Sunday 20 August 2000 00:00 Today I practiced T'ai Chi in the stripe of sun on my back porch, the boards warm beneath my feet, the cool air playing around me. The porch faces south, and it was near noon, so the stripe ran evenly down the length of the porch about two and a half feet in from the edge. Shaded boards cool, sunlit boards warm. With your eyes closed, in bare feet, you could easily walk straight along that line of sunlight. While I practiced, goldfinch were feeding in my overgrown back yard, clinging by their toes, sideways, as birds do, to the tall, upright grass stalks and weeds as they ate the seeds. They ate and talked amongst themselves, and paid me no mind. In the meadow, beneath the apple trees, two crows picked at the fallen apples, hopping about and squawking at each other like an old married couple doing their Saturday shopping. The wind whispered in the grass and in the pines and in the maple tree. Sometimes when I practice, I play T'ai Chi music. Today I didn't need it.   Copyright © 2000 New Moon Please feel free to comment at: The Madwoman's Message Board