Ms. Moon Yogi Actor

Live, laugh and love, dare to make a difference

2012-01-12T23:28:00.003-05:00

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

By John Lennon

"When the power of love outweighs the love for power the world will know peace"
- Chimony Chose, or Jimi Hendricks or ... -

YOGA INSTRUCTOR SCAM!

2011-09-06T15:56:00.004-04:00

Hello my fellow Yoga instructors,
Just a heads up about a recent check and money order scam that is being targeted on Yoga instructors. The basic set up is you are contacted via email (maybe through your listing with YA) to teach yoga to a person or their children who are visiting you town. They ask your pricing then send you a money order or check to pay in advance. Lucky you? Sorry no. They then send you too much, ooops, by mistake and ask you to please cash it and send them back the difference (less your wages). Your bank, or cheque cashing institution of choice, will clear the money order or cheque before it is fully looked at as a fake. They will find out it is a fake and then hold you responsible for the amount or potentially charge you with fraud. PLEASE DO NOT accept money orders or cheques from new clients and NEVER through a client met via email or facebook. Only accept cash until you have developed a relationship with them.
Clients will come to you when they will, don't put yourself in a hurtful position. Luckily I caught on before heading once I saw the email apologizing for the mistake of sending the 'wrong amount' and to go to the bank!
I have sent an email to YA to give them the heads up that this is coming through their listings sometimes.
Shanti Shanti Shanti

Inexpensive Yoga Classes with Erin Moon

2011-05-04T15:24:00.007-04:00

Dear friends,

I have a Yoga schedule again!!

The crowning jewel of my schedule is a donation class (suggested $10) at The Yoga Collective NYC at 135 west 29th Street #603 on Wednesdays at 12:30-1:30. Half of all proceeds, from the class, will go to The Joseph M Sanzari Children's Hospital (http://www.thechildrenshospitalhumc.net/).
It is an intermediate flow class available to all who have some yoga experience.

Here is the full schedule and locations of my classes

Mondays 5:30-6:45pm, All Levels, Jaya Yoga East $15
Tuesdays 6:15-7:40pm, Open (higher level class), Jaya Park Slope $15
Wednesdays 12:30-1:30 DONATION YOGA Intermediate, The Yoga Collective NYC $10 or whatever
Thursdays 9am-10:30am Jaya Yoga East $15

RSVP'ing is encouraged for donation class moonyogimoon@yahoo.com

I will continue to sub after my hiatus at Sonic Yoga and let you know how things develop with time.

www.jayayogacenter.com
www.yogacollectivenyc.com
www.sonicyoga.com

Please pass along to everyone you know the more bodies the better!!!!
Also check out all of the other classes offered at these lovely yoga institutions they are all great people who have been great to me!

Shanti (peace yo!)
xoxox
Erin Moon

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EAT LOCAL. EAT ORGANIC. CHANGE THE WORLD. Join your CSA!!

"When the power of love outweighs the love for power the world will know peace"
- Chimony Chose, or Jimi Hendricks or ... -

www.jayayogacenter.com
www.msmoonyogiactor.blogspot.com
www.sonicyoga.com
www.threesistersyoga.com
www.yogacollectivenyc.com

Pink Toenails Story

2011-04-16T21:41:00.006-04:00

This week the American public media institution decided to make a story out of an ad produced by J.Crew, of a Mother and Son laughing at his pink toenails that the two of them had finished painting. I have decided to launch a counter campaign. This was not just Fox news this was all of the major players. The point in all of these broadcasts was that there WAS a story and that story was about raised eyebrows over gender rolls/politics.

My campaign is: paint your toenails pink, boy or girl, and when someone asks tell them about this story; maybe they'll remember having fun with their Mom/Dad when what sex you were and who you might someday want to have sex with were of zero importance (as should always be the case).

The only story here is that there was no story, nor ever should be, until the media said there was.

Just type in "Pink Toenails Story" in any search engine to confirm.

Tell your friends!!!

