Eugene residents find diverse ways to celebrate the new year.

Byline: Winston Ross The Register-Guard

You may have been sleeping off a hangover while Machiko Shirai was standing in the drizzling rain at the Eugene Water & Electric Board reservoir in front of a host of strangers.

Everyone spends their New Year's differently. Shirai prefers to spend hers doing something she will keep up for the rest of the year: tai chi. She taught a free class at the reservoir on Monday, finding plenty of folks willing to twist their bodies into strange positions.

"We get motivated today," the tiny woman barked, her silver hair spilling out of a ski cap. "Do this today, and for the next 365 days."

The lesson was part physical, part spiritual. One move involved a sweeping of the arms, one toward the sky and the other toward the ground. This is the "connection to heaven and earth," Shirai said.

In another move, "You are pushing away negative spirits from your body," Shirai said.

As the group meditated, Shirai encouraged participants to think of resolutions for the year and pray for world peace.

University of Oregon student Fuding Lin stood apart from the group, his arms and hands moving slowly, his gaze fixed on the horizon. Lin came to the class because he's a friend of Shirai's, he said, and the two practice the same kind of tai chi - the Chen style, which originated in China's Hunan Province.

"We learned from different masters," Lin said. "But all the moves are the same."

Karen Patterson is one of Shirai's Eugene students.

"This seems like a wonderful way to start the new year," Patterson said. "I like the nature part. It's very centering. It puts you in touch with better parts of yourself."

Winston Ross can be reached at [e-mail].