6/27 Tuishou
Due to lack of sleep and possibly other things, I was tired all day Wednesday. Looking out at the heavy rain, I thought I should skip class that night.
But the rain stopped, and I often feel better after a good practice, so I decided to go. It was 8:30 and a few students had already arrived. I did a little warming up but wasn’t in the mood for forms just yet and just watched other people push. Yang Qing-feng arrived and began working on the sword form, so I got my sword out and walked over to an unpopulated part of the square to practice the sword form. Immediately, the dancing women, who were sitting around on the stage talking, rushed out to retake their ground I had so inconsiderately infringed upon. I sat on the edge of the stage while they went through song after song.
Eventually they got tired and left, so I could get at least one form practice in before doing some pushing. I didn’t do much strenuous pushing as I was too tired, but it went fairly well. Not-from-China Guy and I did our usual shoving match. Mr. You found it hard to find any points to push me, and even Qing-feng, who usually has no trouble pushing me over, gave me a good bout. I’m finding that relaxing my shoulders and arms, as well as lowering my stance very useful. Now I just need to be able to do that with my lower back.
At one point I noticed that everyone had gathered around to watch Teacher Xu instruct Mr. V on pushing. Mr. V was going at him again and again, almost in a languid kind of frenzy, trying to understand some point or another.
We went until after 10:30, and I did actually feel quite a bit better afterwards. The more I do this, the more I’m convinced that there is more to us than physically meets the eye, that the exchange of energy between beings is important in our existence. It’s hard to pinpoint, just a feeling, but I’m hoping to find out more about it.
