Mindfulness – Mysterium Coniunctionis

I was quite pleased when we moved to rural France to discover a quality Tai Chi course offered locally and at an astonishingly reasonable price. For the past three years I’ve been working with our instructor on the Yang style long form, and have learned almost the entirety, up to near the end of part 3, “The Sky.”

I’ve found during this time that I’ve become much more limber and more sensible about my movements and my balance. For nearly the entire three years I’ve had as my morning activity a round of Qi Gong followed by the Tai Chi form, outside by the river weather permitting or in our event space. My instructor wanted to push me a bit so he leant me a copy of this book, which was written by an American, but I read the French edition because of course here we are.

It was a good time to read a book about the internal focus of Tai Chi, because due to a few injuries (right knee, right shoulder, a recurrence of a previously repaired umbilical hernia) I’ve not been keeping up with my practice. In fact I’ve not done the form or even any Qi Gong exercises for two months. My body as a consequence feels its age for the first time in ages.

But I have tried nonetheless to bring the internal practice of Tai Chi into my daily life as I heal and get stronger. Sieh’s book is not revelatory or ground-breaking, but it is clear about topics which are often presented in tedious and confounding ways by overly technical writers. While physically sidelined I found it edifying and quite useful, and I hope to bring Sieh’s wisdom to bear when I get back in form.

It’s funny how much of Sieh’s book about the internal practice of Tai Chi relies on training with partners. It’s not easy to find someone to practice push hands with in the middle of nowhere.

Trying to choose a village in France to set up a small tourist rental biz was a challenging process. There were a lot of things to consider, we had very limited resources, we did hours of online research. All of that culminated in a three-week journey from Paris to Limoges and then all the way over to Marseille and back a couple summers ago.

There are literally hundreds of small towns in France which are charming and where houses are inexpensive. Many of these villages, however, are in decline. The businesses are closed, there are no young people, the tourists might drop by to see the local church or to do a hike, but they don’t stay or spend money. We visited a few dozen towns, some of which were magnificent and had exactly what we were looking for at very low prices.

But too often it was obvious that a town was fading irrevocably. Risking one’s life savings on a town without the potential to make a living was something we had to consider carefully.

We hit Treignac twice on our initial visit. It checked off several boxes: A medieval town with layers of history, a charming natural setting with a river and lakes, forests and mountains, a modern supermarket and hardware store, some small local specialty shops, a nice expat community of folks from the UK, proximity to a few larger cities. And, most importantly, an outdoor sports infrastructure and a developed beach at a lake which attracts tourists from late spring into the fall. Treignac had an energy that was missing in many other similar towns across south central France. And the population had actually increased lately.

One quite pleasant surprise here has been a Tai Chi course. For $40 a year we get three 90-min classes a week, two focused on Tai Chi and one on Qi Gong. Fifteen years ago I took two years of Tai Chi in Baltimore and I’d continued practicing on my own ever since. Having the opportunity to learn a new form and practice with a highly skilled teacher was something I never expected to happen in a village of under 1300 people in rural France.

Our instructor is nearly 70 but looks and moves like a man in his early 40s. He studied with a master from China and has a certification from the French government as an instructor. He is a patient, funny, and serious practitioner and instructor and gives detailed personal feedback. I’ve been doing Tai Chi and mindfulness for a long time and he has broken my bad habits down and rebuilt my practice in just a few months.

I hope to learn the full Yang style form with Alain. So far we have completed and are fine-tuning part I, ‘The Earth.’ Next up is Part II, ‘Man.’

It’s been a huge adjustment going from 20 years teaching and having either a small yard or no yard to having a massive garden on multiple levels to maintain. Often the work is intense and as an oldie I get stiff and sore. Tai Chi and Qi Gong have been a huge help in keeping these old bones limber, and as I reconnect to the natural world a bit of Taoist philosophy and attentiveness to my body and its connection to the universe will continue to ease my aches and pains.