Namaste

I am happy to report that I have made it safe and sound to India. I arrived here in Trivandrum last night around 10pm.  Fully rested from 2 wonderfully luxurious days in Singapore, I got up early this morning and went exploring a bit.  

Nothing is more exciting to me than being in a foreign place for the first time. The sites, the sounds, the smells, the energy. It’s all so wonderful. It kind of takes me back to my days in West Africa, especially this heat. WOW!

My first task this morning was to find an ATM and to get some money.  So I left the hotel and headed in the direction of Mahatma Gandhi Boulevard (great name for a street by the way). Well, the good news is that there were a plethora of banks.  The not so good news is that they were all on the other side of the street. Those of you who have been to India probably understand the challenge of the situation. But for the benefit of those of you who haven’t, let me tell you, it’s a daunting task.  There are no traffic lights and no real crosswalks.  So I just watched how other people managed to do it and eventually worked up my nerve.  I sandwiched myself in between 4 or 5 of my new best friends, and whew…success.  Back home I’m so fanatical about properly crossing the street.  Here, not so much.  

I’m sure there will be many more opportunities to learn to do things another way.   I look forward to them all. Tomorrow I leave for Neyyar Dam to begin my yoga training.  I am so happy and so fortunate to have this time to take my practice to a deeper level.   There’s something very powerful about separating oneself from the world of distraction and turning the focus inward.  Yoga has been such a grounding, powerful force in my life over the past few years.  I think Shwami Vishnu Devananda describes it perfectly when he says, “Yoga balances, harmonizes, purifies and strengthens the body, mind, and soul of the practitioner. It shows the way to perfect health, perfect mind control, and perfect peace within one’s self, the world, nature, and God.”

Thank you most especially Colleen Garrity, Shawn Bracha, Clay Kyle, and Peter Barnett, my yoga teachers over the past few years, for helping me to get here.   I am eternally grateful for your kindness, your encouragement and your example.  I aspire to follow in your teaching footsteps.    

OM SHANTI

Dreams in Motion: Part 2

"Yoga is a life of self discipline, built on the tenets of simple living and high thinking."

Swami Vishnu-Devananda

Having had some time over the past 2 weeks to reflect on my time in Paris as well as this entire year, I’m so happy, grateful, and humbled to have had such a year full of incredibly rich experiences:  Tony Robbins Unleash the Power Within weekend, which actually jump started this adventure; 12 weeks of Integrative Nutritional Counseling; Meditation Specialist Certification course; teaching meditation/relaxation classes; Yoga, Yoga, and more Yoga; fun trips to England, New York, and Hawaii; helping start the Southern California chapter of Gay and Lesbian Employees and Allies at Merck(GLEAM); Orange County AIDS walk; getting  laid off from my job; continuing to work  as a contractor after that, benefiting from 2 salaries; quitting that job; renting out my condo; attending language school in Paris; and finally, off to India.  What a year!   And to have spent it surrounded by so much love and so many wonderful friends, well…in my opinion, no one could be more fortunate.  

I leave for Singapore December 26^th for 2 days, then to Trivandrum, India until December 31^st, when I will go to the Sivananda Ashram in Neyyar Dam for a month of  Yoga Teacher Training.  After that, I’m not sure.  I have the option of attending the advanced training starting February 8^th, but I’ll wait awhile before making that decision. I’m also not sure what kind of internet connection I will have, nor how often I will be able to blog.   I will keep you posted. 

In the mean time, “bonnes fêtes de fin d’année" (Happy New Year).  And may 2009 be a year filled with “simple living and high thinking.”