of any thrifty person. And I'd much rather wear the beautiful woollen jumpers Davina has knitted me over the years anyway... (I don't often put products on this blog, and only ones I use or am about to use, and I think plastic in the oceans is important enough to merit this little bit of a plug, if you'll forgive the pun.)

Positive news is needed, so that folks do not slide into despair and (the wrong kind of) inaction. So you may also like Positive News which is on line and in print, and is good journalism about good things. Their recent revamp and redesign has made this much less 'fluffy' and a really good read.

November brings good things

I don't only teach in Sweden to visit Mozart the cat.

I also go to see these creatures.

Ancient labyrinth on top of a ridge in Vasteros.

Connecting hands in Aberdeenshire last week.

Mountain dragonwalk

Seen yesterday on the edge of the Cairngorms ...

The sky got even more beautiful as the sun set with geese and raptors overhead

Samhain

Greetings from the day of thin veils. I have been teaching veterans T'ai chi this morning, and they are coming along really well, thanks to Kevin's regular teaching. On the way home I picked up some food. The shops are full of orange and black tat. Still, at least Britain has moved on from burning witches.

Today while getting my paints out, I kept remembering the character Johnny from 'The Fast Show' who was a hobby watercolourist, and kept saying, 'It's black! Black! You throw me in the pit and feed me scraps...'  So here's something black for you.

All my old black T'ai Chi clothes, plus a few old blue tops, as the night sky down to a sunset glow on the horizon. Yellow fabric as the stars of the Plough. It's my 'Step Forward to the Seven Stars' rug. And yes, pedantically, it does point to the North Star correctly, when placed in front of my stove. The black is forgiving of the dropped ashes, too...

A little help from my friends

If you have time over the next few days, please have a look at my art website, which I am in the process of updating, revamping and generally trying to make it lovely, before I approach the 'joy' of also doing Instagram for my visual art work and teaching. Any feedback would be useful.

I also need to make flyers for the new T'ai Chi class. This means a lot of screen time for me this weekend, which is a shame, but both these online things lead to great activities in the real world of nature and people, and so I shall just go and make a coffee, and get on with it.

Much as I would rather sit and stare at the river, and feed the huge cygnet and her dad.

New morning beginners T'ai Chi class at Tooting Bec Lido

For the first time in over 7 years I am starting a class suitable for total beginners. It will run on Wednesdays 9-10am from 21st November at the wonderful purpose-built pavilion of Tooting Bec Lido, the huge listed Art Deco era outdoor swimming pool on Tooting Common. Great pictures and info here. I am so looking forward to it and will write more later. I need to make flyers and ask for your help in getting them around the area, if you live locally, and telling your friends too in person or online, if you feel moved to do so. I used to live in Tooting and some of my family live nearby, so it's especially nice to be back amongst the big trees and wide open skies of the lido.

The lido.

The class will be warm ups, form, chi kung and maybe sticking, eventually. For partner work or advanced study, folks will be welcome to Join Mark's Tuesday class in Tooting in the new Year, or my Monday class in Hampton Court, if they catch the T'ai Chi bug. The lido class will be an hour long and cost £8 for the general public and £5 for SLSC members (that's those amazing folks who swim in the freezing cold all winter!) This keeps the price in line with the yoga and Pilates that goes on at the venue.

The entrance, 50m back from Tooting Bec Road. There is plenty of parking.

The venue has a sedum green roof and covered outdoor space.

All are welcome, get in touch for more details or look here in a few days when I have made posters and flyers. Any of Mark's students who would like to come along and assist me are welcome to do so for free, just let me know when you would like to come. After class there will be 15 minutes where we can have a cup of tea in the social area by the studio. In warm weather we can work outside by the pool, or have the glass wall open to the sky, trees and water. It is a superb venue, and underused. More soon...

View from the studio which is used for classes, events and meetings.

National Park City Map

London will be the world's first National Park City. Next year will see the launch but in the meantime there are wonderful maps you can get, subsidised by the National Trust, showing all the green and blue spaces of the wider London area, all walks, allotments, green spaces and of course, parks. It is a lovely map, and I am already itching to get out there. The maps are a great resources for walking, cycling, paddling, playing, gardening and all those other forms of fun which enrich us all. Claim yours, and make donations at: Urban Good. I knew the rivers Mole and Ember were near me, but I did not know the Dead River, which I have just found on the rivers map overleaf from the main map. Apparently it is currently choked with invasive plants. I will ask the EA guys at the lock if they need volunteers.

T'ai Chi and nature

Over many years I have found out by doing, that the famous 'correct touch' for T'ai Chi as spoken about in the Classics, and the correct touch for making things with natural materials, are so similar as to be the same thing, just in differing contexts. Both require sensitivity, joined-up-ness and the ability to change moment to moment, rather than imposed fixed ideas upon the situation at hand. The correct mind for T'ai Chi and working with nature are also the same: expanded open awareness, concentration, connection, absorption, and importantly, humility. Ah, the last one will get you anyway, the bop on the nose, the ungainly trip, the bruised pride: as likely in the woods as in the T'ai Chi Class. Also, sudden moments of grace and natural movement, something ineffable glimpsed, a great push, surprising groundedness, an application settling into the body, also common to both realms. I am very lucky to be able to work in both these arenas, and sometimes simultaneously.

Here's a couple of photos from Joe's FB site. He's such a great wilderness skills instructor, go have a look at his site. There's an ever-present theme in my life since I was 5 years old: great teachers. I'll never stop being grateful for that, or aspiring to embody the same range of beneficial qualities in my own teaching.

Atlatl target practice last Thursday morning.

The Hunter Gatherers return to a slap up breakfast.