Letting Yoga be Yoga

2011-02-26T17:35:00.006-05:00

With concerted effort I have allowed my teaching of Yoga to unfold. As an actor I have actively pursued a lot of jobs/school things in my life and I thought I would allow one thing to unfold: to keep saying yes but not hunt and strive intently for it. I wanted to see what would happen if one thing in my life was more Yogic why not have that thing be... well.. Yoga.
It is not that I haven't sought out jobs I just haven't made it a hot pursuit in my life. The lack of active pursuit does not get in the way of preparation or doing a good job or research or anything of that kind, it only reflect the getting of the job part. This has brought with it some feelings of being outside of a more intense community but it has also brought great experiences. I have been blessed with teaching well known human rights activists from a simple introduction through a friend. Sonic Yoga has always ebbed and flowed as we both needed which feels mutually beneficial. I have been teaching teachers for a year now with Three Sisters Yoga which is a great joy in my life, I am so happy to impart with what I have learned from teaching for the past 6 yrs. And now, I have the fantastic opportunity of teaching at Jaya Yoga in Brooklyn only a stones through from my home. Not only was I thrilled to have a place to practice close to home but on top of it they seem a lovely community of teachers and are very welcoming.
The Protestant work ethic is one to be admired but I have to say there is something to be said for saying yes and letting things unfold as they may. My ambition may drive me forward in many aspects of my life and it is not absent in my teaching of Yoga but it is tempered, or I suppose one could say balanced or yoked, and I don't feel badly about that...most of the time.

just musing....

Merry Festivas and Happy New Year

2010-12-21T22:49:00.002-05:00

All I have to say this year is love love love and be honest and kind anything less is cheating the world and yourself. I hope that I can be all of these things in as much of my day and year as possible in as many ways as possible.

OM Shanti
Sound/vibration of all things, Peace
Love

54 Breaths

2010-09-28T21:52:00.002-04:00

I have a favor to ask... tomorrow starting at 7AM EST on please find the time to take 54 cleansing healing breaths. It shouldn't take much more then 5 minutes of your day but is good for you and great energy to send to those that need cleansing and healing engery.
Thanks

PLEASE DON"T EAT MEAT Wednesday

2010-07-19T14:09:00.003-04:00

I am asking everyone I can get my hands on to not eat meat Wednesday July 21st. I am looking for good sparing meat energy to be sent into the world.

Thanks

More on 10 Months: Letter To Delaware Today Magazine

2010-06-23T13:58:00.008-04:00

The Question:
I'm doing a piece on Anne Marie Cammarato, and the effect of "The Months."

Can you please share with me how the show affected you, what you learned from it, and how you feel the audience reacted to it?

I loved the show, by the way. But I know there were some who where upset by it. Why do you think that was?

I'd appreciate an email response as soon as possible. Deadlines loom.

Best-
Maria

The Answer:
I think this was a monumentally important piece of theatre for Delaware and for the Country. This is the kind of theatre that should be written about in this magazine in the American Theatre Magazine and talked about in specials on NPR. Controversial material and eliciting emotions is a positive theatre experience not a negative one.

I believe some of the audience was upset because 10 Months did not represent all of the problems or all of the good things about the city. It pulled no punches on what it did discus as well. There is no reason to give people a pat on the back about what is being done to reach out, when the city has the third highest death by guns per capita in the country. What is there to celebrate? The people who are helping in Wilmington and do see and make efforts with the socio/racial economic divide do not need a pat on the back in a play, they need help. They already know that an individual can do everything in their power but they still need more people, ideas and funds.

Also, I greatly appreciate that Anne Marie avoided solving the problem. It is not our job, as theatre artists, to solve social problems. Our job is to represent what is happening in the world without corporate or personal agenda. All of the words in this play are a truth to one person or many in this community because it is literally their words. We do not always agree with our neighbors and that is a beautiful and important part of being human and a great part of theatre/books/paintings etc. If people were angered or upset by 10 Months they need to ask themselves why. Also it is fine and good that they do not agree with what was represented and if they feel passionately enough about it they should find an outlet for their voice and opinion. This is exactly what theatre of this kind hopes to start, discussion. This is a success.

