The Himba Tribe Of Namibiae 

There is a tribe in Namibia where each person is born with a kind of self-space around the body. This self-space is like a bubble that extends beyond the body and, being attached to the body, moves as the person moves. And because this bubble of self-space onstantly intermingles with other people's self-space, the individuals in the tribe are never alone. They wonder how people in the West can bear seeing themselves as isolated points in space.
In learning T'ai Chi we have to retrain our bodies and our relationship with our personal space. We are constantly reminded to find our balance inside an egg shaped bubble with " no hollows and no protrusions ",.

"Miles Davis famously described his improvisational technique as parallel to the way that Picasso described his use of a canvas; The most critical aspect of the work, both artists said, was not the objects themselves,but the space between objects. In Davies's case he describes the most important part of his solos as the empty space between notes the " air " that he placed between one note and the next."
from This Is Your Brain On Music by Daniel Leveitin

" Nothing is more real than nothing. " Samuel Becket wasn't the only person to realize the importance of nothing or space. Silence and timelessness are other aspects of nothing. In Les Fehmi's biofeedback research he found that "Objectless imagery" - the multisensory experience and awareness of space, nothingness, or absence - almost always elicits large amplitude and prolonged periods of phase-synchronous alpha activity. Zen monks too know the value of deep silence that induces internal space. Even watching people practice T'ai Chi is known to arouse deep states of relaxation in the observor. Is it that not only the practioners but also the room becomes saturated in alpha waves ? Research now shows that our brains are teaming with body maps - maps of our body's surface, its musculature, its intentions, it's potential for action, even a map that automatically tracks and emulates the actions and intentions of other people around. It often feels to me that we learn T'ai Chi through a process of absorbtion or osmosis. It's the time spent practicing in company of other sincere students that teaches us what it's all about.

   

 To me the meanest flower 

   that blows

 Can give thoughts that lie

  too deep for tears.

Willaim Wordsworth

Buttrerflies dancing in waist high meadow this July

Deora Dé - thanks to Dervilla