I'm am sure that i was not alone early this month being struck dumb by events unfolding along the Gulf Coast of the U.S. While the scale of the hurricane's might was awesome --for me it was the actions of the powerful people that were horrific.

I found myself asking a simple question: do i believe that there an inherent worth in every individual human being?

Watching the President bask before hand-picked sycophants while New Orleans drowned and cried for help made it crystal clear that he holds an opposite view from mine. I do believe that there is unique and unquestioned worth in each person. I do believe that there are Buddhas walking amongst us; i do believe that Christ observes our lives from within the flesh of the most poor; i do believe that angels are everywhere.

Jiddu Krishnamurti wrote in Education and the Significance of Life : "...it is within each one of us that the whole of existence is gathered."

As i struggled to find grounding in my post-Katrina world, i came back to these thoughts: that each of is a part of God, that each of us is worthy of respect, dignity and a chance at freedom. And so i have a favor to ask each of you: search for your true self, through yoga, meditation, whatever path you find best. Be a revolutionary of the spirit by refusing to live anyone else's life but your own.

Kudos to Mara and Amy who pulled off the first annual Street Yoga recycling fundraiser this month in Portland. Kudos as well to those yoga studios who offered up space and encouragement for this project. Amongst the supporters are

We send out a huge thank you to all the participating studios for your time, patience and generosity.

A typical yoga class at Outside In will include zero students barefoot. Most wear shoes and boots throughout; a few will wear socks. Many homeless youth have unwell, unclean feet. Many also have chronic coughs, skin conditions, and long-term illnesses.

We have been asked by the Northwest Health Foundation to submit a full proposal based on our letter of inquiry for a grant for our Wellness Workshops for Homeless Youth project. This project is kicking off this fall with a series of nutrition classes we'll be offering at the White Shield Center. Actually, in some ways, this work began over the summer with our highly popular spa days up there, where the girls do cleansing masks and cucumbers over the eyes, while chilling in Savasana and learning about valuing and caring for themselves.

This project already involves a number of people, from our Curriculum Task Force members who will review all the workshop material, our Youth Advisory Board, made up of current and former Street Yoga students, and a number of volunteers in Portland and Seattle.

The workshops will cover material relevant to living on and getting off the streets, and will include expanded Survival Yoga classes, Nutrition, First Aid, Foot Care and a host of others.

If you are interested in helping out in any way, feel free to be in touch any time.

In case you haven't seen it, we added a new site to our Youth Yoga Map --Community Yoga Albuquerque. This is a growing group of yoga teachers in New Mexico who are building a very sincere offering at the foot of the Sandia Mountains. You can check out the Youth Yoga Map anytime. If your interested in connecting to Albuquerque, send us a note.

I know that i had prejudices when i started this work; i know i still do. I had many about homeless youth, and as these blindnesses have been torn down one by one, often they have been replaced by admiration for qualities that homeless youth sometimes have more than their non-homeless peers. Amongst these would be boldness, survival skills, persistence, will, and savviness --that ability to make things work out as you need them to, despite long odds and innumerable challenges. That's why we've been seeing our yoga as Survival Yoga, another tool these young people can use to find their way in life. Maybe yoga is really Survival Yoga for each of us.

But want i wanted to share was an email i got from one of the staff at Outside In, who was all set to teach his first yoga class when conference room construction intervened. He wrote:

We are in the beginning stages of developing yoga curriculum for GLBTQ youth. We are starting to work with the Sexual Minority Youth Resource Center here in Portland, aka SMYRC. Drop us a line if you have any input for this effort.

We are putting together a joint youth apprenticeship program and volunteer teacher training. We're very excited about this. Selected youth will spend 6 hours learning to be yoga class apprentices, and then they will practice teaching to a hands-on workshop of interested volunteers. The youth classes will touch on yoga history and philosophy, good body mechanics, the power of the spoken word, observing students and the like. We'll keep you up to date on this as it builds.

"What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general, but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment." Dr. Victor E. Frankl, Jewish psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor, from his book Man's Search for Meaning .

As always, thank you for making it this far. Many many blessings to you and yours in this moment, and this one, and....

To end with wise words from Jonathan Swift: "May you live every day of your life."

Respectfully submitted, Mark A. Lilly, Portland, OR