What we are struggling with in taiji is not just to become two-way conduits – receptive to affirmation (yielding) and giving of affirmation (attacking), but instigators of events – the smiler, the one willing to leap across that gulf and make connexion. This of course requires a constant willingness to be positive, and a dogged determination to eradicate all negativity from the mind, so that the heart, which is where such events manifest, can remain open. But especially it requires the courage to seize the moment and strike, knowing full well that spirit can only ever leap into the unknown. And this is event – occasion invested with spirit.