I’ve never been an athletic person. I don’t think you should run unless a big dog is chasing you. I don’t like to sweat or get my heart rate up, and I don’t like feeling out of breath. Unfortunately, sticking to my ‘no exercise’ rule for 30-some years has created a body that sweats, gasps and pounds its heart carrying a load of laundry from the basement to the top floor. I think I might need to exercise.
Number 8 on my ‘To Do’ list of life is ‘learn some form of martial arts without actually practicing’, and I think Tai Chi is where it’s at. I’ve watched a couple of videos on YouTube, and it looks so calm and beautiful. There appears to be very little sweating, and most people seem to do it in their pajamas! That’s right up my alley. (If it could also be done in your sleep it’d be a shoe-in.)
On the movie Calendar Girls these older ladies get together in the early mornings and practice their Tai Chi on the lush English hillside, and they look great! Surely I could do it, too. Of course, I’ll have to overcome my issues with strength and balance, but I’m sure I’ll come out graceful and deadly.
Heh – just spotted the label on your drawing. I have to say, your blog makes me smile every day. I check it out with my cereal, over here in Helsinki, Finland. I am starting to feel a bit like a stalker though, since I gather that most of your readers are known to you in real life. But I’m not, I promise! (Or is that what stalkers always say?)
Don’t worry Ribs. I to am an observer that no one knows. I just pretend that all these crazy and funny people are my friends.
I’m not afraid of stalkers – I almost know tai chi! 😉
Besides, the people we haven’t met are more interesting anyway. I wanted to ask Kitt if we could stay at her place when we went through Denver, but Lauren said that I would sound like a stalker.
And the rest of us??? Chopped liver? Hrmph.
Why would anyone complain about being liverwurst?
You should try it! Great drawing.
(Ribs, if you’re a stalker, I am, too.)
I LOVE that drawing! Dang, I wish I could draw.
I think Cricket already knows TaiChi. I mean, have you seen the way she handles Pfennig? And small children?
It’s the “older ladies who get together” part that’s enough to keep me away!
Maybe there’s some machine you can strap into before sleeping that will exercise FOR you while you sleep. That would be cool, wouldn’t it? Somebody should invent it. They’d make millions. Dang. I wish I would invent it.
Someone has made it! Have you seen Wallace and Grommit’s The Wrong Trousers?
http://tiny.cc/wwIMM
(I hope my link worked, I “tiny urled” it!
I think that would be cool. I think it’s about finding your center (core) and pulling physical strength from there.
How many Tai Chi masters do you have in Seward?
I think just me.
You’re going to be awesome, Master Lauren!
(low, respectful bow like Mr. Miagi)
I’d love to see you leading a group of 3 & 4 year olds in this time-honored exercise. They’d all be doing the Kung Fu Panda moves as you gracefully try to maintain your own balance.
Oh! YES!!
I put Vanilla Chai Spice creamer in my coffee every morning. It’s not spelled the same, but I’m sure it’s the same as Tai Chi.
Your whole 1st paragraph is so me! If only there was some sort of pill we could take to make us LOVE to move & sweat!! (there isn’t, I’ve already asked my doctors)
Excellent post — you so funny!!!!
I’m sorry…
What continuously runs through my head when I look at your picture is:
“Right hand ahcircle, left hand ahcircle…wax on, wax off…” (or “..sandahfloor…”)
Better to have Cricket look like a chipmunk than a grasshoppah.
Oh, and you are in good company as far as reasons to not run:
“I believe that the Good Lord gave us a finite number of heartbeats and I’m damned if I’m going to use up mine running up and down a street.” ~ Neil Armstrong, test pilot and astronaut
I think that’s my new favortie quote. Heh.
Did you see the Tai Chi masters in the Olympics? 2008 of them performing in unison in huge concentric circles. It was pretty dnag impressive!