UCLA Virtual/Zoom Tai Chi & QiGong Spring 2023 4/3-6/9
FITZONE Registration Instructions:
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Go to
https://recreation.ucla.edu/register
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Click on "Memberships & Passes" and login with your UCLA LogonID
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Select FitZones Memberships for Staff & Faculty and complete the
remaining steps to checkout for this FREE membership
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*Important Note: Special link to all Zoom information for the Virtual
FitZone classes will be listed at the very botton of your confirmation
receipt email after you register. Revisit the special link throughout
the quarter to access the most up-to-date schedule.
Personal Cultivation
Love can not be demanded, Patience can not be imposed, Empathy and
Compassion for all things needs to be born, because Virtue, can only be
engendered through Personal Cultivation.
The magnificent Wisteria was there when we first moved in. Its large trunk girth and variegated gray bark speaking of the many decades it had graced the patio garden of the old fashioned apartment building, circa 1924, a major accent that made us feel we were home.
Among the Night Blooming Jasmine and the Jacaranda, it had given us the certainty another Spring had arrived, with vibrant colors and permeating sweet aromas, lifting our spirits. One day, this magnificent specimen, this ancient, was suddenly removed, uprooted and discarded, the building had been sold, there’s a new owner we were told. But nature understands prevention. Come summer the Wisteria’s fruit, green velvety pods, will explode under the relentless Southern Ca heat sending the seeds in all directions at lighting speed.
One of them found fertile ground in the limited open space of our shale stone covered patio lined with narrow brick garden beds against the perimeter walls. This was a consolation of sorts, given that Wisteria from seed takes about twenty years to bloom. I made sure to nurture this seedling, guiding it while maintaining a very low profile on it, we didn’t want to attract unsolicited attention to it. If left to its own nature Wisterias will, immediately following blooming, start rapidly growing, like the vine they are, reaching for the heavens like the primordial Bean Stalk, using anything near by to anchor themselves. Ten years went by, when one day, we were informed the building had been sold again, but this time, we had to go as well. All residents had to move out or being forcefully evicted as the new owner had plans to modernize, to remodel the entire structure including the patio. Work began immediately, first thing to go was the shale stone cover, to be replaced by cement, then the Jacaranda, the bricks, and all plants that dated the building. As the destruction in the name of progress began, I was able to rescue the young Wisteria from its certain destiny, one of the oversized trash bins now occupying the parking lot.
We moved to our new residence, were we were allowed to plant the young Wisteria against a wire fence lining the backyard. I nurtured and guided it into a healthy specimen for the following ten years. And so it was that this Spring, as I looked out our window one early morning, I was elated to see there was a dash of violet tint on it. The very first bloom of our twenty year old Wisteria had finally arrived!
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