The Pain of Continuing

After Beginning Tai Chi there is, of course, Continuing Tai Chi. The main difference is that there are a series of exercises - donyos, toy-yos (sp?), etc, which are done in between sets. At first, they seemed unrelated to the Tai Chi set, but it did not take long to understand how they literally deepen the movements. It seems however, that the donyos may be at least partially to blame for taking me out of the action for a few weeks. I call the donyos "glorified squats" which is a bit harsh, but a good way of describing the essential movement. Our continuing class does 4 sets of 27 (for a total of 108 - the number of Tai Chi movements). That is a lot of effort in the legs and I am afraid that I may have forgotten the "lift with the legs, not with the back" mantra somewhere along the line. Then again, I have also been going to a chiropractor for a while to deal with some underlying back issues.

In any case, my spine got out of whack and I pulled a muscle the morning before I was due for a chiropractor session. The muscle stayed pulled and was in a state of constant spasm. I got some drugs from my mainstream doc (who is not really that mainstream, but that is another story), and then a second prescription when the first prescription proved to be ineffective.

I am on the road to recovery now and it is a boring road with a long list of things I shouldn't be doing and a near endless (i.e. over two weeks long) cycle of advances and setbacks. In the meantime, it snowed and I spent a day gazing helplessly at the snow while my husband and daughter played and then a second day in a medication free, pain free state of ecstasy at the sight of the blazing white snow and the deep blue sky.

There is no predicting how life will end out, but I try to remember the deep blue days.