Will Finds a Way

"Any significant long-term change requires long-term practice, whether that change has to do with playing the violin or learning to be a more open, loving person. We all know people who say that they have been permanently changed by experiences of a moment or a day or a weekend. But when you check it out you'll generally discover that those who ended up permanently changed had spent considerable time preparing for their life-changing experience or had continued diligently practicing the new behavior afterward."
- Michael Murphy and George Leonard

"Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning."
- Benjamin Franklin

"The cyclone derives its powers from a calm center. So does a person."
- Norman Vincent Peale

"I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand."
- Confucius

"A will finds a way."
- Orison Swett Marden

"If you focus on results, you will never change.
If you focus on change, you will get results."
- Jack Dixon

"Gongfu is an ancient Chinese term describing work/devotion/effort that has been successfully applied over a substantial period of time, resulting in a degree of mastery in a specific field. Although the term is synonymous in the West with martial arts (though it is most over rendered Kung Fu), it is equally applicable to alligraphy, painting, music, or other areas of endeavor."
- Andy James

"An element of abstention, of restraint, must enter into all finer joys."
- Vida D. Scudder

Will Power: Quotes, Sayings, Aphorisms



"A callused palm and dirty fingernails precede a Green Thumb.
Wishes are like seeds - few ever develop into something.
Willpower is the art of replacing one habit for another."
- Michael Garofalo, Pulling Onions

Giving Thanks

My wife, Karen, and I were in Portland, Oregon, for six days over the Thanksgiving Holiday. We enjoyed visiting with our children and their families, and sightseeing and shopping in Portland. We have so much to be thankful for these days.

The Cascade and Siskiyou Mountain ranges in California have little or no snow. Shasta Lake was the lowest I have ever seen it. Lakehead is completely without any lake water. The Klamath River seems to have a good deal of water, but the Sacramento River is very low. The situation is alarming in California. Oregon mountains have snow and their streams and rivers are very high.

Bitter cold
autumn wind -
shivering lips.

I have started to study the Chen Tai Chi Broadsword 23 Movement Form.

To learn this form, I am using:

Chen Style Single Broadsword. Instruction by Master Jesse Tsao. Sample Instructional DVD and VHS formats, 50 minutes. "This routine is short and refined with clear applications. It reflects the characteristics of Chen Style Tai Chi, combining softness with hardness and slowness with quickness; dodging and yielding with agile movements, cutting and hacking with great speed. Master Tsao presents demonstrations both in front and back view of the whole routine. He teachers step-by-step in slow motion, in English. There are plenty of repetitions in both front and back view in his detailed teaching." VSCL.

Chen Tai Chi Broadsword. Instructional videotape or DVD by Shifu Jiang Jian-ye. 70 minutes. Detailed instructions, repetitions, and demonstrations. Jiang's Tai Chi Videos. He teaches a 23 movement form.

Broadsword (Dao) Tai Chi Chuan

My research and writing efforts lately have been focused on the Taijiquan Broadsword (Dao, Saber, Curved Sword, Ox Tail Saber, Willow Leaf Saber, Falchion). The following webpages include links, bibliographies, lists of movements, techniques, history, quotations, and resources.

Broadsword: All Styles

Chen Taijiquan Broadsword

Yang Taijiquan Broadsword

Cloud Hands Taijiquan

I will start learning and practicing the Chen Style Taijiquan Broadsword, 23 movements, in December, 2007.

Yang Taijiquan Sword Classical 55

Taijiquan Jian, T'ai Chi Ch'uan Chien (Gim)
The Double-Edged Straight Chinese Steel Sword

Lately, I have been doing research and writing about the Classical Yang Taiji Sword Form. My work is shared on the following webpages:

”Classical Tai Chi Chuan Sword, Taijiquan Jian 55 in the Yang Style: Comparison of Names for the 55 Movements.” Green Way Research, Red Bluff, California, January 2008. By Michael P. Garofalo. This document includes a detailed listing of the names/descriptions of the 55 movements of the Classical Taijiquan Straight Sword Form in the Yang Style of Taijiquan. This document includes names/descriptions of each movement in English, Romanized Chinese (Pinyin and/or Wade Giles), Chinese characters, Spanish, French, German, and Japanese. The document includes source citations and a bibliography. In PDF format, print only, 225Kb, 33 pages:
Webpage: http://www.egreenway.com/taichichuan/Classical Taijiquan Yang Sword Form 55 List Detailed.pdf

Classical Tai Chi Sword, List of Movements, Yang Style, 55 Movements, Valley Spirit Taijiquan List, Simple List, 2 pages
Webpage: http://www.egreenway.com/taichichuan/Classical Taijiquan Yang Sword Form 55 List Simple.pdf

Classical Taiji Sword - Yang Style Taijiquan. By Mike Garofalo. This webpage includes a bibliography, links, media resources, detailed and simple lists of the movements in the long Yang Taiji sword form (55 movements), history, 13 sword techniques, comparison with the 32 Taiji sword form, and quotations. 105 Kb.
Webpage: http://www.egreenway.com/taichichuan/sword55.htm