When I was in my “twenties” I met two people who had an impact on me. One was a my Tai Chi instructor, Paul Ying Po Mak and the other was a spiritual teacher named Ellafern. Meeting these two remarkable people at this time in my life was a blessing. Sadly, Master Mak passed away about a year ago.

Master Mak spoke “broken English” and each day when I practise tai chi, I try to emulate his graceful moves & his “spirit”...not so much “what he said”.

Conversely,...a day rarely goes by without reflecting on one of Ellafern’s insights. The most profound thing she ever said to me was that, “I had learned to become my own father and now I needed to learn to become my own mother.”

A few years ago, I read that one of the objectives of tai chi is to “balance our own male & female energies”. Suddenly it struck me that although these two teachers did not know each other, essentially they were teaching me the same lesson. Inner balance comes from honouring our male & female aspect...the balance of yin & yang!