Author: annebower

Former academic, tai chi instructor since 2005, tai chi trainer since 2014, writer

Vegetables, vegetables, vegetables

annebower

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not complaining. Our garden, despite weeds galore, is now in full production mode. And that means that yours truly is in full veggie-processing mode. Wax beans and cauliflower today, so that frozen food can feed us during winter. And a second jar of fermenting dill pickles.

By the way, if you like pickled things, and have some cucumbers on hand but don’t want to work hard or wait for them, here’s a simple refrigerator pickle that we like a lot.

Ingredients: Cukes (any variety), onions, water, cider vinegar, salt and pepper to the degree you like them.

Process: Slice your cukes and onions–about 1/2 the amount of onions as cukes. Place in a jar. Add salt and pepper. Make a mixture that’s half vinegar and half cool water and pour this over the cukes and onions so they’re covered. Place lid on jar and put in fridge. They are ready the next day but will become more potent over time. Note: don’t let them sit around too long–they lose their crispness.

Revising, reviewing, improving

annebower

You know how sometimes you practice and practice your tai chi? At a certain point you become so wrapped up trying to improve, that you begin making judgments about what’s working and what isn’t, until you really can’t continue. You get all caught up inside your brain and your body doesn’t know what to do anymore!

Writing can be like that too. You create a piece of fiction, an essay, a poem. Nah, you say to yourself, it needs revision. And so you tinker with it: Move parts around, change words, add a sentence, delete another. At a certain point you throw up your hands–is it getting better or not????

In either tai chi or writing we have to walk away. Let the brain settle, let the body relax, stop being overly critical. Getting input from a trusted friend or teacher can help immensely. With tai chi, attending class brings new insights. With writing it’s a bit different. What I’ve found is that reading someone else’s work often brings new insights and helps me find new ways to write my own stuff.

Perhaps it’s the same with composing a song, painting a picture? We need input, one way or another. And yet, finally, we have to satisfy ourselves. It takes a while to trust oneself, to say–this will do–this is good–I like it just the way it is.

Garden Time

annebower

Here in Vermont almost everyone I know has a garden of some kind. It may only consist of a few containers of tomatoes, basil, and lettuce on the porch or patio. It may include some raised beds, allowing for more extensive veggies. Or, as in my case, we get right down in the dirt among rows of kale, cabbage, beets, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, celeriac, and the like. My partner Jim ran an organic vegetable farm in earlier days and has taught me so much about how things germinate and grow. He still enjoys starting plants from seed. Right now we have a flat of new lettuces, kohlrabi, cauliflower and broccoli sitting in the sun provided by the big south facing window.

A garden is blissful and yet it’s often both a struggle against critters and a struggle with our own aging bodies. We try to outdo the bugs, using only sprays that are organically acceptable. But that struggle with our aches and pains? There’s no spray for that. We set up lawn chairs in convenient locations, keep our water bottles beside them, and take breaks that way. When it’s too hot, the breaks occur indoors.

For me, stretching in between tasks and varying my posture makes a huge difference. Sometimes I weed walking along with a tall hoe, sometimes I’m crawling around like a cat with a hand hoe, both knees on the ground. Other times it’s one knee on the ground, one bent leg with foot on the ground. The dirt and I are good friends.

And as you might guess, taking tai chi breaks really helps. Working in the garden can feel like WORK, while tai chi feels like PLAY. The garden produces food (and a few flowers too). Tai chi produces deep relaxation, meditation, a sense of grace and power.

Immersion experiences

annebower

There’s something to be said for dabbling–putting your toes in the water, so to speak. We all benefit from trying things out or giving our energy to a practice for a while without major commitment. We learn, we grow, and then go on to something else.

But diving into a practice deeply provides a very different kind of experience. Last week I spent five packed days with writers and writing instructors at a retreat in Maine. Each morning our major workshop, where eight of us considered 5,000 words of each other’s writing, met from 10-1 under the leadership of an accomplished teacher. After a break we had our choice of “craft workshops” where the focus might be on creating dramatic tension in poetry, best practices for paragraphs, basic rules for publishing in the USA, and other choices too. Evenings were given over to readings–some from the faculty, some in which we students could share our efforts. The full effect was stimulating, inspiring, and supportive. Now that I’m home again my hope is to keep the writing mojo going and not lose the benefits gained from this time away.

If you have an opportunity to immerse yourself in an experience like that–grab it. Maybe it will be in the arts or a business interest or tai chi?

A different kind of graceful motion

annebower

Below you will find a video–but it’s not of people doing tai chi or dancing, it’s the grace and power of a machine. At our house we’re having a new septic system installed. First there was the construction fellow on his big tractor digging holes, moving huge stones, then off the machine and cutting brush with a chain saw, back on the machine to move more dirt, and finally, clear a path for the truck that would deliver the septic tank and pumping station that goes with it.

Before clicking on the video, please turn down the sound on your device–the delivery truck’s motor makes a racket.

