Puckett started the class with the “ping” of a tiny meditation gong. Standing in a circle, they followed Puckett through 19 movements and one pose. They shifted their weight back and forth and side to side. Students pushed their palms forward as if pushing through heavy air. Then they turned their palms over and began to pull back.This was the last session of her class, where students sought improved energy, focus, health, posture, creativity and less stress.
An avid traveler, Puckett envisioned teaching her friends the art in Guatemala on a helicopter pad, across from volcanoes and floating clouds at Lake Atitlan. Her dream would become a reality. Madorsky, 85, said T’ai Chi Chih has lowered her blood pressure when she’s become angry. That was the case at a doctor’s appointment when the physician was late to the clinic. If a passer-by had looked through the cracked exam room door, they would have seen Madorsky in her stance, circling positive energy with her hands.
Years ago, while attending graduate school in Austin, Denise Richter, 61, first saw the art in action. The retired professor emerita of journalism recalled sitting beside an older Chinese man on a bus that passed people practicing Tai Chi in a park.“That’s Tai Chi,” he said. “It saved my life.”