“Always let your conscience be your guide,” said Jiminy Cricket. But every now and then, I’m guided by something a little more random and unpredictable: long-buried, decades-old documents that fall out of books belonging to myself and other family members. My mother in particular had a habit of tucking letters, cards and slips of paper into her books. Some of them related to the book, some not. When I find these messages, they make me laugh, cry and remember.
I found this one in a book about China: “Peace, wisdom and happiness: when you find one, the other two are sure to follow.” I have found this advice to be quite useful. In t’ai chi lessons, it illustrates the idea that perfection is neither instant nor attainable. Just by successfully remembering one out of three movements, for example, the brain gets cheered up by the idea that progress is in the near future. Then, there’s the added bonus of randomness. That little piece of paper was just lurking inside a book, put there for safekeeping and then forgotten.
So when I approach the t’ai chi with a little bit of anticipation and curiosity, I might learn something new about this practice that I’ve enjoyed for more than 20 years. Keeping a beginner’s attitude allows for the possibility of something dropping in, unexpectedly welcome and maybe even useful.
