send a girl to school

by L. Valdez Karl

There is a program going on right now with CARE — you can read the email that I received….

This month, you have the chance to take part in an unprecedented opportunity to support CARE’s work with women and girls around the world. For every friend you tell about CARE and the importance of girls’ education, businesswoman, entrepreneur, and CARE Ambassador Sheila Johnson will unlock $5 of the matching funds she has committed to CARE!

It’s easy to participate! Ask your old school friends, colleagues and neighbors — whomever you’d like — to learn more about CARE’s education and anti-poverty programs around the world, and you’ll unlock $5 for each person you tell. It only costs $49 to send a girl to school for a year in some countries. Tell 10 friends and $50 will be unlocked—that’s enough to send a girl to school for an entire year!

As a CARE supporter, you know how dramatically education can improve the life of a child, particularly if that child is a girl. Women with a basic education have lower rates of HIV infection and they earn more money. Their children are more likely to live past their fifth birthdays and have lower rates of malnutrition. In fact, no country has reached sustained economic growth without achieving near-universal primary education for boys and girls.

Every day, CARE invests in girls through our education and women’s empowerment programs around the world. We know from experience that once empowered with an education, a girl can bring unimaginable change to her community. Please, tell your friends about CARE and the power of girls’ education today.

Use this exciting opportunity as a chance to reconnect with friends old and new. Not only will you educate people close to you about the importance of girls’ education around the world, but you will support CARE’s life-changing, anti-poverty programs in the world’s poorest communities.

Thank you for sharing this unique opportunity with your friends and family, and for all you do to educate and empower women around the world.

I’ve already told about 20 people about this program, so that’s $100.

This is another example of compassion in action where you don’t have to spend a dime of your own money. It really doesn’t take too much effort to show that you…CARE.

who are the Namaste Knitters?

by L. Valdez Karl


(“Knitting is the New Yoga”, tonywatson.net)

OK, I’m calling y’all out…who are ya?

One thing I love about blogging is having a site meter where you can tell where everyone is from. I check every day (OK, that’s one of my attachments) and I know that some of my regular readers reside in California, Minnesota, Colorado, and Croatia! I’m wondering how Croatia found me, and how much yoga there is in Croatia!

So I have found more than a few readers lately who enter from the url of ravelry.com. These readers are hitting my blog from places such as Victoria, British Columbia; someone from the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage, Alaska; and Albany, New York from a computer at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, entering from a website called religionandsocialpolicy.org, to name only a few. And for you last two, get back to work!…:)

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind at all, the more who read this blog the merrier. But I’m curious about how this blog ended up in the Namaste Knitters discussion forum. I’m assuming the hits are coming from a discussion forum given the url that shows up on my site meter.

So how ’bout it, y’all? Step up and introduce yourselves, don’t be shy, leave some comments. I’ve heard that knitting is the new yoga, so give a holler.

and someone knit me a way cool yoga mat bag!

shanti!

out of the mouths of babes

by L. Valdez Karl

This talk was given at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, aka Rio Earth.

In 1992 Severen was an amazing girl. Now she is an amazing woman. It’s good to know that she is still fighting the good fight.

Ask yourself: how far have we come in 15 years regarding the things she is talking about? What are you doing for a greener earth and a sustainable environment?

Green Yoga Association

Earth Day is Every Day, not just a one day event in April.

feed the hungry, save the rainforest, buy books

by L. Valdez Karl


If you look at the right sidebar you will see that I added four charity sites that make it extremely easy for you to donate on a daily basis, without spending a dime of your own money. How much easier could it be to think globally and act locally?

When you click the links, the charities work with their sponsors to buy books, donate cups of food, donate bowls of food for shelter animals, or donate money to preserve square footage of the rain forest.

