Just a quick one. Today Himat told me of his class Sunday at Outside In. He arrived downstairs to find all 11 students sitting in quiet meditation, awaiting the start of yoga practice. He was so impressed by the maturity and solidness of the students, all of them young homeless men and women, who obviously, are really starting to deepen into yoga.

We'll be having a training in British Columbia in October. You can read more about it by clicking here and we'll be sure to have more details in the next newsletter.

Friday August 4th was a special day. Started with a Snatam Kaur and Krishan Prakash Singh Khalsa taking time to head up to White Shield to share with the girls there a bit of their music, and their love. Later that day, at Morrison Edgefield, we had a guest teacher, a 13 year old boy who many years ago spent way too many painful days and nights locked away there in strong rooms where he and his demons held court. Today, he's a splendid young man, accomplished yogi, and gentle soul. That evening i was invited to Snatam's concert, her Portland stop on the Celebrate Peace Tour, to be presented on behalf of Peace Cereal a $2000 grant for Street Yoga. After 2 hours of singing and chanting together, i was asked to speak, and i told the following story:

"This morning on the radio i heard Johnny Cash singing a Trent Reznor song, Hurt , which starts: 'i hurt myself today to see if i still feel....' This got me thinking about a girl who had been at White Shield a week or two ago. She was stealing the other girls' razors and cutting herself bad, so bad that after a week of chaos, anger and fear for everyone there, she was taken to a psychiatric unit somewhere.

"I thought of her and thought of violence we inflict upon ourselves, and violence we inflict upon each other. I thought of war, and i thought that those who would act out in violence are those who do not feel love, who cannot feel love. All they can feel is the pain.

"Imagine if you couldn't feel Love!! Life really wouldn't be worth living very much, and maiming yourself or killing someone or starting a war would all seem 'normal'!

"This morning at White Shield," i continued, "Snatam and Krishan sang and shared with the girls, and during our tuning in, i watched as one girl let down her guard, let fall all her emotional armor, her self-protective guises, her facades and defenses, and watched how she let in the music. I beheld a look of such contentment on her face that i can only call it bliss. It was sheer joy just to behold!

"And i realized once again that our task in this life is to create Love with every breath that remains to us, commit ourselves to smiling at strangers, offering kindness to our neighbors, giving it all away to people on the streets, neighbors, children, old people, lovers, to those who confuse or anger us. Give love from now on until forever, and make it so strong, that anyone can feel it!"

Go ahead and pray for peace, please. And when that task is subsiding, fill your energies with creating the greatest love that you can, and giving it away. Keep at it and slowly, person by person, the Love will find chinks in the armor and find its mark in the soul, and transformation will happen. There's no other way to stop the madness.

One thing i'm not yet up to speed on is posting an events calendar. So, in hindsight, here's a retrospective of the last week or two (more or less), and the coming ones.

Tina and Katie offered restorative yoga at Letty Owings for young mothers in shelter. We are building out this program and if you are interested in volunteering to help teach yoga to young women trying to overcome homelessness, poverty and other challenges, please let us know.

The Living Foods program continues. Sunday afternoons this summer, we're teaching mindful eating and cooking with the girls at White Shield. With food gleaned for free from the farmer's markets, Ariel, Margot, Tina, Jane, Lauren, Deah, Anne and others have been chatting up good food, nutrition, and local organic agriculture while cutting green peppers, garlic and other fresh veggies. Ariel will have a more in depth report next month.

Had a nice gathering of volunteers last month. It was nice to see you all!

We started a new class, at the Morrison Family Sexual Abuse Treatment program. The girls, ages 10-16, are learning to overcome the ravages of abuse, and we are working to not only teach yoga, but weave yoga and mindfulness in with ongoing treatment plans and other therapies.

We offered a yoga and spa day for the Road Warriors at Outside In. These young people are the most street-involved group we teach, accessing services rarely and having deep traumas they are struggling to overcome. We watched Koyanasquatsi, soaked feet, drank juice and hung out together.

Friday the 11th, we offered our Spa Day Celebration at the Hamilton Family Center in San Francisco.

Upcoming: Street Yoga teacher training in Vancouver, BC; Spa Day at P:EAR; fundraiser at the Yoga Shala; Street Yoga video coming out soon; website update (with much more useful info).... There's more, but that's all i can remember at the moment.

