The T’ai Chi Ch’uan Way

Many of us were lucky enough to know and learn from the radiant Doreen Hynd during her lengthy (illegal, but that’s another story) sojourn on Hornby & Denman Islands. I was her student for 13 years; learning the Wu style under Doreen, who practised it for about 60 years, changed my life. She herself was trained over many years by Sophia Delza, a designated Master of Wu style, and the first to bring the form back from China.

Doreen’s life had so many ups and downs, shocks and disturbances, disruptions and new starts; yet she had an indomitable spirit that did not abandon her. Imagine talking pirates down from robbing you at knife point in the black of night on a junk somewhere in Southeast Asia, you on deck and your children below. Just one story.

She expected to live to 100, and died at 96, with daughter Rachel by her side. The entire time she lived in Canada, she had no medical insurance, but that was ok as, to my knowledge, she never needed a doctor. She listened deeply to her body always. She knew she needed to be outside and to move to keep her system humming. She did floor exercises every morning to stay supple. In her early 90’s, she would often walk the mile or so from my little cabin on Denman home to her place, just to “stretch her legs”, after giving me a 1 ½ hour lesson which I would have to end, exhausted from the focus. Lessons were followed by our soup & toast lunches, where we would freely canvas the world of ideas, unrestrained. Then that walk back, where I’d accompany her ½ way and she’d trek on the rest of the way, bright and firm in her step.

She was rarely injured until close to the end, when she had a fall at her daughter Ghretta’s house, and from then on, felt its effects. When a person in one of her classes spoke of a fall or other physical mishap, she

would gently inquire: “Were you doing it the T’ai Chi Ch’uan way”? With that quiet lesson, I learned to pay attention when leaning hard in one direction, when reaching a long way, when moving quickly. My frequency of physical injury has dropped significantly by incorporating that simple question into my daily activities: “Am I doing this the T’ai Chi Ch’uan way?” Although Doreen in her later years may have lost some memory of the exact sequence of the moves of the Wu style, she never, right until the end, lost her wisdom.

Doreen was so fully alive while she lived; she taught me that women can be sexual right into their 90’s. She had a dancing spirit and she trusted in the universe. Her adherence to Christian Science comported with her inquisitive nature and her belief in natural wellness, but she never proselytized to me.

The time of Covid was very difficult for Doreen, because she believed so strongly in well-being as something we cultivate ourselves; at that point in her life, the idea of a virus so contagious you couldn’t hug people was anathema. And a closed border was even worse! Nonetheless, she always expected to return for another visit to her beloved islands, and I often feel her cosmic presence when I am practising my T’ai Chi Ch’uan on the beach, especially on a windy day.

One of the key gifts Doreen gave me was her embodiment of the basic tenets, the core principles of T’ai Chi Ch’uan, which means “Practise of the Essence”: slowness, lightness, calmness, balance and clarity. I try to live my life with these principles close to me, close as Doreen remains in my heart. As I write this piece on Denman, I see three tiny hummingbirds in the rosemary, so like her vibrant spirit. May we each make of our lives an offering, as Doreen did.