The beginning of the journey that has no end...

All this began with one amazing yoga class, every Monday for a year, and the fantastic beautiful teacher who guided me through it ...

Every Monday at 6:30 in the evening I join together with an awesome and varied group of individuals for a Rasa Vinyasa class led by one of the most inspiring women I have ever had the pleasure to know. What is cultivated and born in that class is a spirit of community that runs deep, strong and wide, and a circle of serious love and support. There are many reasons people go to yoga - but this class goes above and beyond the "norm" and demands more of me than I could have even imagined a class would. For me I am not just moving and stretching - I am tapping into something bigger, huge, and awesome without even knowing it at first. Our class flows with the seasons just as the poses flow with the breath - and just as each pose awakens something new within the body, each season brings with it a new direction of reflection. And I find myself working it all out - all the mysteries of being a human - right there on the yoga mat. Once my thoughts quieted down enough so I could actually hear what my heart was saying... well that is when it began to really get interesting.

It was time to take my practice one step further...

And off I went to my first yoga workshop... which happened to be "From Movement to Manifestation" led by the stellar Seane Corn. (The picture above was taken at the workshop, from left to right, fellow yogini Barb, my brilliant Rasa teacher Shani, and me). I had never done that much yoga - and it was transforming and informative and inspiring. But the true manifestation came when Seane started speaking about her work with the Cambodian Children's Fund (CCF) and her program "Off the Mat and Into the World"... I heard a call I could not dismiss. Taking my yoga practice one step further did not just mean getting in more classes, being more empathetic and coming from a place of love and truth - the next step was to give back to the world and to my community using the lessons of yoga - of union. To become a conscious activist - to lead - and to follow. At the time of the workshop the Off the Mat Seva Challenge for 2008 had ended and the new one had just begun . As Seane discussed the challenge, the goal of each individual to raise 20k in a year, and the purpose of participating I found myself really listening... and getting chills. I let the idea sit with me for a few days and then signed my letter of intention and so began my journey. Which brings us pretty much up to date... and now I should probably get to the challenge, what it is and how you can help! ...