To all the SY volunteers reading this, or to anyone who feels inspired to write, please answer this: Why Do You Do Yoga?? Please send me your thoughts and i'll compile them for sharing on the web. I think it's key that we know the answer to this question in our hearts, so that we can share it w/ the youth we serve.

I've been thinking a lot about motivation, about what gets one up in the morning to face the difficulties. I think joy and sorrow intertwine to create energy, and properly harnessed, this can be powerful. Rather than blab on this tonight, i wanted to share this following poem that touches these twin pillars.

Street Yoga is very proud to announce that Ritu Riyat will be serving as the first Street Yoga Research Director. Ritu is a public health professional with a dedication to yoga and helping underserved populations. If you have any specific questions for her, or are interested in research collaborations, please feel free to email her anytime.

I asked Ritu to introduce herself to you, and she wrote: "I have been practicing yoga since 1999 and have since developed a sincere appreciation for the foundation of yoga. After experiencing the benefits of yoga on my own youth mind I felt the need to share this secret with everyone. I have served as a representative for various youth advocacy groups and completed a degree in Public Health in order to conduct research studies on various health education methods. After visiting and working in the slums of Mumbai, India I came to the States back with a desire to combine the things I was most passionate about: yoga, youth, and a world of service. Although my path has had its obstacles it has led me to this place of peace -- the present."

We are very excited about this, and have already been working on creating effective evaluation tools, as well as setting out a more formal research methodology, based deeply on the principal of Svadhyaya. We'll keep you posted.

Shout out to Gaiam for donating a bunch of mats our way (thanks Desiree!). Shout out to Peace Cereal for donating $2000 to Street Yoga. Shout out to Kathleen for working so hard to make the SY move super tight! Shout out to all the SY volunteers for your continued dedication, commitment and hard work on behalf of so many youth we teach!!

And, a huge shout-out to Mara and Will for getting married!!! You guys rock!!

I have the immense privilege this week of being in British Columbia, to be a small dot amongst the deep forests and endless lakes. May we remember to listen to our cells which never forget this amazing planet we call home.

Blessings to you all.

Namaste, m

A few events to put out there for everyone.

We are offering a volunteer orientation in Portland (July 23) and San Francisco (August 12) for those interested in volunteering in either of those cities in the coming months. If you'd like to attend either of these, please fill out the online application. Thanks!

We'll be starting our first yoga series in the Bay Area in August, offering weekly classes at the Hamilton Family Center, a transitional shelter for mothers of young children and their families. We're launching this offering with a Spa Day Celebration for the mothers there on August 11th. If you're curious, you can peek at the flyer

We'll be offering a full Teacher Training in Vancouver October 6-8 at the Radha Studio downtown Eastside. More details coming soon.

The Yoga Hip Hop Play was most excellent!! Look for a detailed update and some video soon!

When i was at the National Health Care for the Homeless Conference last week, i was struck by two things. One, the heroic sense of commitment, duty and dedication among so many of the caregivers and service providers. Many literally walk the streets tending to those who suffer gravely, and cannot care well for themselves. They treat the 3 a.m. frostbite under bridges in January, the screaming nightmares of the traumatized, the utter despair of those with nowhere else to turn.

The second bit that struck me was the sense of scarcity that permeates this work. I've been wrestling with the scarcity-abundance dyad for some time, and i made a vow to myself that i would do all i can to bring abundance to the world of homeless people and those who serve them. It cannot be that a bandage on the left arm means the right one will bleed without tending. That is not the way Life has endowed this planet, nor how God has endowed our Spirits.

We are meant to live abundantly. I know there are material scarcities in the lives of many many people, but that does not exclude a parallel abundance. Here's how i see it works:

You, each of us, studies ourselves to achieve insight, clarity and a sense of our own unique truth. Then, we begin giving away what is uniquely ours. For example, if you are a gifted singer, sing!! Share your voice with those who live in dull silence. If you garden, grow extra flowers and give them away. If you sew, sew eye pillows. If you teach yoga, teach someone who might not know how to breathe.

Give it away until it feels Great! Until that point, you still have more to give. Give your time, your smiles, your honesty, your hope, your desire for the well-being of all creation! And the crazy miracle is, that you will be rewarded ten fold for every gift you give. You may not realize it at once; it may not be immediate, but it will creep up on you and one day you'll realize that your life is overflowing with beauty and love and friendship and hope. And if i might be so bold as to make a suggestion, when you get to that point, give all that away as fast as you can!

