The animal in me

Wednesday night usually finds me at practice. I had missed the previous couple of weeks due to me moving my company into a larger office space.
T'ai Chi is a great stress reliever for me. I need to do things like this, for my mind as well as my body. Plus it gets me out of the house from time to time!

Having missed quite a lot of classes recently, I'm out of shape (in a relative sort of way). To my surprise, I felt really good when we started Slow Set (108 postures, usually done in about 30 minutes). Just fell back into the postures and transitions, like I'd never left. This kind of feeling does not happen very often. The last time was when Master was in town for a weekend seminar a couple years ago. It is really hard to describe this to non-martial arts practitioners, although I'll try.
The best thing that comes to mind is moving like an animal. A way of moving without conscious thought, only instinct. The movements become fluid, the mind clear. Being able to feel every joint, every muscle group moving under your direction is a fantastic thing. No movement is wasted, everything efficient and powerful. I think they call this the T'ai Chi trance. Not the best description, because trance to me sounds more like a dream state. My mind is in the present, my focus clear and control over my body is complete.
Of course, there were a couple bobbles, as my atrophied muscles could not pull off the movements with the same ease and grace that I always strive for. Mastery of something to me is being able to make the impossible look simple. I'm certainly many decades from that, but it's fun and inspiring to see glimpses of that once in a while.