In my opinion nothing in this play was outrageous in anyway. It was not shock theatre. It was very truthful and one needs only to spend a little time in the neighborhoods mentioned in 10 Months or similar neighborhoods across the nation to see that there is something wrong. We have not righted our history, on both sides. Instead of passing blame around we have to come together and truly find solutions for poverty and violence.

Thank god there is theatre that elicits emotion and conversation. I wish there was more theatre this controversial and truthful in New York and in every city in the country. It was ground breaking in every way. No one is doing this in regional theatre.

We have to be able to look at our ugly parts and see that there is some way we are all connected, we all contribute to our victories and our failures, as a society. That is all 10 Months did. It dared to look at some of Delawares dirty parts and, understandably, that elicited feelings of shame and anger: in some of our audience members a feeling of finally being seen, of their story finally finding a stage. We cannot forget people in this world, it is far to easy, and the repercussions are detrimental to us all.

10 Months was an extraordinary experience. I hope I will have the chance to be a part of something like this again in another city, with other issues holding it back, with someone courageous enough to ask a few questions and bold enough to hold up a mirror.

What still breaks my heart about the experience, though, is the complete lack of marketing as a whole and particularly for such a GROUND BREAKING piece of theatre. What an opportunity wasted. This is the kind of theatre that can put a company on the national stage. I have worked at many theatres and the cities are plastered with bill boards, posters, mailings and deals for tickets etc announcing the theatre's season and individual shows. There are interviews with radio and TV morning shows etc etc. None of this happened. We felt it during the whole process. The audience should have been full or at least half full! All theatres in America are suffering during the economic downturn but this is an opportunity to cultivate community: lower prices, make greater group deals, do rush tickets, interesting marketing, new marketing, new audience. Better to have the theatre full at tickets half the price then the theatre only 1/3 full at full price. It takes everyone being involved from actors to interns. There are NO excuses.

In my opinion, to let Anne Marie go after a season with 10 Months in it is very unfortunate timing. It sends a message to both the patrons of the theatre and future Artistic Directors, "if you question us (particularly the white and affluent) you are not welcome". Not a great message for any theatre company or community. I am not saying this was the intended message but it is the repercussion of letting Anne Marie go now.

RE Comment below: First I want to say thank you for your comment and all opinions are valid!! Just as a heads up docudramas are usually pretty sparse. There is rarely an arching story and the relationships are to an interviewer etc; therefore this kind of theatre is not always peoples cup of tea so I totally understand. The "writing" in question was more organizing, as the words were real peoples from the Wilmington community put together in these fictional people (who were often a combination platter of people). Also Anne Marie, regardless of if you liked the play (which is not a requirement of ANY piece of art, again I totally respect you not liking it), was up extremely late every night and constantly coming in with new material and reworks so I know she worked VERY hard on this project, it took over a year to put together. Again this does NOT mean you had to like it, just wanted to clear the air on work effort. Please PLEASE Keep coming to theatre Anonymous I guarantee you there will be some that are more your thing. Thanks again for expressing your opinion!!

The Power if Positive thinking or Positive screaming

2010-06-09T21:26:00.006-04:00

I have always believed in the power of love and positive thought and now I test the bounds.
I have always found it easier to give then to receive and now it is time to ask.
You think you are carving a thoughtful and kind path for your life and then something that happens to "other people" happens to the person you love the most in the world.
I truly believe, HAVE to believe, all I KNOW is to believe that through the power of love and positive thinking, some screaming and great medicine, we can and will beat this.
It is a marathon not a sprint. We have lived a lot of our lives at a sprint but our endurance is boundless.
I've been pissed at politicians and big business in this blog, they are nothing in my world, now I have only one foe.

Get the #%$& out of my house!!!!!!!

Tell our stories.

2010-04-09T15:30:00.009-04:00

Photos ©2010 Joe del Tufo, Möbius New Media a FANTASTIC Company!!!
also in pic is Taifa Harris and Ben Cherry two fabulous people and fabulous actors. Set: Beowolf, Lights: Chris Studley.

I am so proud to have been reminded that we can do this in theatre.

