I recently discovered a wonderful way to "e-meet" fellow yogis and yoginis and share stories, tips, advice, and the like about yoga. I would encourage everyone who loves yoga to sign up, create a profile, and start sharing! To join, simply go to www.yogajournal.com and click on the "community" tab. From there, just follow the easy steps. You can upload photos, videos, music clips, and start a blog. You can also join groups. I am the group leader of the Yoga and Music group so, when you create your profile, please be sure to join our group as well as any others that spark your interest. I have included my first Yoga and Music group blog below:
"Let's Make Some Noise"
I am honored to have been asked to be the group leader for the Yoga and Music group. Now, some of you might be thinking that you aren't musicians so, this group does not apply to you. I'm here to tell you that it most certainly does. This group is not just open to musicians; it is open to anyone and everyone who appreciates sound. Even the sound of your own breath during silent meditation is a powerful tool for awareness and mental focus.
I'd like to take this opportunity to invite you to join the Yoga and Music group and groove with us as we explore the power of sound! In order to entice you, I'd like to clear up a few misconceptions that you might have:
1. "I would really like to join the Yoga and Music group, but I don't even play an instrument!" Wrong! If you're able to surf this far on the melodic waves of the Internet, you already know how to use a "keyboard"!
2. "But, Suzann, I've never even written a song before; there's no way I can join this group!" That's okay! You can begin your songwriting career right here in our group. If someone would like to start a few lines, we can all join in and add our own thoughts until a song is born.
3. "Am I going to have to ride around in a smelly van and sleep in grocery store parking lots at night? I have a good job. I don't want to give it up to be a struggling artist." Good for you! Keep that day job! I've driven around in enough smelly vans, slept in enough parking lots, and eaten enough bean burritos to tell you that the struggling artist lifestyle isn't all it's cracked up to be. If you join this group, you do not have to renounce your job or comfortable lifestyle.
4. "If I join this group, does this mean I have to start showing up late for all of my appointments, prefacing all of my sentences with "duuuude," and stay up every night until 4am?" Absolutely not! You are free to continue to be punctual, may use any greeting you like, and can get a good night's rest. Now, it is advisable that you refer to fellow members as "cats" every once in a while. Let me give you some examples: "Man, that cat can sure play a mean guitar." "What does that cat think he's doing in downward dog with a saxophone in his hands?"
5. "Will joining this group make me cooler?" This is one of the silliest misconceptions out there. Of course it will!
If you're still concerned, please send me your questions and I'll address them as soon as I can get around to it. Duuuude, this group leader stuff is sick, man. I have some cats I need to call about a gig. Peace out!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Top Ten Reasons Why Barack Obama Will Be a Great President
1. Should Justices Stevens, Ginsberg, and Souter retire within the next 4 years, an Obama presidency will ensure they are replaced by like-minded Justices who will use the letter of the law to ensure that important Constitutional rights remain intact. The Supreme Court will continue to preserve the freedoms and core liberties enumerated in cases like Roe v. Wade (1973) and Lawrence v. Texas (2003).
2. An Obama presidency will restore the rest of the world’s faith in the United States as being a noble nation, provider of freedom to all, and vessel of hope through which anyone’s dreams can be realized and achieved. Only a day after the election, people from all over the world expressed an outpouring of gratitude, appreciation, affiliation, and hope that the next four years will herald a new era of peace, unity, and prosperity for the world. Read “Obama Victory Sparks Cheers Around the World.” http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/05/world.reaction/index.html
3. An Obama presidency will provide assistance to people who would like to attend college by providing a tax credit in exchange for community service. For most students, this may mean that community college will be completely free. Providing an incentive like this will mobilize many young people to use their skills, talents, and values to volunteer and become more involved in their communities and in the world.
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/education/
4. The symbolism of this historical victory cannot be overlooked. Our 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870; however, one need only search back as far as 1964 when the 24th Amendment was ratified outlawing the poll tax to find that discrimination, bigotry, racism, and classism were alive and well in the not-so-distant past. Having Barack Obama as our president ensures that every little boy or girl (regardless of race or class) in our great nation will grow up knowing that the words so carefully chosen and engraved on the Statue of Liberty are not in vain. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
5. An Obama presidency will create unity out of diversity. We cannot forget the struggle begun and the successes achieved by the African-American Civil Rights Movement so many years ago. People died so that we could have the very freedoms we take for granted today. Many people may not have even dreamt that they would live to see the day an African-American would be president. Out of their battles and successes, women, the disabled, gays, the poor, the disenfranchised, the marginalized, and the historically voiceless, now have a voice. With Obama as president, the Movement takes a step forward in ensuring that no one ever has to suffer the oppression, marginalization, beatings, killings, and hatred of the past. Today, in honor of the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the United States finally makes good on its “promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned.”
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/mlk01.asp
6. Hello, he’s a lawyer and Constitutional law professor. Nothing is better than a lawyer who is also a teacher.
7. Obama is cool, collected, even-tempered, eloquent, and intellectual. Given the precarious nature of world peace today, a demeanor such as this is exactly what our country needs. Obama will be proactive rather than reactive, strengthen alliances and relationships with other nations, and rely on reason, logic, and intelligence to make sound, wise, informed, conscientious decisions.