In 2006 visitor clicks:

* funded over 29,000,000 bowls of food for shelter animals
* funded the preservation of 316,304,335 square feet of rainforest
* funded over 5,000,000 pounds of food for people
* funded over 300,000 books

Over 60% of the world’s illiterate are women. For over 800,000,000 people in the world, hunger is a daily reality. There are millions of unwanted animals in US shelters. Millions of acres of the rainforest, the lungs of Mother Earth, are endangered on a daily basis.

To all of you who regularly visit this blog, and even those of you who visit once and never come back, please take four seconds to click each link. Those of you who visit every day, please click each link every time you visit. And those of you with your own blogs, please go to the sites and get the code to add a widget. You’ll be accumulating positive merit for yourselves!

Think globally, act locally, we are One.

The Animal Rescue Site

The Hunger Site

The Literacy Site

The Rainforest Site

inappropriate yoga guy

by L. Valdez Karl

Here’s the video that has gotten over 1,000,000 hits already on YouTube, the “Inappropriate Yoga Guy”. Today’s Chicago Tribune ran the New York Times’ story about “yoga dating” that used the Inappropriate Yoga Guy as an example.

I don’t know about yoga classes anywhere else, but out here in White Bread (Mostly Republican) Suburbia in the far western suburbs of Chicago, I don’t see guys like this. In fact, I see very few men in the yoga classes at the studio where I teach, and the ones that do come are certainly not SNAGs — Sensitive New Age Guys. The men who come to classes are usually older (mid-40s to 60s) and move like blocks of concrete. They can barely move so I really don’t think they come to yoga looking to pick up hot yoga babes. These guys are more concerned about making it through a 90 minute flow class without throwing their back out, forget about a hot date.

Even the few guys (average age 19-22) who enroll in my yoga class at the community college aren’t looking to pick up yoga chicks. At least that’s what they tell me when I ask on the first day, “who’s in this class because you think it’s an easy A or you think it’s a good place to meet girls?”. Yes, I really do ask that question on the first day, quasi-facetiously. I have more students looking for an easy A. And let me tell you, sometimes these young dudes aren’t in any better shape than 60 year old men. Uttanasana with palms on the floor? That’s about as realistic as a date with Lindsey Lohan for these boys.

Maybe it’s different in places like California or New York. I only go to one studio in Chicago and the class I go to rarely has men in it. So the whole idea of “yoga dating” is a foreign concept to me. Frankly, even though I don’t look my age, I’d fall over in shock if a guy looked twice at me anymore, whether in a yoga class or on the street.

As for men in general being into yoga, I can count the number I know on one hand. Again, I can only relate this to the area where I live, but I don’t know of any women yoga teachers (or students) whose husbands/boyfriends do yoga. OK, I know one teacher whose husband takes my yin class, but that’s about it.

So how ’bout it, readers? “Inappropriate Yoga Guy” — fact or fiction?

yoga dream

by L. Valdez Karl

For Sale in Kerala, South India

AN EXCELLENT NAALUKETTU IN A COMPOUND OF OVER THREE ACRES

LOCATED ABOUT HALF KILOMETERS FROM PALGHAT / SHORNUR 4 LANE ROAD AT MANKARA. THE COMPLEX CONSISTS OF THE MAIN HOUSE WITH WELL VENTILATED ROOMS, AN ADDITIONAL KITCHEN BLOCK, 2 LARGE WELLS, A PAVED WATER TANK (KOLLAM) WITH SHED, AN OVERHEAD TANK ETC. THE COMPOUND HAS COCONUT, JACK FRUIT, MANGO, GUAVA, CHIKKU, BREAD FRUIT, TAMARIND BESIDES TEAK AND OTHER VARIETY TREES. THE ATMOSPHERE AND AMBIENCE IS SERENE AND FREE FROM NOISE AND DUST POLLUTION. THE WEST GATE CONNECTS TO ROAD, EAST TO THE PADDY FIELDS AND NORTH TO SRIKRISHNA TEMPLE.

PRICE QUOTED RS 1 CRORE 30 LAKH.