Anne Marie Cammarato, the Artistic Director of Delaware Theatre Company, saw her town and the violence and economic and social divide between the races and started to ask questions. In the end: after 50 interviews, almost a year of trascripting(ummm) the interviews, passing scripts around to dear friends and much more, we started rehearsal. From there we flew. By the end of only 3 weeks, with an entire re write at the end of week one and incorporating 3 poems by a spoken word artist (Devon), we unabashedly present Wilmington DE with some of the problems of their city. We/she did NOT try to solve these problems by saying anything more than 'just start talking to one another', and if you think "this isn't my Wilmington" think again.

So many cities in the United States have suffered from "dying, violent" down towns. Many of whom came out of the riots after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated April 4th 1968. But no other city was occupied by the National Guard for 10 months! Yup 10 Months, now that's a way to "break a city's heart". "White flight" was already taking place as the children of the war time and depression parents said 'My Mother and Father suffered so that I can have.....' and the suburban consumer was born. We did not address the issues of Desegregation or the economic disparity that has grow since that time (CEO's used to make only a small margin over their average workers salary now they make, often, 300% more. Or the fact that the wages of the average worker have increased only slightly while that of the top have sky rocketed.... and we live in a world that is priced for them not for us; therefore, keeping us cash poor even when we have jobs -GASP... BUT..... I do digress-). We made the few who saw our play think and think hard about their city and latent or blatant racism, and hopefully started a few conversations about how things could get better.

My challenge to all theatres and playwrights is to keep seeing social action theatre as a possibility for real change. That you don't have to preach, you just have to ask the questions and really listen to the response. Don't answer the questions, present the argument for something needing to change.

hmmm felt nice to be reminded of this myself.

I DEMAND the Separation of Corporate and State.

2010-01-22T17:56:00.005-05:00

I throw up my hands.
I thought we knew
I thought we were heading AWAY from this storm, not naked and ignorantly throwing ourselves into it's fury.

Is THIS the country the forefathers fought for...
Is THIS what people have died for...
to preserve the freedom for all decision makers and making, to be in the hands of the minority, of Monsanto, of Exxon, of Citibank, of Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, GE,GM etc etc etc
You could actually put all those CEOs in a room. Physically put them in a ROOM! They ARE the minority. Forget the room, total up all their share holders and even then it is not a noticeable percentage of the 330,000,000 Americans

THIS IS END GAME. No joke. No need to be my polite Canadian self. Forget about the debacle of the G8 Summit, forget about Ted Kennedy's seat going to a MORON, forget about Guantanamo, Iraq, the "economic down turn": No this, THIS is the end of the road. Passing legislation to have no limits on corporate donations to campaigns means the already pre approved system of Politicians, being Ok'ed by mega corporations, has gone so far that there truly is NO HOPE. NO grass roots movement is EVER POSSIBLE AGAIN!!! Not even HALF of a campaign will ever come from the people, Universities and other NON corporate entities. Our choices, we the wee Americans that make up this vast land no longer come into play.

We only have ourselves to blame.
I'll let you know if I find out what we can do to stop this but it may be unstoppable. Say goodbye to your last rights Americans. Your vote is now worth nothing as well. Might as well sit back and grab that MacDonald's Super Sized Corn syrup soda (which you already paid for once with your taxes that go to subsidize Monsanto growing corn with round up) and wait for the end to come.

Are you angry yet?

What will it take?

Merry Holidays

2009-12-23T12:24:00.004-05:00

Surprise wedding in Woodstock Vermont October 25th, 2009

We hope this finds you surrounded
by love and laughs
during your holidays!!!

Health and happiness

Become a Yoga Instructor!!!!!

2009-11-10T12:42:00.007-05:00

Seeking to further you practice?
Curious about you potential as a Yoga Instructor?
Looking for another skill to help your community as a volunteer?
Want another option for a positive and fulfilling way of making a living?
Looking for skills for living a calmer healthier life?
Join me this Spring for Three Sisters Yoga Teacher Training!

I am thrilled to announce that Three Sisters Yoga has asked me to join their teacher training staff.

Doing a teacher training was a trans-formative experience for me. However, given the current state of the economy and the often inaccessibility of traditional training programs, I've noticed that there is a gap between who can and who can't experience yoga. Three Sisters Yoga aims to bridge that gap by offering a high quality, 200 hour certification to creative and talented people at a reasonable price.

