This project is an ongoing blog of monthly posts that began with the intention of helping students in my Tai Chi class at the local Y – a weekly gig I lost to COVID; which is when I refocused the monthly blog from learning Tai Chi to one learning to write and gave the blog a name, “Tai Chi & Me.”
The monthly post from Tai Chi & Me is called “Warners River Report – As an artist and local history writer beginning every morning with Tai Chi Chuan, facing the Snohomish River, I’m coming to think of my life as a river, requiring monthly reports.”
With an award of funding I will purchase an Oru Kayak to expand my experiences with the Snohomish River at Snohomish City.
The original (no-name) blog’s final essay was Post #14, “Creatures of Habit,” January 2020. The inaugural post on the Substack platform was “#30. The Urge to Float,” October 2021, which was accompanied by photos of people fishing from boats on the river.
The Urge to Float / to float above it all / above the news, the politics, / above you asking, / “What are you up to these days?” / “I’m floating,” I said. / “What does that mean,” you asked? / And that’s where this thought is stuck, / with an Urge to Float.
Since moving to Snohomish, where my wife and I renovated a 19th-century church in 2000, thoughts of kayaking are never far away. I tried once which was a disaster not to mention the sunburn, but it confirmed my wish to own a kayak one day.
The River gave birth to the Village of Snohomish, as it was first named, over 150 years ago. Love the History, and I love Tai Chi facing the River every morning … and the joyful struggle to describe an experience with a self-imposed monthly deadline to publish online.
(Which I’ve been doing since 2008 as a local history writer; I set my deadline with the day of my Social Security deposit, the second Wednesday.)
Celebrating my eightieth year, the blog “Tai Chi & Me” is my Project … “Until the End of the World,” to quote a favorite movie and song.
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Submitted 09.20.2022 — Grants for Artist’s Progress (GAP)— offered by Artist Trust.
I like that kayak Warner!!!
Your kayak will provide us all with wonderful new adventures I'm sure!