Teaching Qi Gong online, and a move to Cleveland
Well, it’s certainly been an interesting nine months since I kicked off the Beginner’s Qi Gong class. Back in January and February, we had a little group going every Friday morning, and we practiced and cultivated qi together! I truly looked forward to it, and it definitely shifted something in my own practice, as it strengthened my desire to share the practice with others.
The very last NYC subway ride I took was on my way to teach a Qi Gong class at the Pathfinder institute on the morning of March 6th. On my way there, I tried to convince my parents to come home from a vacation, to beat the rush on the flights. I wasn’t successful, and had to reach for my practice to find some internal calm.
Our family plans of a Spring getaway had scaled back to some time on Long Island with my inlaws. Then, my daughter’s school closed abruptly the following Monday afternoon, a full week before her two-week school break was to start, so we packed up and headed out to Long Island early, assuming the in-laws would follow. I packed for two weeks, but in the back of my head, a sinking feeling told me it would be much longer than that. I brought a cake pan just in case, since we had two birthdays coming up. As covid cases quickly ramped up, it was clear we should all quarantine from one another, and play it safe. Weeks bled into each other, my daughter’s school went online, and we camped out in my in-law’s home in a 55+ community for months.
Meanwhile, my parents made it safely back to their home in Cleveland. Though I lived in NYC my entire adult life, more than twenty years, something had been calling me back there in the last year or two. I had reconnected with old school friends, started exploring the newer areas, and spent longer stretches of time during our visits. My husband and I talked about it from time to time– maybe we should just move to Cleveland?
I love NYC, and even loved raising a child there, but it was hard to see her not have a backyard to play in regularly, and be in a school where time outside was limited to two or three times a week. Our values as creative, wordly people reside in NYC forever, but our values as people directly connected with nature can only be at odds with city living. Still, we thought we’d give it another year or two, and then head out somewhere a bit more suburban, perhaps in the tristate, or perhaps Cleveland afterall.
It took a pandemic to light a fire under us. About a month in, we started thinking seriously about making a move, and explored several areas, with Cleveland winning out. We had connections there, my parents were there, and it felt removed enough to make an interesting and fresh start. Besides, we still had family in NY, and when we’re ready to make a move back one day, it’ll all be waiting for us!
During online school learning, coordinating a move, and other various and numerous stressors, I was practicing Qi Gong daily, to moderate both my health and my moods. I felt strong, and capable when I practiced daily– the shift was always palpable when I skipped several days, or even a week. Though we’ll never know if we had a mild form of covid in the beginning, (I had several symptoms, but who knows), it definitely felt like the Qi Gong was able to keep us healthy and strong.
After several weeks in lockdown in April, I decided to teach a weekly class online, so I could not only bring this amazingly valuable practice to people when they most need it, but also, so I would hold myself accountable in practicing regularly. I found teaching online during this time to be incredibly powerful as I was able to reach people I normally never would have been able to reach. Though I prefer in person teaching, there’s something really beautiful about opening up your home to others, and being invited into other’s private spaces. It’s far more intimate in some ways. I was able to teach throughout the winter and spring, and then went on hiatus come Summer.
This summer, we did all of the heavy lifting for a move to Cleveland, including finding a rental, getting all of our things here, and getting our daughter enrolled in school. It was quite a feat, and we couldn’t have done it without my parents, with whom we stayed while we looked for a new home.
Now, we are somewhat settled into our new (though still temporary) home here, and we are able to socially distance visit with my parents in their yard, where they live six minutes away. We have daily visitors of deer, squirrels, chipmunks, and a delightful groundhog, who often gather around the crab apple trees and oak trees, like old friends sitting down to brunch.
We are still looking for a home to buy, but our daughter is able to go to school in person here, and we’re able to have a little bit of breathing room. We feel so incredibly fortunate and grateful to be in the position we’re in, and can recognize that many more are struggling and suffering through.
One encouraging thought for us was that we could contribute at least two more votes towards ending this madness. I have found a political voice again, and write letters weekly and sometimes daily to Gov DeWine, asking for more stringent guidelines and mandates around getting covid under control in Ohio. It is a bit strange to go from a place where we all wear masks without question because we understand it’s for the good of the community, and where covid testing is now widely encouraged and available, backwards to a state with Karens abound in every Trader Joe’s, refusing a wear a mask, (or to mask up their children), and where covid testing is hard to come by for free, unless you have multiple symptoms and a doctor’s order. It’s no wonder the virus is still raging here, and elsewhere across the United States.
That being said, I know there’s a need for sharing this practice here, now, perhaps even more so than where I used to live in NYC. So stay tuned for a pending announcement of an online Qi Gong class restart in the coming weeks! 🙂
All in all, though I am sad to have had to leave NYC for now, I’m happy to be closer to some family who I haven’t been close to my entire adult life; I’m happy to be able to offer my child a backyard, and I’m happy to be able to see all sorts of living creatures out my window. Looking forward to whatever comes my way the next couple of years.