How do we do this? By offering our training as "modules" only. We are not affiliated with any one studio and therefore do not have to charge high fees to pay our rent. Likewise, we are not tied down to one dogmatic approach to yoga. In fact, we strongly encourage our students to try many different approaches to the practice while with us.

Go to www.threesistersyoga.com for more information.

Mention my name in your application and receive an additional 10% discount!

Om Shanti!

Mention me and you get 10% off the price

Wind & Sun, Save the World!

2009-11-04T17:48:00.012-05:00

NO MORE COAL for energy
Coal is where 50% of America's energy comes from
Coal is where 45% of America's pollution comes from

In the 1970's Carter tried to institute solar and wind energy plans that would've had 20% of America's power coming from renewable resources by 2000. It never happened. Who do YOU think the administration at the time was pressured by?

Germany gets 20-25% of their energy from Wind and Solar
Denmark has so much they are selling it at a profit!

It takes a week to put up a wind turbine
About 10 days for a solar panel
A coal plant takes 5 YEARS to be built and made functional

Q: WHY ARE WE KNOWLEDGEABLY KILLING OURSELVES?

A: Greed and Power

We HAVE this technology it CAN create jobs and save the earth and MAKE MONEY but the - set in there ways, dominate the world, the most money right now oil and coal companies - are ALLOWED by our government (which, by the way, is US), no ENCOURAGED by our government, (through HUGE tax credits and cuts) to murder us.

This is NOT over reacting this is a simple and shameful truth!

By limiting and eventually eliminating our need for coal and oil we refocus on what is happening at home and we set that example, we always talk about, for the world.

Write your Governor, write your President, use wind and solar energy whenever possible, volunteer to get the word out, write you MLA, write you Premier, read, learn and rage against this destructive status quo.

I find it baffling how easy it would be for us to change our ways in a very short amount of time and how we are still choosing not to do so. Instead we continue to see massive profits and tax breaks given to oil and coal.....

I know these things cannot happen over night but the fact that they are not happening at a higher frequency now and haven't been happening for the last 30 years is inexcusable. We MUST change and we can find a way to change as fast as possible so there is a world for my nephews and friends children to live sustainably.

This blog is inspired from a great and awful Independent Lens I saw on PBS last night about the Navajo/Dani and Hopi nations (in Arizona) fight against coal companies and creating alternative energy on native reserves around America. The Lakota and others are also working towards this reclamation of their lands from the coal companies and protecting Mother earth and the creators gift of water to the tribes.

Ah love.........

2009-10-27T15:53:00.007-04:00

I am married to the most beautiful person
who continually encourages me to live in the moment and be my authentic self.
This weekend after 7 1/2 yrs of marriage Stafford planned,
proposed and pulled off, without a hitch, a surprise wedding
with a few family and friends in Vermont.
Thanks to all who were there and all who helped and all who sent their love.
I am overwhelmed, unbuttoned, unlaced, unzipped and undone completely...
I could not feel better!!!

HERITAGE TURKEY!!!!! Gobble gobble

2009-10-16T11:11:00.003-04:00

Happy belated Canadian Thanksgiving and soon to be American Thanksgiving

Soooooo I have a thanksgiving proposition.... go with it.....

I have recently learned some sad things about turkeys and as ugly as they are they deserve a chance at life too (until I eat them)
Here is what I know *
ANY turkey that you get regardless of it being free range and fed organic grain etc cannot naturally reproduce.... yes folks these poor birds can no longer do the dirty deed and have to be artificially inseminated. Also after around one year their legs collapse under the weight of there bodies and they cannot walk as they have been made for one purpose only. There meat is often infused with chemicals just to keep it moist as the penchant for breasts in this culture is ...well... large shall I say.
There is more but lets not go there...

