A mere two stops south on the subway the train comes above ground and we arrive in Chicago’s Chinatown. We were heading to the Chinatown branch of the Chicago Public Library for a Tai Chi class.

We made our way to the back row and as we arranged ourselves our teacher appeared in yellow silk pajamas. He was a small man and spoke no English. We were going to have to figure this out on our own. Class began with some warm ups and everyone else knew what to do, so we followed along.

Our teacher then turned on the lovely, soothing music and our classmates all began slow beautiful movements. What we did was flow along as if we knew what to do. At a pause in the music our fellow students insisted we move to the middle (!) so when everyone turned to the back we would have people to watch. I guess we didn’t fool anyone with our “carrying the moon” movement. My right and left-brain were working overtime as I tried to move my arms for “wave hands in the clouds” or step out low for “snake creeps through the grass”.

The benefits I had heard of came to me from the calm music, the concentration the movements require, the camaraderie of helpful classmates, and the smiling teacher. On a cold, grey morning in that weird week between Christmas and New Year I felt better, gently challenged and hopeful for a coming year.