We use this term a lot in Chinese, “chi”. There is no real translation for this word in English. In Chinese, depending how the character is paired with other characters or in context with other words, it could mean energy, breath or essence.

The word is made up of two parts. One outside and one inside. The inside part means “rice”. The outside part looks like vapor as in breath. In the Chinese culture, rice is served with every meal as the base for nutrition and good health. When digested, it transforms into energy, gives us life, so we breath. For as long as we are breathing, we have breath and we have chi… from inside to the outside.

One of my favorite characters to practice on is “tao”, the way. There are three parts to this character.

The top of the right side is a particle for plants, grass, flowers representing nature or the physical world. The bottom right side means “self or I”. The wrap around part means “walk”.

Finding our own “tao” in life is one of life’s greatest journey we could take on. My cancer journey has taught me to slow down and “walk” towards my destiny rather than taking the shortest direct flight to destination. Life is so much more meaningful when we take our time.

My gift to you…

One of the simplest characters in Chinese is “human”. There are only 2 strokes, left and right. It looks like a person with 2 legs… emoji. 🙂

The left and right strokes are like yin and yang, long and short, strength and weakness, good and bad… you get the idea. The two strokes are like two different perspectives of the same person.

If you put two of the same characters together, they form the character for people. We all need each other to reflect who we are in the world.

It’s so simple yet so difficult to master. Welcome to the human experience!

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