SOOOO glorious the solution!!!!
There are a few, and I do mean a few, flocks of Heritage Turkeys being raised in the USA. Heritage turkeys can trace there gene line back to the 1800's and are happy birds who can do "the beast with 2 backs" and lay eggs and walk after a year. The turkeys people can buy are raised just to be eaten, of course, but there is a breeding flock as well. As you can imagine due to lack of demand and cost of raising them (they are fickle in their health etc) they are pricey.
MY SOLUTION I say get friends/ family together and buy one and EAT IT!!!! YUMMY. Supposedly the taste is very interesting and not what you are used to and it is supporting people who are trying to buck the norm, wooohoooooo!
If there are about 6 people it is around $20/ person for a 10-13 lbs birdey

See the link below for more info and enjoy your harvest festival actually like the pilgrims did you know with birds that can live more then a year (that is IF they did actually EVER sit down and be nice to the Native people ... but that is another blog)

*Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver it pretty much changed my life
also see: http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/

LINK FOR HERITAGE TURKEYS

http://www.localharvest.org/pastured-american-bronze-turkeys-C14049

This is what life is ABOUT

2009-08-21T17:17:00.004-04:00

Broadway softball League Champions 2009!!!! I did play 5 innings in this game but had to leave in the bottom of the 8th to go to rehearsal so missed out on picture taking and dogpiling my husband (will have to make up for the latter, later).
I have played in this league with this team or 3 years and it is the absolute joy of my summers. AND we WON the final game!!! You NEVER get to old for this, to mad for this, to frustrated for this, to disillusioned, sad, put upon, put down, thrown over, underwhelmed, undone un ANYTHING to play on a team..... hmmmmm funny that.... fits right into everything I have been thinking about the world and society lately.
We are at our best when outside and working together!
ME HAPPY!

Back to Yoga

2009-08-14T17:15:00.007-04:00

So I have been ranting a bit lately. Time to get back to some yoga thoughts. At Sonic Yoga, where I teach, every month a teacher on staff picks a "pose of the month". For September I will be picking Vastisthasana here is my pose of the month blurb.

Vasisthasana: Side Plank: As we head into the first month of fall after a very wet summer I encourage you to find the rainbow at the end of the storm. We search, as Yogi's, for balance and we are courageous and strong in this pursuit. It isn't always easy to take a step back and see the light in the darkness. When you are your most strong you are also your most vulnerable. Vasisthasana embodies the yin and yang of strength and balance; strength and vulnerability. Having the body parallel to the ground gives a large surface area to gravity which requires: almost every muscle in the body to be active and the breathe to be free and powerful or balance begins to wain. To accomplish Vasisthasana freely, there are many Krama's (steps) to getting there. Enjoy strengthening the body slowly and mindfully as you begin to unfold this asana. There are many ways to come into the pose and variations to explore just as there are many paths to finding your bliss. With strength and balance you can forge ahead down your personal path to happiness and peace one small step at a time. With all that H2O from summer, Rainbow up to meet the September Sun.

"The discipline of emptying ones mind is as important as filling it."
De La Vega
"When the Power of Love overcomes the Love for Power the world will know peace"
Sri Chimony Chose (where I heard it)/ Jimi Hendrix (potentially in a song)

The gerbil wheel and other thoughts

2009-06-15T09:25:00.028-04:00

So I have begun to notice and learn about the many ways that the corporatocracy... the government... the banks... the... well the "them" (this is not me picturing a few men curling their mustaches in a dark and smoky room) keeping us pedaling so hard on the gerbil wheel that it is difficult to look up for breath let alone to have time to REALLY look around at our world.

My latest need to post is drummed up from my recent 4 job 60 + hour week stint. Now I say this with the caveat that all 4 jobs I enjoy but one was unnecessary, if not for medical insurance, which would have made it a 40 hour week not 60+.
I was teaching kids theatre, doing a show and teaching Yoga making enough money to pay my bills and put a little away (I do not need much! Much to the chagrin of what the marketing of the world SAYS I need) but I still had to HAD TO work at my "other job" to make sure that I retain my medical benefits. Luckily I have a great, albeit low paying, "other job" filled with many people like myself who need flexibility and health insurance.
This work for insurance policy, I believe, is yet another way that I am kept from reading books about my governments actions at home and in the world, learning about the corporatocracy in the American agenda; the time I could be ... oh lets say... cooking for myself or tending my garden to grow my own food, exploring alternative energy sources and maybe even organizing to protest my governments lack of action on hmmmm MEDICAL INSURANCE?!
It's bad enough that we have bought into this post WWII marketing lie of the American dream, forgetting the dream that this Country was truly founded on. That dream, I believe, was the freedom to live free from prosecution, to have a chance to live as a community with nature, to start again better from the ways of the corrupt governments of the past. To think that we make great attempts to push this new American Dream on the world, when we choosing not to feed our own populace; and to waste fertile farm land growing copious amounts of soy and corn looking outside out boarders for what we should and could grow at home.