What most impressed me was the slow, gradual movement of the machinery, with the operator carefully using his handheld device to direct the whole operation. The video is just over 4 minutes long. You certainly don’t have to watch it all (I find it kinda mesmerizing). I’m putting it here to remind us all that grace comes in many forms.

Cataract surgery

annebower

A week ago I underwent cataract surgery on my left eye. The right was done 3 years ago and while it improved my vision somewhat, the kind of startling results I’d heard about from friends seemed to slip past me. But this time…..

I’d asked the eye surgeon to see if she could mostly work to improve my near vision. Imagine my surprise on day three post-op, when I held the little container of eye drops in my hand and without wearing my glasses could read the tiniest print on that bottle. And what had been poor vision from my left eye compared to the right is now fine.

Isn’t it nice when things work out? What also pleases me is that the eye drop routine this time around is much simpler than when I had my first eye done.

At this stage of life it seems that everyone I know has to have some kind of procedure. Among my little circle we’ve had two knee replacements, skin cancers scraped off, a case of visual instability that’s gradually improving, and now a friend who has a tiny cancer on her eyelid that has to be removed. It’s wonderful that these repairs can be made to our aging bodies.

Some things can’t be repaired. We lose our friends. A dear woman here in Pomfret, Marge Wakefield, died this past week of a heart attack. When I heard about it I was so shocked I nearly fell into the nearby chair. She was only sixty-nine and the most community-minded, generous, well-organized, smart, good humored person you’d ever meet. We will all miss her so much.

Artists Amaze

annebower

Mid-April 2026. When the world is too much, art is a lifeline. We are lucky to have the Hood Art Museum nearby, with a large permanent collection and brilliantly curated changing exhibits. And it’s free! Yesterday a friend and I spent two hours there and once again I was overcome by the combination of deep skill and powerful imagination that goes into a piece of art. This is what we are capable of as human beings–this dedication to a practice, be it painting or sculpture, beadwork, quilting, basketry, ceramics, photography or some other form. To become good at whichever art, years of learning and practice, right? To have the imagination to foresee what you want or can make and then give yourself to it, let it take you into the making, trusting the process. Wow, right? And the patience–oh my god–the patience to put all that effort into one piece and trust yourself that it will add up to something.

Wherever you live, please do give yourself the pleasure of visual arts–at a gallery or museum. Even at Farmers’ Markets you find craftspeople displaying and selling their wares, and some of them are magnificently skillful.

Well, you say, no art can compare to nature. So don’t compare them! Nature’s wonders are multiple, magnificent, awesome, even overwhelming sometimes. Love it.

Two Announcements

annebower

I really should post more but get so occupied with other things that it skips my mind. HOWEVER, as April starts there are two things I REALLY want you to know about.

Saturday, April 25, 10-11:30. World Tai Chi & Qigong Day Celebration at the bandstand in Lyman Park, White River Junction. Join tai chi instructors Anne Bower and Kathy Tracy for fun experiences with both tai chi and qigong. No experience required. Bring friends and family of any age. We’ll have healthy snacks, some snazzy demonstrations, and lots of information about how tai chi can benefit your health.

A New Way You can Help Older Vermonters—–Tai Chi Vermont, Inc. is looking for people with exercise and healthcare-related experience who would like to become instructors of Bafa Wubu, a simplified tai chi form recently created in China but making headlines here. During two one-day trainings we can help you build on your prior experience (yoga, other tai chi forms, dance, etc.) and learn safe and effective ways to teach this intriguing form.

Perhaps you’ve heard about Bafa Wubu—it translates as eight methods/five directions or eight energies/five directions. There are lots of Bafa Wubu videos on YouTube.

Like other Tai Chi forms, Bafa Wubu has multiple benefits, especially for older folks, including improved balance, fall prevention, and coordination, greater focus and memory, posture and alignment, and a reduction in both mental and physical stress.

Certification training for the first half of Bafa Wubu takes place May 15. A follow-up training for the second half will occur on July 24. Our location is St. John’s church in Randolph, VT. Register quickly to reserve your space. Support for the training fees may be available. Training leader: Ellie Hayes and Zhen Wolffe.

To learn more, visit Tai Chi Vermont’s website: www.taichivermont.org

    Changes and opportunities in The Year of the Horse

    annebower

    We had fun at our Lunar New Year parties in White River Junction and Woodstock. Other tai chi instructors led similar events in Montpelier, Springfield, Castleton, etc. We always enjoy this special time when we can bring together beginner and advanced students and newcomers as well. The Year of the Horse portends change, personal and community-wide too.

    Change it is! I’ve just been updated my “classes” page on this website and am looking foward to fewer classes via Zoom and more time to spend in person with tai chi learners. Change is hard but often rewarding, so I encourage us all to accept the inevitable, go with the flow, continue learning one way or another.

    I’m also excited to create more time to work on my novel, “Her Last Cookbook.” It’s a love story, a food story, a bit of an historical novel, but overall forms a late life coming of age story for Miriam Bernstein. She’s having to contend with heart disease, the pandemic, changes at her restaurant (Geometry) too. Drafts of her newest cookbook are part of the novel. If all goes well, the novel should be available in a bit over a year.