I was told that 1 crore and 30 lakh is about $300,000 in US dollars. click on the above link and you’ll see why it is my dream yoga shala.

mmmmmm…I can just imagine having a yoga and meditation center there, bringing in teachers I know like Gehlek Rimpoche, Paul Grilley, Sarah Powers, and Max Strom for retreats….

people have told me that since I love India so much, I should open a yoga shala in South India, along the same lines as shalas in Goa that are run by westerners. however, foreigners can not own property in India, especially property like this which is agricultural.

but one can always dream….

going with the flow

by L. Valdez Karl

Do you ever have days where all your yoga and meditation training kicks in and you inhale peace and exhale gratitude? The last few days have been like that for me.

I have three cats and the two pictured are Jack and Sox. Sox is 16 and Jack is the grey tabby, 15 years old. They were both strays when they came into our lives. Jack has been diabetic for about nine years and I give him a shot of insulin every day.

Just like a human diabetic, he has his ups and downs. He has hypoglycemic crashes, which can very scary and heartrending. He goes through long periods where his diabetes is regulated and then his body goes wacky and I have to rush him to the vet…like last night.

When Jack begins to crash I try to help by giving him corn syrup to raise his glucose but last night it didn’t work. His head starts shaking, he starts staggering around, his back legs go out on him, and he literally becomes blind. He is helpless. When we got him to the vet, his blood sugar was so low it did not even register on the glucose meter and his temperature was 95 degrees (cats are usually around 102.) The emergency vet started a glucose IV and put him on a heating pad. He is still at the vet’s office as I type this. The bill for last night was $410.

On top of all this, starting today I am getting a hardwood floor refinished. After the carpet was pulled up the refinisher told me that some of the spots were so badly damaged by cat urine that the wood has to be replaced, adding $400-$600 to the original cost and an extra day. The reason there’s cat urine is that (1) Jack is diabetic, and (2) he’s an old cat, and old cats sometimes forget to use the cat box.

Yes, Jack is problematic and over the years he has cost us a lot of money in vet bills, but in good conscience I can not put him to sleep to make things easier for us. I know that many people would put a cat like Jack to sleep and have no second thoughts about it. I know that people put their pets to sleep when the cost of vet care becomes too much and they can no longer afford to care for them. I know that some people would take a cat like Jack and dump him on an expressway or out in the country. There are many throw-away animals in this world.

But I can not put Jack to sleep, he is not suffering on a daily basis. He still eats well, he still gets around, and sometimes he still runs around like a kitten. A friend once described him as a “lover.”

As for the floor, the refinisher was more upset than I was about the added cost and extra day. But I looked him in the eye and I said “I’m a yoga teacher, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, that’s to go with the flow.” I told him that things can always be worse and I am not going to get upset about things that I have no control over. I told him that I am not going to create my own suffering by becoming upset. He said that I was right and that maybe he should remember that for himself in the future.

Yeah, I wish I did not have a diabetic cat, I wish he did not cost beaucoup bucks to keep well, I wish the floor job wasn’t going to cost an extra $500 because of him. But wishing for reality to be something other than it is creates suffering. I am not going to dwell on those negatives because things can always be worse. I am just grateful that we are in a position to be able to afford these emergencies, many people can not. There was a time back in the day when I could not. There was a time back in the day when I could not afford medical care for myself.

I try to live my life from a state of abundance, and not with the attitude of lack. I know people who have much more than I have materially, yet they live their lives as if they are lacking something.

I am grateful for all that I have…even for an old sick cat.

are you peaceful today?

by L. Valdez Karl
You Are 85% Peaceful

You are the epitome of inner peace and total calm.
You are grounded, emotionally mature, and very wise.
While no one’s life is perfect, you have a great amount of perspective on the world – and your place in it.