What is my dream?
What is yours?
Right now mine is looking more and more like checking out of the lie. Like claiming part of my freedom and life back. Claiming my time and using it to educate, to serve, to help myself and others. Trying to figure out how to do this and still have the money and insurance needed to live. To try to figure out how my generation can change the downward spiral of the environment that is at the point of total crisis so there will be a world for the next generation. And in all that, what is my role? I don't know yet. I just know we are being called to act and the greatest action we can take is with our wallets and with our words. What we purchase immediately and actively effects the entire world. Be it from buying American Made, to boycotting the "Made in China" products; from, buying organic and sustainably locally farmed foods, to looking at my consumption and realizing the difference between want and need. If even half of the populace of this country made these simple choices we could actually change the world and in no small way.

So from that spinning, going no where, to action off the gerbil wheel of dispare. It has been all to easy to not look around. Instead of punishing myself with the guilt of my inaction and lack of education I say act act act in anyway we can. That, and hope upon hope that Obama can get something rolling with Health Care in our Country.

Off the random-thoughts-of-my-awakening-to-the-world soap box I go only to, hopefully, pass it along to the next person. Or screw the soup box and ACT!

Learn. Act. Live the Truth.

2009-04-15T09:52:00.006-04:00

My Husband and I are starting to learn more about the many institutions that are set up to control the masses. Some more obvious then others.

The latest realization and perhaps most pervasive of these institutions being monetary. I encourage everyone to educate themselves about the Federal Reserve. Made in 1913 totally against everything the forefathers of America wanted, and actually one of the major reasons America fought the British, why Lincoln developed the "Greenback" and was assassinated: the Federal Reserve was made so that an elite few* held the mass of wealth and could control and instigate wars (which benefit the wealthy few (think Haliburton)), the rise and fall of Inflation, Recession and Depression. I encourage you to learn. Find the information that is out there. It is hurtful knowledge but once you know you can act. You can determine who's life you want to lead theirs or yours. Have "your" dreams of owning a house, a car, etc. been your dreams or theirs? Is it another way to have you become a financial slave to the big banks for the rest of your life? Or is it something deeply truly that you want... and how can you do it without the banks owning you. The Amish put a barn up in a day. Is it someone else who has told you that this is impossible? That Solar power is too expensive? That self sustaining living is a dream? I am not saying 'don't', I am saying 'learn' TRULY learn what you are living, by who's standards and constraints. Don't just trust that "they" have you best interests in mind, because the more I learn the more I see the business of controlling people, and oh what a lucrative business it is at the fully thought out and crafted detriment to the masses. Information is available you are NOT a conspiracy theorist that is just a dirty word for seeking the truth about the world you live in.

Learn. Act. Live the truth. Be the change you want to see**.

* Note since the development of the Fed the percentage of the wealthy has become smaller and smaller and the mass of wealth they retain is larger then it has ever been.

** "Be the Change you want to see in the world" is a rough translation of an old Buddhist proverb.

A Rookies Mistake? I think not.

2009-02-13T17:34:00.009-05:00

This is a little out of date but the general sentiment doesn't seem to go away. Now it is about the state of the economy. Pick a side, god forbid we don't pick a side... ugh!

So here is my attempt at a political rant. I have done the 'starting the journey of writing' then I played with 'Yoga crocheting writing' and now I am just pissed. I believe in people but I am loosing faith -albeit naive and perhaps better set aside- but faith non the less, in this country. Right on the cusp of becoming a citizen. OH the IRONY! *On February 19th I will head to some undisclosed location to be tested once again to see if I am good enough to be a citizen of the USA, this time it is general knowledge questions, kind of like the USA category in a very important Jeopardy game. But I do digress.

