My brain is feeling rather random right now, so I’m going to go with it rather than fight it. First of all, I tried the left side of the Sword Form today with a fair amount of trepidation in my heart. I haven’t done it in six months, and I was sure it would take me some time to relearn it. I’m having some difficulties with the left side of the Solo Form, though not nearly as much as when I first learned it. I love the Sword Form the most, so it would really discourage me if I had to relearn the whole left side again. I started it with my heart in my mouth, telling myself I’d just do it until I fucked up badly enough to have to start over. That’s another thing about the left side for me. If I mess up, I can’t just go back a posture or two and start over. I have to go back to the beginning or at least several postures back. It’s frustrating, to say the least. I made it all the way through the first half making only one major mistake (which I fixed, sort of), and decided to keep going. I got stuck on one posture early in the second half, struggled through it, then breezed through the rest of it.
When I finished, I felt exhilarated. I made it through the whole left side of the Sword Form with only two noticeable mistakes! That was way better than I thought I’d do, and it was a relief to me that I wouldn’t have to teach it to myself again. It also reminded me how much I love doing the Sword Form, and I should do it every day as I used to. Next up will be something my teacher mentioned in class recently–moving through the form smoothly, using momentum to go from posture to posture. I love the Sword. It is my absolute favorite part of taiji, and I don’t feel like I’m really doing taiji if I’m not practicing it.