Tai Chi at Four

When son Spencer was between a year to two years I used to walk him through a park in the east end of Toronto.  I did this mostly early Saturday and Sunday mornings to give his mother a break.  The park we walked was a few blocks south of the Danforth.  Greek Town.  We lived in that neighbourhood.  Just south and west a few blocks was a second Chinatown.  So there were a lot of Chinese in the general area as well. 

So, pretty much every morning walking through the park,  a number of elderly Chinese men and women were doing Tai Chi.  I’m assuming it was Tai Chi.  Spencer was quite enthralled with their moves.  He obviously watched them more closely than I had originally thought.  His mum was quite grateful for the break.

The photos on this page were taken when he was four years old, almost five.  Likely about three years after watching the Tai Chi in the park. We were hiking about in Greenwood Conservation area.  A little north and west of Ajax.  We had spent a lot of time there when we were kids and it was nice to take the family there from time to time if we were close by. 

By the way, this post is instead of  Facebook.   Today I deleted my Facebook page.  Over the years I’ve gotten endless comments from friends and acquaintances that my photos are loved.  I have some pretty strong reasons for wanting to separate myself from Facebook. You are welcome to email me if you want more information.  Or maybe it will be subject of another post.

Around this time I showed the photos to a friend down the street that had a kung fu studio.  He actually described the style of Kung Fu that he thought Spencer was emulating in these photos.   I have no idea of the name of the style he used now, but he thought it was pretty cool.  

Spencer spent a few years practising the art of Kung Fu sometime later.   Always pretty intense.  He had never at this time done any martial arts.  Only what he had seen in the park.