One week before I met Gaspar I attended at workshop at Brietenbush Hotsprings. Brietenbush had contacted me earlier that year to be the workshop’s Qigong breakout teacher. The presenters usually offered Yoga but this year decided to try Qigong. For many years prior I had presented at Brietenbush so they asked me. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I was at a very low period of my life, in mediocre health, emotionally dejected and without direction. I almost didn’t except. One of my students looked at me and said, “why in the world would you refuse this?” It was the kick in the rump I needed. I accepted. The workshop was Ram Dass and Krishnas Das.
It was a weekend I recall to this day as the Tao clearing the way for me, opening my closed emotions and body for what was to come. To prepare me to let go and be open. I of course didn’t realize what was ahead for me, I just recall the feelings in that extraordinary workshop with these extraordinary people. I wrote about it here: Fierce Grace.
Two weeks after meeting Gaspar Garcia I flew down to San Francisco with Derryl Willis. Derryl and I had known each other for many years, training together with Andrew Dale and Madame Gao Fu. He had said to me a couple times, “you should come to this workshop with me sometime. I’ve been going for a couple years and I think you will like this teacher.” This summer, when I was rolling the dice with my destiny, when I had nothing to loose, was that time. We got on a plane. We rented a car and drove to the workshop. This teacher was Chen Xiao Wang.
I had no idea what I was getting into. From the beginning Chen Xiao Wang walked right over to me and pulled me up out of my low athletic stance (with my butt sticking out) and corrected my posture. I dropped right back down. He pulled me right back up and adjusted my hips. My legs hurt even more. I dropped back down to where it was more comfortable to my legs and more familiar to my ego. He pulled me up. My legs burned hot. This dance went on through the entire workshop.
Finally, I gave in and realized, as I had with Gaspar, that I had no idea what I was doing. Everything that had come before me was, in an instant, dissolved. It was not that I had not been taught well, I of course had been by some of the most extraordinary teachers from the beginning of my training. I had grasped well and developed well what had come before. But I had not, nor could have, grasped what was to come, what these arts had yet to reveal to me. Not only did I meet Chen Xiao Wang that weekend, I also met others who had already been studying and training with CXW for a few years, most notably Bill & Allison Helm and Betty Dong. I began to see a much bigger picture ahead for me. I was at once terrified and deeply compelled by where I knew I had to go next. I knew I had to start over.
After the workshop I asked the host, Mark Wasson, to introduce me to Chen Xiao Wang. I was nervous but bold. I walked right up to CXW. We shook hands. I invited him to Seattle. He said, “are you a teacher?” “Yes.” “Full time or part time?” “Full.” “What do you teach?” “Yang Style, Qigong, and a little Chen Style.” “How many students to you have?” “80.” He looked at me for a long second and said, “I’ve always wanted to come to Seattle.”
I expected to be put in the cue for many years down the road. One week later I received a call at 3:00 am, PDT. CXW was calling from the East Coast. "Hallo? Kim?" Yes? "This is Chen Xiao Wang." I sat straight up, heart racing. He had an opening in 3 weeks before he left the states and could come out. I said, “Of course but I don’t know if I can pull a workshop together that will be enough students.” He said, and I will never forget this, “I can teach six or sixty, it doesn’t matter.” I said, “ok, we’d love to have you. Let me know your plane flights.”
I called Derryl a couple hours later. He said, “let’s do this.” Over the next week, we called everyone we knew from the US and Canada (remember this was before all the electronic communication methods). I called Allison Helm, and said, “how do I do this?” She coached me every step of the way. A best friendship was born. Derryl & I put together a weekend workshop of 45 people in 3 weeks. CXW worked with Derryl and I privately for hours. It was an extraordinary initiation.
I have scoured my photos and cannot find any from this first workshop, but someday I hope to. There is one in particular I would love to find: CXW chasing ducks along the beach at Golden Gardens. Instead I have these photos from the first two 5-day workshops at Lake Crescent, the 2 years after. I do though have a piece I wrote from CXW’s first visit: Calm Down.
In two weeks, my life dramatically changed from that of a woman on the precipice of despair to the one I am now. Those two weeks pivoted my direction, shifted my foundation and gave me extraordinary training and friendships with people all over the world with whom I am deeply bonded. The rest of the stories that will unfold for Kim Ivy & Embrace The Moon are those those that emerged from this potent time.
Enter Bill & Allison Helm, Betty Dong who remain my best friends & colleagues to this day.
