“Snickerdoodle?” one of my office mates offered one afternoon as I was staring into the computer screen. “No thanks,” I said, still pretty engrossed in the design I was creating.  She handed one to me anyway.

“That’s a Snickerdoodle??” I stared down at its off-white plainness. “Really?” 

What’s the point of giving this overrated sugar cookie such a fancy name?  Anything with such a whimsical name should live up to it!  It should be textured with nuts.  Infused with caramel.  Chunked with chocolate.

With a name like that, it should be encased in chocolate. Rich, dark chocolate for that matter.

This was a sugar cookie with some cinnamon sprinkled on it.  I wasn’t even sure I understood the point of it.  It just sat there, morosely plain, on my desk.  Like a gawky, pimply pre-teen before filling out and blossoming. 

It’s a pre-cookie.

Not to disappoint my office mate, I packed it into a leftover sandwich bag and went back to my work, pretending I would eat it later.

On my way home, I was thinking of the tai chi class I was going to teach that evening.  It was a class of students who had learned the form and were ready to move on from the mechanical movements of a beginner to the flow and ease of a seasoned tai chi player.

Tai chi is a martial art.  It’s slow, graceful movements teach one to be relaxed but focused.  And for students who really practice, teach one to be relaxed and focused in highly stressful situations – even those that require quick self-defense techniques. 

So by the time class started, I had a list of things to go over with the group.  For those who are seasoned in the tai chi form, they don’t have to think about the movements.  They just move.  So they are at the point where they can make shifts in their practice:

Empty the mind of thoughts…usually thoughts about what movement is coming next
Use as little muscle (li) tension as possible…tension can be seen in gripped toes, crunched shoulders, arched back.
Simplify the breath…breathing naturally, nice and even in and out of the dantien
Be present…be relaxed, but aware of one’s surroundings

As we worked through the issues during class, a student stopped and said: “Really this can all be summed up in one word:  Simplify.”  And she was right.  Simplify your mind, breathwork, muscle work, awareness.

“Snickerdoodle!” I said.  Of course, they all looked at me like I was nuts.

Later that evening I pulled out the sandwich bag containing the cinnamon inspired sugar cookie and put it on a plate.  This one was crisp on the outside, but moist on the inside.  It was sweet, but with a rich buttery undertone, with just the right amount of cinnamon. 

Simple.  And maybe simple is underrated.  Maybe it’s about time something simple gets a whimsical, fanciful name.