I promised the clinicians who serve our nation's homeless kin that we of the yoga community are growing our awareness of our own power to heal. Later i realized that i was telling them that we are becoming aware of our power to create abundance! When you give away your yoga, you will literally change people's lives. You will give people something that makes them feel great, that gives them hope, that transforms deadly despair into mere sadness.

I promised them that we of the yoga community were marshalling our resources to be of service, and that in a year, in five, in a decade or a generation, it will be normal for everyone to do yoga. Everyone!! That means in 25 years, the President of the United States will practice yoga, will have known stillness for most of her life. And our job right now is to make sure that she it not overlooked, that no matter where she is right now --in a shelter, on the streets, in rehab, in foster care or with a loving family, that she can do yoga. A lot rides on our pulling this off!

Our newest program, engendered lovingly by Ariel Singer, is The Living Foods Project. It's main goal is "to connect at-risk youth with the nutritional bounty of Northwest farms, to provide an understanding of fresh, local produce as an available dietary resource, and to build the skills required to make delicious and cost-effective meals. The project will be oriented towards building community by educating the program participants on the importance of local food systems, and sharing with farmers the invaluable service that they can offer to those in need."

"The Living Foods program will use produce gleaned at the Portland Farmer's Market to teach weekly cooking classes at the Salvation Army White Shield Center throughout the summer. The cooking classes will cover food prep, basic cooking techniques, information on nutrition and food combining, as well as sustainable and community food systems. The program will also include information on local food resources available to low-income Portlanders. The program participants will build a recipe and resource book over the course of the classes."

We'll keep you posted as this unfurls.

You gotta listen to this! (Acutally, do whatever you want, but it's got a cool edge and it inspires!)

We pulled off another spa day this month, at CTS. It rocked!! You must try it; we'll be posting instructions, recipes and guidelines shortly. It's an easy, fun, sublime way to serve. I asked Lauren to write up her notes of the Day, but before i do, i want to share with you plans for next fall. As part of our Alternative Schools Program, we will be starting the year with a Family Spa Day Celebration. The kids and their parents will share Spa Day, good food, tea and community. Imagine how totally cool it's going to be when an 11 year old boy massages his mother's tired feet, or two siblings unite to care for a third. This stuff is so real!! OK... here's Lauren:

Lauren you rock!! If you're interested in sponsoring our next Spa Day, you are most welcome to make a donation or contribute in any other create way (just drop us a note anytime.)

The Compassionate Response to Overwhelming Need (CRON) pattern is a strategy for dealing with the feelings associated with heart-felt observations of overwhelming need. The pattern suggests direct action as closely aligned with the overwhelming need as possible. For example, you witness time and again young people poisoned with processed sugar foods masquerading as meals. You see them behave in troubling ways that call forth punishments and civic interventions by police, judges, school managers, case workers and other system professionals. What do you do in the face of tens of thousands of hyperactive kids living outside their body and far from hope? In our work teaching yoga to just these kids, we've chose simple steps. Take the Living Foods Program. We started simply by bringing oranges. And plums. We handed them to each of the kids we work with as a gift and a seed, a seed perhaps in their life, but surely in ours. That seed set in motion an energy flow. That seed sought expression and enlivenment. That seed sought sympathetic energies and complimentary vibrations. The seed of a small orange given led to Ariel phoning the farmer's market and asking for leavings. It is leading this summer to open-hearted people taking that food up to the girls in shelter and showing them how to prepare the living fresh bounty into a feast for the soul, the senses and the body. It will cause farmers to share their part in this work with their friends who will venture to try something similar with the old people endlesly convelescing in silence down the street. One seed, freely given, grows into a bountiful tree, which only finds completion by giving of its bounty to the hungery creatures who find rest in its shade.

See a need. Seek to meet it. Start small. Think big. Tend lovingly and watch it grow.

I wrote the following to the dear folks who attended the first Teacher's Training last month. I was so moved by the incredible coming together, by the willingness of so many to give from their heart. The next morning, i was so moved with the feelings that i penned the following, which i wanted to share here with all of you.

Secret of the day: Hope is Real. Pass it on.

