Friday, September 11, 2009

The Tai Chi principle of finding balance

When I was living in Ann Arbor I decided to take a Tai Chi class. Although I can't remember any of the movements - one philosophical part of the practice has stayed with me.

An important part of Tai Chi movements is to find balance - at the end of each series one normally finds one self in a very solid and balanced position. Tai Chi is a form of martial arts - so, the purpose of all this balance is to make sure you don't end up on your back. The principle that is found in all series of movements is that to get to a place of balance in a particular position you must first step beyond that place or even sometimes go the opposite direction.

When I first told Kendra about this year of deconsumption - her first reaction was "why do you have to be so extreme about it?" The point of being extreme is not that I expect to give up all these things - but, rather that I will hopefully come to a place of more balance when it's all over. And to do so I need to step a little beyond of where I hope to finish.

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