I can see the finish line!

So, 10 years ago I bought a Tai Chi book and DVD. They were Bill Douglas's "Idiot's Guide to Tai Chi" and his "Tai Chi Anthology" DVD. I practiced/played from time to time but never seemed to be able to get beyond lesson 3. There was always an excuse to not continue. There's not enough time, there's not enough room, I'm sick, it's too hard/complicated,etc. Well, last year we moved from Austin, Texas back to Pennsylvania and I managed to survive my first winter up in the frozen tundra of the north. I'm not an outside person in the winter though. It's too easy for me to get sick. So last winter I sat around the house, afraid to go outside and play, doing a little bit of something, and a whole lot of nothing. I felt bored and had to work twice as hard when spring came to get back into shape. When Spring, Summer, and Fall come along I'm good. I've got mountain biking to occupy my need to have something at any given moment to obsess about. When this winter came around I didn't want to do a whole lot of nothing again. So, I committed to sticking with it and learning the entire 64 movements of the Guang Ping Yang Tai Chi form from Bill Douglas's book and DVD. There's been some hiccups along the way, but for the most part I've practiced every day for going on 6 months to learn the form. 6 months ago I didn't know the difference betwen Guang Ping and Yang, or Chen, Sun, or Wu for that matter. I didn't know the importance of stance training, or that you can do more standing still than you can going mindlessly through the form over and over. I feel like I've come so far in such a relatively short amount of time. I have 2 more weeks, 2 more lessons before I can say I've learned all of the movements. I'm excited, and feel like to this point in my life completing this form is one of my life's greatest achievements. I'm excited because this is really just the start of my journey down the rabbit hole of the Tai Chi world. An art that took 6 months to "learn" will take a lifetime to "perfect". There are so many different layer and levels of understanding. I feel I've met a life long friend in Tai Chi. So, thank you Bill Douglas for producing the wonderful DVD and book that has guided me down this path along this journey!


P.S. I'd also like to thank Sifu Kuo Lien-Yang for bringing Guang Ping to America, Simmone Kuo for the wonderful books illustrating the finer details of the form, Petra Martinet for the inspiring video on YouTube that really brings the form to life, and everyone else who practices and plays the Guang Ping form. Without you keeping the art alive and well it wouldn't have been here patiently waiting for me to get off my butt and learn the form 10 years later!