On always being a beginner and the lessons of martial arts:

From Janparker's blog:

11/08/07 My very first Tai Chi student was a man in Eugene, Oregon, named Milton. His daughter wanted me to work with him. She thought the movement and concentration would be good therapy. Milt was recovering from a stroke. I agreed to meet with him for private lessons and I'm not sure who learned the most, me or Milt!

As a result of the stroke Milt lost his short term memory. He couldn't remember anything that had just happened. Each week, was like a brand new time for Milt. I would always introduce myself to him and explain why I was there. It was like having your first tai chi lesson again and again and never remembering that you even had a tai chi lesson. But, each week at every lesson, we would move. I would teach Milt to raise his hands and lower them again. He was able to do it with me, but when asked to do it on his own, well, he didn't know what he had just done, so, he couldn't. What his skill was though, was his ability to mirror me. Extremely well. If I reached out to correct him on a posture, he would reach out to correct me! But then the next week, we would do it all over again from the beginning, brand new.

As time passed the experience we shared, started to go to a different part of Milts brain, and the short term, became the long term. He would remember that he had met me, but not always why I was there. He could remember to move slow, but not any set or form.

One day, Milt's wife called me laughing so hard, you could tell she had been crying. She said, "I wish you could have seen Milton this morning"! He had been getting dressed and she said he was moving in slow motion and had one leg in the air as he put on his underwear. "What are you doing, Milt"?, she asked. "Tai Chi", he so proudly remembered!

I tell this story, because, even if this is an extreme case, it is in a sense how all of us learn. For some reason, as adults, we think if we are shown something once or twice, we should be able to master it. I do this myself and I see this in the classes I teach. Students become full of frustration, embarrassment, and at times shame, because they can't remember or don't understand, the lesson in front of them.

Milt had none of those feelings, in a sense, he was the perfect Tai Chi student. He took what came his way and did his best with it. He practiced when he thought of it.

My full circle study group met with Sam this last week for four full days. In all of it, there were times of comfort, times of intense concentration and times where things just went right over my head. My experience though has taught me, to just stay. The parts that are comfortable change as we understand more, the places of intense focus, will at times become softer and broader and the work that goes over ours heads, will come around again and again and again, until we surprise ourselves and one day, we say, wow, "I'm doing Tai Chi".

Jan
www.JanParkerArts.com