Namaste, marq

How do you explain to a young girl of 15 who has never been loved, whose body has been used by countless adults for their violent pleasure, whose entire belongings fit into a ripped plastic garbage bag --that she is the most valuable, unique, precious person on earth? How do you convey to her that no one is more dear to God than she, that no one is more deserving of love than she, that no one has any more right to hope than she does?

Maybe it's simple. You show up and you smile, with a heart filled only with a longing for a safe world for her to grow up in, for a multitude of small moments of happiness to carry her through the struggles. Maybe with every sinew of your soul you let her know that she truly isn't alone in this lifetime. You show up and you smile, and no matter how she can take it, you stay true to your breath and you try again, and you simply do your best to be fully present every moment, in each encounter, with nothing guiding you but the deepest love you can muster.

We are moving forward with some new programs, taking a step or two backwards to try to make some current endeavors more stable. There is such a huge demand for yoga for young people, in treatment centers, drop-in centers, boys and girls clubs, residential shelters, detention centers, group homes, schools, after-school programs. We've been approached by them all.

We're taking some time this summer to assess where we are as an organization, and map out plans to be more and more effectively of service; we'll keep you posted.

I'm blessed to be on the receiving end of so many dear emails; at times, they bring tears to my eyes, the connection this work seems to inspire in many of you. Thank you for your sincerity all of you who've ever written us.

I wanted to share one letter with you b/c it resonated so much with the yoga we share with our young students. Bethany Wexler wrote:

"You asked me to think about how yogal helped my "self-esteem" when I took it as a young teenager. I think that one of the hardest things about becomming an adult is coming to terms with the dichotomy of mind and body and realizing how connected they really are. As a teenager my body was doing all sorts of crazy and unexpected things and it was very easy to become angry at it. I think that all young people have issues with their bodies. When they look in the mirror, they feel that the body they see is not who "they really are". Being able to view my muscles, bones, hair, face as something that is part of me and can help, hurt, make me happy or make me sad is something that yoga helped me through a time when I felt like my body was betraying me. I think that yoga was also helpful for me to realize that I can feel happiness in the present. I can feel powerful by doing a posture. I can use my mind to control my muscles. I can use my muscles to control my mind. Yoga teaches you to focus within: How are you feeling at this moment? How does thinking about your future, school or job affect how your back or shoulders feel? Can you be in your body without judging it?"

Yes! Thank you Bethany.

"In NVC [non-violent communication], we consider praise and compliments a violent form of communication... because it is using language as a manipulation that destroys the beauty of sincere gratitude. So in NVC we show people to make sure that before you open your mouth to get clear that the purpose is not to manipulate a person by rewarding them. Your only purpose is to celebrate. To celebrate the life that has been enriched by what the other person has contributed to you."

excerpted from a piece by Marshall Rosenberg, founder of the discipline of Non-Violent Communication, from Yoga Times...

In that spirit, please help me celebrate my first Spa Day!

Please know that i am a novice at skin-care, facials, salt scrubs, soaks and the like. Something in my psychic constitution has given me little time to appreciate the simple luxuries of caring for myself this way. So given my advanced ignorance, i prepped hard for my turn to host Spa Day. That came last week. Kathleen and i made it to White Shield, loaded down with foot washing basins, essential oils, epsom salts, foot cream, juice, snacks and music. We set the girls up on their ragtag couches, drew lukewarm water from a shower, heated it in a 1980's microwave, and filled their basins to the top. They chose the oil, and they kicked back and chatted and enjoyed an afternoon of wellness, smiles and relaxation.

I can truly say it was one of my favorite Street Yoga days ever. To offer something so fundamental as hope and satisfaction is a profound gift to the soul. The smiles were sincere, the glow lingered into the next week, and one hopes, the memory and feeling will last a lifetime. I know it will for me.

The San Francisco Teacher Training is in two days and should be a very solid weekend. A number of dedicated and loving people have signed up, and we will share, build community, practice together and sow seeds of healing with yoga.

This training is full, but please check back to the website for future update about upcoming trainings.

A huge shout out to Kate, Rosey and all the folks at the It's Yoga Kids Studio for their super-generous hosting and support for our training this weekend. Heartfelt gratitude to you!

Street Yoga was fortunate to be able to provide some material that was chosen for the current issue of Yoga Therapy in Action . The cover article and accompanying pictures describe what it's like to teach yoga to homeless youth. We'll have a link to the article up shortly.

