Practicing Tai chi

For two afternoons this week (September 11 and 12) we practiced tai chi, a traditional physical exercise rooted in the martial arts tradition and dedicated to disciplined movement and breathing. Who knew that moving slowly could be so much work! The physical education instructor who taught us introduced one element of a routine at a time, and then had us put all the parts together into a movement that was supposed to be smoothly flowing and – ideally – go along with the cadence of traditional music. Sometimes we practiced as a group and at other times he worked with one row of us at a time.