8. Barack Obama only needs to run the country the way he ran his incredibly efficient, historical campaign to completely turn our economy around. In order to win, Obama accomplished something no candidate has been able to do by embracing emerging technologies and employing an innovative combination of grassroots campaigning and mobile marketing. No one can contest the crucial importance of technological innovations that must be created, harnessed, and implemented in order for the United States to compete in the global market. An Obama presidency will ensure that the United States is linked in as effectively as the rest of the world is.
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/11/propelled-by-in.html
9. Obama has proven himself to be both a diplomat and a leader. He suffered attacks on his character throughout his campaign. He was labeled socialist, Marxist, unpatriotic, and a friend to terrorists. At no time did he attack back. He remained unwavering in his message, focused on the problems rather than the people, and influenced voters with principle rather than pressure. He mobilized millions of people with similar concerns, interests, and values. Obama set fund-raising records, motivated an army of dedicated volunteers, inspired an unprecedented number of first-time voters, and made voting, public service, and public office cool again with his youth, enthusiasm, and idealism.
10. The Obama presidency will focus on health care, education, housing, the environment and wages and his tax plan will be good for the economy. Contrary to the opinions of some, it will not send small businesses into oblivion, penalize the wealthy, or replace capitalism with socialism. He has actually proposed to eliminate all capital gains taxes on startup and small businesses. http://www.barackobama.com/issues/economy/
2. An Obama presidency will restore the rest of the world’s faith in the United States as being a noble nation, provider of freedom to all, and vessel of hope through which anyone’s dreams can be realized and achieved. Only a day after the election, people from all over the world expressed an outpouring of gratitude, appreciation, affiliation, and hope that the next four years will herald a new era of peace, unity, and prosperity for the world. Read “Obama Victory Sparks Cheers Around the World.” http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/05/world.reaction/index.html
3. An Obama presidency will provide assistance to people who would like to attend college by providing a tax credit in exchange for community service. For most students, this may mean that community college will be completely free. Providing an incentive like this will mobilize many young people to use their skills, talents, and values to volunteer and become more involved in their communities and in the world.
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/education/
4. The symbolism of this historical victory cannot be overlooked. Our 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870; however, one need only search back as far as 1964 when the 24th Amendment was ratified outlawing the poll tax to find that discrimination, bigotry, racism, and classism were alive and well in the not-so-distant past. Having Barack Obama as our president ensures that every little boy or girl (regardless of race or class) in our great nation will grow up knowing that the words so carefully chosen and engraved on the Statue of Liberty are not in vain. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
5. An Obama presidency will create unity out of diversity. We cannot forget the struggle begun and the successes achieved by the African-American Civil Rights Movement so many years ago. People died so that we could have the very freedoms we take for granted today. Many people may not have even dreamt that they would live to see the day an African-American would be president. Out of their battles and successes, women, the disabled, gays, the poor, the disenfranchised, the marginalized, and the historically voiceless, now have a voice. With Obama as president, the Movement takes a step forward in ensuring that no one ever has to suffer the oppression, marginalization, beatings, killings, and hatred of the past. Today, in honor of the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the United States finally makes good on its “promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned.”
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/mlk01.asp
6. Hello, he’s a lawyer and Constitutional law professor. Nothing is better than a lawyer who is also a teacher.
7. Obama is cool, collected, even-tempered, eloquent, and intellectual. Given the precarious nature of world peace today, a demeanor such as this is exactly what our country needs. Obama will be proactive rather than reactive, strengthen alliances and relationships with other nations, and rely on reason, logic, and intelligence to make sound, wise, informed, conscientious decisions.
8. Barack Obama only needs to run the country the way he ran his incredibly efficient, historical campaign to completely turn our economy around. In order to win, Obama accomplished something no candidate has been able to do by embracing emerging technologies and employing an innovative combination of grassroots campaigning and mobile marketing. No one can contest the crucial importance of technological innovations that must be created, harnessed, and implemented in order for the United States to compete in the global market. An Obama presidency will ensure that the United States is linked in as effectively as the rest of the world is.
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/11/propelled-by-in.html
9. Obama has proven himself to be both a diplomat and a leader. He suffered attacks on his character throughout his campaign. He was labeled socialist, Marxist, unpatriotic, and a friend to terrorists. At no time did he attack back. He remained unwavering in his message, focused on the problems rather than the people, and influenced voters with principle rather than pressure. He mobilized millions of people with similar concerns, interests, and values. Obama set fund-raising records, motivated an army of dedicated volunteers, inspired an unprecedented number of first-time voters, and made voting, public service, and public office cool again with his youth, enthusiasm, and idealism.
10. The Obama presidency will focus on health care, education, housing, the environment and wages and his tax plan will be good for the economy. Contrary to the opinions of some, it will not send small businesses into oblivion, penalize the wealthy, or replace capitalism with socialism. He has actually proposed to eliminate all capital gains taxes on startup and small businesses. http://www.barackobama.com/issues/economy/
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