Remember this project, from the last newsletter. What a bust!! We created this over the top, way too detailed, un-asked for program, and no one signed up. We took the hit, looked inside, and realized that the youth love yoga b/c for a homeless youth who is "on" nearly 24/7, 60 minutes of yoga is an oasis of rest, healing and safety.

Out of that experience, we have focused our Wellness Workshop efforts on simply being of service and building up on the core of our yoga work. We'll be offering a skin care workshop, and mother-infant care workshop, and they will be rejuvenating at the same time as being informative. More on this as it unfurls.

The other day i was teaching a group of teen-age girls, and one came to class wearing those sheer, pantyhose-material fairy wings you wear on your back. I complimented her on the pair and told her we have a set of green ones at home. In an instant, all the girls were super-animated, telling me their favorite fairy wing colors; they asked if i had any Care Bears or other unwanted stuffed animals; if i had any ruby slippers or other totems of many a young childhood. And these were the same girls who give themselves tatoos with razors and ballpoint pens, who talk tough and fight when they have to. These were the girls, some of whom, never had a childhood of fairy wings and princesses.

Rumor has it they sell fairy wings at the Dollar Store. I must confess, i'll be dipping into petty cash and stocking up on enough pairs to go around. And who knows, maybe then, we'll really get some lift in our tree pose?

It's been a while since we had a chance to publish a newsletter. For all your blessings and kind thoughts this past three months, we all thank you!

Namaste,mark

"Father?" she addressed me with formal mirth, "Why are we here?" Before i could answer, she marvelled that "the stars never stop, ever; they just keep going on and on forever!" For her, an answer wasn't needed. The mere speculation was delicious enough. For me, though, watching myself get older with a much different eye, i do wonder. Why am i here? For me, it's been decades akin to journeying into a labyrinth without the fatal monsters of lore. It's been a meandering in search of clues, and i feel i'm getting closer.

Compassion the substance, and compassionate action, the way. This issue of the newsletter is dedicated to Compassion, and to those on Earth who have delved into its mysteries and put their bodies in motion in hopes of being of service. Please read on for details of some of the works we are doing that perhaps in some small way shine the light on this divine source of love, the compassion that lies within each of us.

"Auch wenn ich wuesste, dass morgen die Welt zugrunde geht, wuerde ich heute noch einen Apfelbaum pflanzen." --Martin Luther ("Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.")

Last month, we began offering our first ever meditation classes. Following on the heels of yoga on Sunday afternoons, the class aims to bring a compact, portable, diverse meditation practice to the youth. Classes include sitting, eating and walking meditations. They also offer the meditation of presence. For example, we made it a goal to honor the youth simply for their presence by offering them organic fruit and snacks, and organic tea, all on ceramic plates and cups. As someone said, kids can get all the grub they want on a paper plate in Portland, but a cup of tea in a solid earthen mug is almost a luxury.

A huge thank you to Carole and Ruby for bringing this wonderful offering to life! If anyone is interested in sharing in this meditation adventure, please don't hesitate to drop us a line anytime.

In the forward to Marshal Rosenberg's seminal book "Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life", Arun Ghandi, granddaughter of Mohanda K. Ghandi, writes: "Nonviolence means allowing the the positive within you to emerge. Be dominated by love, respect, understanding, appreciation, compassion, and concern for others...."

I am angry about something. Let me practice my Nonviolent Communications skills on this one.

Observation - When i see the Catholic Archdiocese and the St. Stephen parish in Portland kicking the Community Transitional School out of their site...

Feeling - ...it makes me very angry.

Need - I need to believe that the church will uphold Christ's teaching and do everything in its power to help the most vulnerable.

Request - I thereby request, with deep conviction, that the Church rescind its eviction notice to the Community Transitional School and work to find a long-term solution that is viable for both the Church and School Communities.

The Community Transitional School is truly amazing, and they could use a hand right now. Their landlord, the Catholic Church, is kicking them out, evicting the homeless children from the most stable place in their lives. I believe it is a move that will deepen the pain that many of these young people feel, and that it is a move that could be avoided if the desire to serve was deeply present in the lives of all concerned.

If you would like to call or write the Archdiocese or St. Stephen parish, click here for contact info.

