My Qigong Tree

I have had weekly Qigong lessons for over two years. My teacher Iris Kitagawa-Rainey would come every week and we would go in my building’s yoga room, or Qigong room as I started calling it. Then the pandemic happened.

We didn’t see each other for two and a half sad months. My practice continued uninterruptedly. Qigong truly showed its value. As things started to ease up a little we began talking about meeting again, but they had closed the yoga room.

We have a park down the street, and I wondered about going there. Iris thought it sounded like a great idea. They say that optimally you should practice Qigong with your bare feet in the Earth. We picked a day with pleasant weather and finally met.

We walked to the park, basically a straight shot. I showed Iris how to find a shoreline - a constant guide for use with a cane. We made our way to a tree and began class. I couldn’t remember the last time my bare feet had touched the Earth.

It felt wonderful! Wind blew through the leaves of the tree above me. My hands would occasionally brush against them. The sun streamed down. Birds sang. Even the noise from the traffic and the others in the park felt welcome.

I felt the stress of the last few months begin to wash away. A little bit of normalcy had returned. We have returned to my Qigong tree a few times since then. The pandemic forced us to find it.