As I head way out on Long Island for my citizenship test Obama has just lost another cabinet member (this one, oh so surprisingly, a republican) and the republicans once again try to take the lime light. The are the quintessential neglected step child, with the House, Senate and President all Democrats. Is it truly great folly that Obama believed he could bring this country together in a bipartisan way? I suppose so. Or is it more important that the republican party desperately try to stay looking important and opposed in hopes that this will change things in the next election "We weren't with that dude". After all the last time everyone bipartisan..ly supported the other dude we ended up in a fake but horribly real war in Iraq. So we know what would help the country, a diametrically partisan government that divides the country down imaginary lines north to South, East to West, right? When does it stop. When does the Republican party start to play politics FOR us not against us. Have real suggestions and options to provide the US citizens. When does our political electorate actually stop playing politics and do something meaningful for the country. Give us choices... yes CHOICES of who to vote for. Have you seen how everyone else does this game there are even more then 2 players! Ok, Ok, yes, nobody else has this population with this economy but can't a girl dream...

I am, now this may surprise you, a bleeding heart liberal; however, I believe deeply that there should be an honest choice in government, not a school yard fight where you are forced to join a side just because they say "we oppose them" but because both parties care deeply and fight for the good of the country even, and most especially, when it means working TOGETHER!!! Phew! Rant over.

* it is now March 27th and I am still not a citizen. I have had to prove the first 3 yrs of my marriage (to get the green card) and now (without providing that this information would be required) they have sent me back into paper work land and waste-tax-payers-money land to prove the last 3 yrs of my marriage. I know this process should not be easy but it should be somewhat user friendly. Ha! or friendly at all!

Crocheting as Dharana/Dyana (Concentration/Meditation)

2008-11-20T17:17:00.016-05:00

So... all and I do mean ALL of my friends are having babies right now. I have made it to "that" age, I suppose. Due to this baby boom I am madly making blankets. On top of this explosion in baby propagation it is Christmas soon and scarves must be made for the adult types! Although I sound hairied and my husband may be lovingly tolerant of the copius amount of yarn cluttering our studio apartement, I am in bliss. As he says "I see that smile on your little Canadian face".

Just as Buddhists/Hindus meditate with Mala beads or Catholics with the Rosary, I feel a deep calm wash over me when I loop each stitch. I have noticed more and more we seem to thrive on simple repetition. Look at the great following of Ashtanga and Bikrim Yoga where the sequences are set. My beloved Vinyasa is only different because of the slight variation in sequencing those same postures. The repetition keeps the waking mind active enough to relax.

The reward of creating a final product also satisfies my project oriented and artistic mind (this slides me away from the Buddhist idea, I know... darn). I blame my dear Yogi friend and fellow teacher Johanna (www.illuminayoga.com) who was my guide to crocheting, teaching me back stage during a show; and to this day I just keep it simple. *So hum -one stitch- Hum Sa-one stitch and see the yarn reveal itself to be a beautiful ...

*So Hum, Hum Sa

translates to "I am all that is, all that is is me."

Oneness what a cozie thought!

The Great Unknown

2008-11-18T19:12:00.009-05:00

And so it begins.

Being a person who is generally afraid and yet thoroughly in awe of technology I have joined the land of BLOG.

At this point my hopes are that this foray into a foreign land can be a forum (eeek I will try to keep alliteration to a minimum) for my thoughts on Yoga practice and instruction; however, I have indeed included my profession as an actor as part of the title. This is for a reason yet to be discovered by me in regards to this blog (perhaps this will provide a forum on balance as an actor as well) and because it is the thing I am and the thing I feel most useful doing. I also wonder if I just need a somewhere to place my thoughts, opinions on this life and this world.... Whatever the reason we shall see.

Here is my favorite quote of late:

"The discipline of emptying ones mind is as important as filling it"

-De La Vega

Thank you for indulging me in the emptying of mine.