I added a link to some writings of the young people at CTS on the topic of Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech. One girl wrote:

It's official. Street Yoga's first teacher training is set for the weekend of May 19-21, 2006 in San Francisco. Topics will include Setting up a Program, Working with Different Youth Populations, Creating a Tailored Curriculum, Respecting Boundaries, Surmounting Labels, Facing our Own 'Isms, Compassion vs. Charity, Voice & Non-Violent Communication and other areas. There will be lots of role playing, yoga practice, discussion and dialog. Cost for the 10.5 hour training will be $175.

In you are interested in signing up, please fill out the online application and we will contact you shortly about next steps. Class is limited to those with at least one year prior yoga experience and a strong personal practice.

One of the premises that i hold dear in the world of yoga is that every individual is unique. The prime corralary to this is that each person is equally and deeply valued in the clear eyes of God; i simply try to emulate that Divine Love, in my small imperfect way.

To me, and i am very grateful to Sarahjoy Marsh for articulating this so clearly, Yoga Welcomes Everyone! We in Street Yoga have tried to live up to this, and in our work helping young people get off, or stay off the streets, we have widened our reach to include girls in foster care, abused children, children of homeless families, as well as youth who are currently homeless. Our newest class will extend our offering to sexual and gender minority youth at SMYRC (the Sexual Minority Youth Resource Center) here in Portland.

Gender is a fickle friend. For some it is as clear as a calm, still, sunny afternoon. For others, it is as mutable as dancing spring day teasing with both winter and summer. In our new class, we want to teach yoga in a safe space for these young people. But at the same time, we want to challenge ourselves as teachers to see each person simply as a person, not male or female or queer or undecided or not-telling. Being separated male from female for partner work in a yoga class is difficult for some some people, and we hope through this endeavor to learn where those walls exist in our own practice, borrow some boots from the yogis at Outside In, and (gracefully and gently of course) kick those walls down. We'll keep you posted.

Marshall Rosenberg, whose work is greatly influencing our Wellness Workshop Internship Program, wrote in his book Nonviolent Communication "When we give from the heart, we do so out of a joy that springs forth whenever we willingly enrich another person's life. This kind of giving benefits both the giver and the receiver. The receiver enjoys the gift without worrying about the consequences that accompany gifts given out of fear, guilt, shame, or desire for gain. The giver benefits from the enhanced self-esteem that results when we see our efforts contributing to someone's well-being."

We are seeking homeless youth yoga students to join our first ever Wellness Workshop Internship program. This four week series will offer a chance to deepen their yoga experience while at the same time helping us build our Street Medicine series. All this will be offered in the context of learning and practicing Nonviolent Communication, which we see as the cornerstone of mindfulness for dealing with wellness, self-care and emergency situations on the street. Updates will be coming soon and posted to the website.

To learn more about this program, you can read this Letter of Inquiry for some grant funding, which provides a good overview.

Thank you to all of you for the support you share with all the folks of Street Yoga. It's a blessing to be able to share this work with all of you!

In wandering through the labyrinth, it could rightly be said that i've been looking simply for happiness. Here's a scrap of paper i picked up one dark morning: "If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." --the Dalai Lama

Blessings to you all

Namaste, mark

As we dance through the longest nights here in the Northern Hemisphere, here's hoping you'll be able to see in the dark.

In the Bible, in the book of Matthew in the New Testament, Jesus informs his audience that to enter Heaven --to reunite with God-- one must be like the little children.

One personal hope of mine is that one day we can reclaim what is divine in Christianity, and take it back it from the hypocrites and liars who pretend to love Jesus but murder in the name of God. I think it's important to see Divinity in as many places as we can, and having read the Bible cover to cover twenty years ago, i want to share one section that stands out so clearly in my mind.

What makes young children remarkable to me is not only their present-time awareness --they can't really be any other way-- but the way they exhibit some of humankind's highest traits. If we were to be more like children, if we were to pass the entrance test to heaven, what would we look like:

"Dance first. Think later. It's the natural order." ~Samuel Beckett

We've heard back from three of the funders so far regarding our recent grant submissions: The Milagro Foundation declined to fund Street Yoga; instead they are supporting a host of amazing organizations across the world --"Milagro grantees all focus on children and range from sexual abuse clinics to art therapy programs in Bosnia; an art bus that goes into poverty areas in San Francisco to bicycle repair training and bike trips for low income children; safe houses for street children in Brazil to music programs for South African children living in townships; a vaccination program for a small village in Nicaragua to providing safety, education and sanctuary to young girls sold into prostitution by their families in India, Jamaica, Vietnam and the US; support for abandoned babies in Albania to summer camps for children with HIV in California...."