I don’t know about being the “epitome”, but I’ve been told I don’t swear half as much as I used to…:)

peace, love, dove, y’all….

stop me before I quiz again!

by L. Valdez Karl
You Should Be A Poet

You craft words well, in creative and unexpected ways.
And you have a great talent for evoking beautiful imagery…
Or describing the most intense heartbreak ever.
You’re already naturally a poet, even if you’ve never written a poem.

wow! how weird…because I used to write poetry, and in fact, was chosen as one of Illinois’ best high school poets (about 100 years ago!) and won awards for my poetry in college.

my creative writing teacher in college inscribed his book to me…”to Linda…who oughtta write and if she doesn’t, oughtta get kicked, hard and swift…”


Your Hidden Talent


You have the natural talent of rocking the boat, thwarting the system.

And while this may not seem big, it can be.

It’s people like you who serve as the catalysts to major cultural changes.

You’re just a bit behind the scenes, so no one really notices.

“It’s people like you who serve as the catalysts to major cultural changes”…hmmmm….my astrologer and two spiritual adepts have told me that my path is to be part of a “major global shift in consciousness” that my natal chart shows happening after 2010… “destroyer of cultural myths”, that’s me!

I just go with the flow.

obama’s response about China

by L. Valdez Karl

Some time ago after I watched a debate between the Democratic presidential candidates where they discussed the situation in Darfur, I wrote letters to my US Senators, Dick Durbin and Barack Obama. The debate angered me because all the candidates were sanctimoniously decrying China’s human rights abuses, how China was somehow linked to the conflict in Sudan, and because of that, the US should boycott the Olympics. Of course, none of the candidates came out too strongly about the last point, just gave it passing lipservice, and moved on to the next talking point.

It made me angry because while what is happening in Sudan is a tragedy, no politician that I know of EVER mentions the cultural and human genocide that has been going on in Tibet since the 1950s.

So I wrote to Durbin and Obama via their websites, reminding them of the situation in Tibet and that I believe the US should boycott the 2008 Olympics. Below is the email response I received from Obama.

Dear Linda:

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns about human rights in the People’s Republic of China. I appreciate your perspective on this issue.

As the world’s most populous nation, China’s influence and power has been growing steadily over the past several decades. This is likely to continue for the foreseeable future, and presents America with challenges and opportunities to seek change.

In particular, China’s treatment of ethnic and religious minorities and political dissidents, as well as its relationships with Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Tibet are very troubling. Despite progress over the last few decades, China must do much more to comply with modern human rights norms. I look forward to working with my colleagues on these difficult issues and am deeply committed to promoting human rights in China and other countries.

As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the East Asian Subcommittee, I will keep your thoughts in mind as the discussion on this subject continues.

Thank you again for contacting me. I hope you will continue to keep in touch on this or any other subject of importance to you.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama
United States Senator

hmmmmmm…why don’t I believe him?

I am not naive enough to believe that this came from Obama directly. I know this came from a staffer who merely filled in the blanks. But at least this is a better response than the one I got from Durbin’s office. Durbin’s “personal” email response was a fill-in-the-blank, stock response to a constituent’s concern about Darfur, I kid you not. Whoever responds to the emails sent through Durbin’s website did not even bother to read my letter but sent me a canned response about Darfur. There was not one mention of Tibet, it was all about Sudan. My tax dollars at work. Needless to say I swiftly sent a scathing response — which I doubt anyone read.

Sorry if I sound jaded and cynical, but Obama’s (staffer’s) response to me doesn’t mean very much. Frankly, I think it’s a joke. He’s too busy running for president to give 2 rupees about Tibet. Do any of these candidates even know where Tibet is?

Don’t get me wrong, I think Obama is a great guy and he’s been a good senator for my state. But the actions of this government never fail to disappoint and disgust me. You can read one example here in Vanessa’s blog. I know a few die-hard conservatives who truly believe that this government has slipped dangerously close to Fascism — and these are died-in-the-wool-life-long-registered-Republicans talking.

In India people feel free to talk to me about US politics and this country’s actions around the world. I love this country, but sometimes all I can do is shake my head.