World Tai Chi Qigong Day, aka WTCQD, is always the Saturday morning at 10AM after Earth Day, or on the last weekend in April. This year, I was honored to be one of the presenters interviewed. The founders, Bill and Angela Douglass, started this organization the same year I began teaching Tai Chi to/for Kids, now known as Pushing for Peace.
At the end of April, in Boston, at the Harvard Osher Center for Integrative medicine, I "postered" with CJ Rhoads, Cari Shurman, Jill Basso, Ken Cini - colleagues who have focused on teaching Tai Chi/Qigong to kids almost as long as I have! Our paper (with a larger group of contributors) was published in this rag!
''
I enjoyed playing Push Hands in the Osher Center courtyard with anyone who was game. Push Hands is such a lovely, non-verbal method of communication. Opportunities for uproots were felt, acknowledged and flowed over as we continued to explore the infinity of the possible without the need for conquest.
I helped my Immortal Sisters, a fantastic non-profit, raise nearly 10K in a week for their scholarship fund. This worthy cause will provide Tai Chi/Qigong training to low-income women who want to provide healing energy to other members of their respective communities. My clock broke and it provided a quickie vid for their fundraiser.
I am teaching an ongoing, free class at Orinda Senior Village. Most of the residents there speak very little English, but we all share the same problems. Aging is the same for all of us.
My unpublished book, Pushing for Peace, is a lot like my Tai Chi form, still a work in progress. This book describes the evolution of the Peace Games, why they were born, how they developed and where they have gone in the past 26 years.
Our greatest accomplishment remains the ongoing lessons online for Josh Wesley at his refugee camp. (see the P4P home page!) He continues to make progress with his own training and share his skill level with the children and youth at Nakivale. In Josh's words:
"Peace Games is more than a practice. It is a journey back to yourself. Through gentle movement, stillness, and connection, we learn to quiet the mind, strengthen the body, and heal the heart.Under the guidance of Grand Master Marilyn Cooper, Peace Games creates a space where stress is released, inner peace is restored, and compassion begins to flow naturally. It teaches us that true wellness comes when the mind is calm, the body is balanced, and the heart is open. Every session is a reminder that healing is possible, growth is beautiful, and peace begins within us. When we nurture ourselves with love and awareness, we unlock the wholeness we were always meant to live in."
If you have it to spare, please donate to P4P. All of my teaching salary goes to this cause!
We are so fortunate relative to most of the other people on earth. Send a check to Pushing for Peace, 2 Irwin Way, #311, Orinda, CA. 94563, or donate securely by cc on this website.
Responses