Meyer Memorial Trust likewise declined to fund Street Yoga.

The Kaiser Permanente Community Fund at the Northwest Health Foundation has decided to fund Street Yoga's Wellness Workshops for Homeless Youth project for two years. This will allow us to hire a wellness coordinator, create some excellent workshops, reach out to more youth, publish our findings, build community locally and nationwide. Very exciting!

It's been a wild, wonderful time with Street Yoga. Some amazing people have been gracious in volunteering not only their time, but their heartfelt and thoughtful intelligence. A huge shout out and hug to Adrienne, Amy, Ariel, Carole, Deah, Diane, Himat, Jim, Katie, Larry, Lauren, Linnea, Lynea, Mandy, Mara, Matt, Mycol, Rebecca, Ruby, Sarah, Simone, TJ, and Tina and all the rest of you who have helped out in so many ways! You all rock!!

Some of the things we're working on are:

I hope through these newsletters, you have been able to see that the youth we serve are simply individuals, challenges and miracles blending together just like with any of us. The other day i got an email newsletter from David Brinkman, the Executive Director of My Friend's Place (a homeless youth program in L.A.) that i want to reproduce here in its entirety. It speaks for itself:

When we started this work three years ago, when it was just myself, and then myself and Matt, we met with Andre P. at Outside In, to discuss the beginning of our work there. In no short time, he told us flatly (to paraphrase), "This yoga is revolution work. This is truly about creating a new world where justice is part of every breath, and no one need suffer because they are gay or different or poor or homeless."

That principal has guided us ever since, that we are working for a Revolution in Consciousness through yoga.

Perhaps it seems an odd time to be optimistic, what with the United States government imploding under the weight of its lies, natural disasters causing enough bloodshed to match the day's war tally, and environmental calamities on every continent. But these grand events often obscure the small endeavors of people worldwide to craft a new humanity on Earth, one marked with sustainable rather than greed-driven relationships amongst all of this planet's denizens.

Jeffery Sachs, Harvard economist, believes that hunger can be eradicated from Earth within 20 years --we have the resources; all we need is the mindset. Small entrepreneurs are creating village industries that lift entire families out of poverty. Advances in decentralized solar technology portend a time when everyone can have clean water and safe surroundings.

Right here in Portland, already one of the rockin'est cities in the US, people are making more room for bikes, more room for sustainable architecture, more room for permaculture gardens, more room for homeschooling. It's no longer just "activists" who are creating new solutions, but otherwise ordinary citizens, hearkening back to this country's founding when a handful of individuals changed the world.

One breath at a time, one person at a time, we can awaken ourselves, and possibly, if we're lucky, bring the rest of the world along for the ride.

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Remember to never forget to dance.

Blessings to you all! mark

A lot of what we see in our teaching is painful to bear --kids who've been abused, girls locked up, teenagers struggling on the streets. But there's something else going on out where we teach, something wonderful. It's hard to describe, but it's a sense of yoga that is intensely positive, yoga as a spark in the lives of certain young people to do amazing things, to be powerful and true inside and out. They get it, and their enthusiasm is catching and contagious. "Yoga helps when you're angry", "Yoga make your body not be sore", "Yoga is great!". It's not only the way these young people express their thoughts about yoga, it's the positive spirit they hold. It's as if, for many of them, yoga is obvious, like drinking water is obvious and music is obvious and friendship is obvious.

We're adding another class for youngsters whose families are homeless, and perhaps we will call it "Yoga for Life", for truly, that's what it is.

In one of the recent SY classes i taught, there was a 12 year old girl, we'll call her Maggie. In the beginning of class, she started picking her nose and eating it, which grossed out the rest of the girls in class. One girl on the other side of the room was not liking it at all, and you could see storm clouds gathering between them. You could see the part of the story from before i got there, where Maggie had just arrived, nearly defenseless amid the older girls. You could sense she had never in her life been able to protect herself, and each new situation was a beating waiting to happen.

