I leave home, my husband driving me to the International Centre in Orangeville, for my ongoing stay four to five days per week.

I arrive at the Centre, unpack, and settle in, already feeling a sense of peace and stillness envelop me. I help by opening some of the temples and this has a way of immediately centering me. My diaphragm and abdomen drop. I come alive inside.

After, I make my way over to the practice hall from the Farmhouse and I begin my daily practice with some toryu. They feel solid. I can feel the circulation build, my bones, soft tissue, and insides all responding together. The deep relaxation and energy even more pronounced here at the International Centre than at home. The sense of health returning and my mind letting go of the fear and what if’s that come with complicated illness. This gift of being able to spend days and chunks of weeks here just working on building my strength and health back up. Twenty-five years of having my body, mind and spirit deeply respond to the Taoist Tai Chi® arts that our founder Master Moy Lin Shin left us.

“Thank Goodness,” I think, “that I have this in my life.”

A long time ago, I would go to D’Arcy Street to see Master Moy three to five days a week as part of my treatment plan for health issues. Sometimes Master Moy would go away for several weeks to teach a workshop. Daisy Francis, who Master Moy was also helping, told me to make sure I still came to see Master Moy even if he was away. So, I did. Another man who also would visit Master Moy dropped by and asked me why I was still coming down from north of the city three to five times a week if Master Moy was not even there. I was young, but I knew that coming and practicing even when alone was crucial. In fact, the alone practice had me progress and improve just as if he was in the room.

It is the same at the Centre. I am alone. I have no physical instructor. I am not attending a class. There is no one by my side holding my hand teaching me and yet I nevertheless come week after week. Week after week, I improve and get stronger. I do my practice. I help as much as I can with chores and tasks, and I still feel the same as if I were attending a series of workshops. The source is here, Taoist Tai Chi® arts are practiced here, and we can get better here.

It is such a precious gift being able to come to our International Centre and train like this. Thank you, Fung Loy Kok Institute of Taoism and the Board of Directors. Thank you for making this available to all of us.

Mary, Ontario