Sprinklings of seva for everyone...

A little seva for you, a little seva for me... a little seva goes a long long way...

Acts of selfless service happen everyday, in many ways, all over the world. Little wee acts of kindness add up to some great stuff. It is amazing to me the extent of which a seemingly small act of loving kindness can touch another person's heart and life. Go out and try one... and see what happens.

Right now I am working to create events and products to assist in reaching my fundraising goal. Am I working alone? No way! I have already been joined on the path by some of amazing individuals offering up their ideas and insight and readying their hands to help.

This challenge is all about community - big and small. So I am calling on my community, my kula, my family and friends to join me on this journey. Some of you may be able to donate significant monetary amounts, which is wonderful and much appreciated. Some money will come from events and items - stay tuned for details on those (I'm just saying it is going to be a good time...). Some of the goal will be whittle away over the months by tiny increments and small acts - please know that every dollar counts.

Clicking that "Donate Now" button and donating any amount towards my seva is helpful to the cause. If we all pitched in $5, $10 or even $20 dollars - the numbers would soar and we would be on our way to building brighter futures for children in need. Perhaps you cannot give in that way - but would like to join the journey with your heart and hands? Have ideas - let me know. Have a gift and talent you are willing to lend to the cause - bring it! I am continually blown away by the ideas the people in my life have come up with and their willingness to help out even if these troubled times for our own country.

Lend a helping hand - however you can. Let's join together and sing, dance, stretch and create...

So what is the Seva Challenge...

Seva is a sanskrit word for selfless service.

The Off the Mat, Into the World 2009 Seva challenge is a call to action and a way to take what I learn on the mat out into the world to create positive change. It is a way to bring leaders out of the community and bring the community - both local and worldwide - together.

Each individual participating will work to reach a significant fundraising goal. The idea being that the individual will use their creativity, leadership and community to manifest dreams. To come up with ways to bring people together - and in the end to save many lives and brighten many futures. And to have fun while doing it.

My fundraising goal is $20k. I have until November 15th 2009 and I am looking forward to raising each and every dollar of that amount. In the end the money, and efforts of many, will go towards building schools and birthing centers and helping to create sustainable farms. Approximately $45k can build a school - so if roughly 2.5 individuals reaches the fundraising goal, a school will be built and countless children will have a brighter, better future.

To read more about the Off the Mat, Into the World organization and their affiliates, please feel free to explore their website by clicking on their logo to the right.

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! ...