Maggie continued with her nose until the other girl stormed out of class, and the counselor had to take Maggie out and explain in terms i did not hear that there would be consequences for continuing to act out as such. The rest of class she refrained from picking her nose, but every pose we did, she said in advance, "I can't do that" or "I'm not good enough" or "I'm not strong enough for that". She was alone in her world, with enough demons for many lifetimes.

As a yoga teacher, we have few, but powerful tools at hand. The breath was too abstract for her, but i knew there was something she could do well, and when we got to half hand-stand at the wall, she lit up. "I can do that!" and before i could get in place to spot her, she was halfway up the wall. We encouraged her to press strong through her hands and arms, lengthen through the crown of her head, look back at the wall, and breathe. We sneaked it in, that word. "Breathe." She did it all, well, and when she came down, she had a look of accomplishment that i'm sure was rare in her life. "I did it!" It was hers, one small success in an ocean of "failure", one small piece in building up a self that is not simply the world's punching bag or sex toy, but a self that is as valuable to God as you or i.

Why did Maggie act in self-destruction. Why bring on a fight knowing the beating will hurt, maybe worse than ever before? A lady writing in Sun magazine might know:

Yoga is not cutting. It's showing up and breathing and standing on your own two feet and believing that somehow, you are beloved by God. Maybe if Maggie hears that enough, succeeds enough on the mat, she'll come to believe it too.

This is a question i have been asking myself off and on for the last few years. I know it "works" for me, but can it be effective to help those who live on the streets to find stable housing, or to help those who suffer from a history of abuse to grow past the nightmares and the anger?

As part of our Street Yoga work, a small group of us has loosely formed to build a program around this question. We will be asking, specifically, if yoga can be an effective part of the long-term healing for those, as someone wrote to me in an email, "who are dealing with the ravages of childhood sexual, physical and emotional abuse."

We will be meeting next month over tea, to share what we know, and to begin devising concrete plans for not only bringing more yoga to those in such pain, but doing so in a mindful way, with an eye towards the long-term healing, so we can really ascertain what works and what does not.

We are continuing to build our first curricula for the Wellness Workshops for Homeless Youth. Do any of you have any knowledge around creating low-cost self-care products, ideally with an Ayurvedic base? I'm thinking skin care masks, foot cream, toothpaste, anything that could be made by inexpensive, readily available products. Please send me a note if you have any ideas around this at all.

We'll also be looking to gather self-care, hygiene and first aid supplies for the youth. We want to give all workshop participants "kits" with useful products and tools for helping them through their days and nights. I'll send out a more formal list next month, but if you want to take a look at the bare bones outline of the classes online, you'll begin to get an idea. Click here to read more.

A couple of us will be heading to Eugene in early November to meet and study with Shakta Khalsa. Her Radiant Child Yoga embraces the natural exuberance of youth, and creates honesty of insight for young people going through the emotional and physical changes of childhood. If anyone is interested in the Eugene training and might want to carpool drop us a line. You can also check out the Radiant Child Yoga website for info about books and other workshops.

Also in November, we will be doing some training with Jim and Lynea Gillen, founders and co-creators of Yoga Calm here in Portland. Yoga Calm is a series of counselor, teacher or parent-led activities that help children develop self-control, concentration skills and nervous system regulation. Check out the website for more info about trainings in November and into next year.

We have made some progress in defining our goals around the GLBTQ yoga series, which we'll be offering at SMYRC here in Portland. You can read more about it by clicking here. If any of you is interested in helping teach this, please drop a note via our volunteer page. Thanks.

Recently, i had a wicked nightmare: i was driving 70 MPH and my car veered at full speed into the other lane, where the other car was veering into mine at 70 MPH. Awareness, irrefutable awareness of instant and total death exploded me awake with an ancient shattering scream.

I hate when that happens, this echo of long-ago trauma, because it insists that others, my family, endure with me an unrestful night. But as i have gotten older, i have come to see the sweet side to this agony. Death is awaiting all of us. For some it will come quickly and oh too soon, for some at a peaceful old age surrounded by loved ones and kindly dreams. But knowing this, i can focus on what's truly important today, and every day, because any day could truly be my last.

Steven Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer, after finding out he had cancer, said:

Four centuries ago, Miguel de Cervantes wrote: "The phoenix hope, can wing her way through the desert skies, and still defying fortune's spite; revive from ashes and rise."

On that note, smiles and blessings to you all.

Namaste, mark