Return...

Well, I'm back from taiji camp. I didn't really want to leave, and now I feel somewhat disoriented. It was an awesome experience. Great people, beautiful location, perfect atmosphere... *sighs* Guess I'll just have to wait until next summer, or else join the Emissaries of Light. They're the ones who run the Sunrise Ranch, where the camp was held. Very nice people. When I find a link to a decent page specifically about them, I'll post it. They've got a New Age flavor to them, but that's about all I know for sure.

The camp... Morning meditation at 6:30, breakfast, taiji practice from 9:00 to noon, lunch, break, taiji from 15:30 to 18:00, dinner, evening activities... The practice was wonderful. I don't usually get to work with such a large group of people. In my advanced class, there are only five of us. In the local intermediate group, we rarely have more than ten (often closer to five). So it was quite a change to work with thirty or so people. Some had less experience than I did, some had more. I learned a lot just from watching everyone. I did not get very many specific corrections (except in places where Don teaches the form differently than Bataan :D), but I made some very useful discoveries.

"Bend hip joint!" is not a new correction. Ben Lo said it repeatedly at his workshop last September. My revelation was that this really means "RELAX hip joint SO THAT it bends." This should have been obvious, as taiji is all about relaxing, but I only realized it last week. This makes my stances much more stable, and makes it possible to keep my sacrum straight while still maintaining relaxation. Another realization is that the body will suspend itself from the headtop if you ALLOW it to. If I just focus on the Dan Tian, my spine "wants" to pull itself up and straighten, with no effort on my part. I have a mental visualization of the seven chakras as lights along my spine that light up as the straightening reaches them :D. I suspect/hope that all this has improved my root. I may find out on Saturday.

Everyone I met at the camp was great, but the two I spent the most time with were Dina and Aaron. Dina is a Russian Jew living in Salt Lake with a degree in physical anthropology. She's got a great sense of humor, and can do the stereotypical "Jewish accent" perfectly, even though she doesn't normally talk that way. Her mom, Tanya, was also at the camp. She's a lot of fun as well, though I couldn't always understand her through her thick Russian accent. Aaron is a financial advisor who moved to Colorado when he got sick of the East coast. I think the three of us (Me, Dina, and Aaron) got along so well because we have similar senses of humor. We had a discussion about sarcasm one night...and how too many people get offended by it.

As far as extra activities... There are lots of hiking trails around the ranch. I only hiked one of them (twice). The first time, I couldn't find the trail down, so I made my own way down. I was on a hill and could see the ranch, and was walking very carefully because I didn't want to step on a rattlesnake (didn't see any, but they are known to be in the area). The second time, Aaron and Dina went with me, and we did find the trail down. Much easier that way. On Monday, we had a talent show. I played my Native American flute (got lots of compliments; makes me wish I'd played well enough to deserve them). Lots of people had to improvise something because they hadn't heard about the talent show before coming. People read poems, or did skits. Maxim (a Russian guy who gives very good backrubs) played his guitar. It was lots of fun, and was primarily about having fun. Next night was a birthday party for someone's spouse. I had maybe 3/8 of a cup of champagne...and didn't care for it. I had trouble even finishing it, in fact. Which was fine, other people liked it a lot more than I did so that left more for them.

Wednesday morning, we were all feeling sort of shell-shocked that we were actually going to have to leave... I can't wait to go back next summer. I do have a few pictures to post, but that will probably wait until next week as I got back to discover my DSL modem had died in the interrum and its replacement is supposed to arrive Monday. I really hope it does, as until then I will likely be going to my office on campus to do most of my internet stuff.