Phew,  Round 7 was a difficult section for me. I had to take out row 49 because somehow I forgot the half-double crochets in between the double crochets. Once I got that right, came the decision on whether to remain with the same color or change. I decided blue but then realized that the last time the pattern called for bobbles I had used blue. Dang, so I made another color change again. Candy apple red or so the yarn claims.  I’ve used 2 shades of green, 2 shades of red,  2 shades of blue, 2 shades of yellow,  1 pink, orange, black and white thus far. I still have 2 shades of purple, 2 shades of brown and one more shade of blue to add into my mandala.

I have just completed Round 52 and it is now 48 inches across. Our table is 60 inches around, I’m excited to see it reach the edge of the table. I can’t say I’m fond of the white at this point but it is part of my journey.

This past weekend we attended International Tai Chi Day with our dear friend and instructor Marcus Carbos at the Norcom Center in Philadelphia.

Tai chi does not mean oriental wisdom or something exotic. It is the wisdom of your own senses, your own mind and body together as one process. ~Chungliang Al Huang

Of all the exercises I’ve tried thus far, I think that T’ai Chi is the best. Our instructor swears it can ward off disease, banish worry and tension, bring improved physical health and prolong life. It is a good hobby to begin at any point in life because it is suitable for everyone – the weak, the sick, the aged, children, the disabled and blind. It is also an economical exercise. As long as one has three square feet of space, one can take a trip to paradise and stay there to enjoy life for thirty minutes without spending a single cent. So far, I’ve lost weight and improved my balance. ❤
“Tai chi is the one exercise that can universally help solve our growing health crisis. It has stood the test of thousands of years. We have a generation of baby boomers with increasing health problems; old people who are sick, in pain, fearful, and cranky; a middle class that is increasingly incapable of affording most of the drugs that are prescribed for their ailments; children that are flaccid, diabetic and asthmatic. People of all ages are addicted to drugs, alcohol, sugar, cigarettes, and caffeine. Stress follows almost everyone like a shadow. “~Bruce Frantzis

Life comes with way too much stress like you I am looking for ways to reduce its impact without giving up my precious coffee.

Thursday night, Vic and I will be in Philly hearing Hal Holbrook doing Mark Twain Live. Holbrook’s been doing the show since it debuted in 1954 at the then-Lock Haven State Teachers College in north-central Pennsylvania. In 1966, he took the show to Broadway, where it won him a Tony; the TV version the next year won him his first of five Emmys.

For more than 62 years straight, more than 2,200 performances, Holbrook, now 92, has taken Twain on the road. Twain himself lived to be 74. Holbrook changes the show “all the time, suiting it to the moment, the time, the place, what just happened. Holbrook estimates he has worked up more than 15 hours of Twain material, an astonishing feat of memory. “When I come to Philadelphia,” he says, “I want to avoid stuff that I did before, and to make sure that I include material that seems to be talking about what’s happening today.”

I can’t help but wonder what Twain would think of our country today.