Newsletter, December 22, 2005
| Our newsletters have been a tool for informing
supporters and volunteers about current and planned projects, and
give a good feel of the lessons we are learning as we teach yoga
to homeless and at risk youth. Please feel free to read our current newsletter (March, 2007),
or a past issue by clicking on one of the following links.
Thanks. Past Newsletters |
|||
| August 27,
2006 June 15, 2006 May 17, 2006 Feb 16, 2006 Dec 22, 2005 Oct 27, 2005 Sept 22, 2005 July 22, 2005 |
Apr 22, 2005
Feb 5, 2005 Oct 29, 2004 May 14, 2004 Mar 8, 2004 Feb 7, 2004 Jan 2, 2004 Sept 12, 2003 |
Aug 5, 2003
July 22, 2003 June 27, 2003 June 22, 2003 May 30, 2003 May 16, 2003 May 9, 2003 May 2, 2003 |
|
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.
"3. Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." --Gospel According to Matthew, Chapter 18
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:
- We would be infinitely more forgiving.
- We would be more awed by life.
- We would be indelibly curious.
- We would never forget to believe in miracles (and fairies and angels and ...).
- We would keep our optimism, despite all the struggles and pain.
- We would always return to Love.
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:
Wellness Workshops for Homeless Youth. As you know, this project got some funding and is really taking off. Some highlights are:
- Spa Day and Self-Care
- Street First Aid
- Anger Management and Non-Violent Communication
- Back Care Basics
- Street Nutrition (including Urban Edible Food Walks
From Fear to Safety -- Healing from Childhood Abuse with Yoga (HCAY). This work focuses on helping children who have suffered from any form of physical, emotional or sexual abuse. It seeks to lay out a framework and set of observable patterns for yoga teachers, therapists and counselors to share in working together to treat young people using yoga as one of the treatment tools.
This work also seeks to help yoga teachers, therapists and counselors deepen their personal mindfulness and strengthen their ability to observe. This will allow them to work at subtle & intuitive, rather than formulaic levels. Initial practices will build physical and emotional strength in multiple forms so healing can take place as safely as possible.
Homeless School Kids Yoga. Recently, we have put together a curriculum for children in the 2d to 5th grades which combines yoga, anatomy & physiology, vocabulary building, and emotional self-awareness into a series of 11 classes which bring the students during that time from focusing on their feet through their core up to their voice, to their eyes, and finally through their will and out to their community. The first "word of the week" is Foundation.
Healthy Harvest and Mindful Eating. One of our volunteers has been working to connect local farmers with the girls who live in shelter, who are expected to thrive on canned and usually high-fat, high-salt food. We will couple this bounty of fresh food with classes around sensible food preparation, food combining, shopping smart and eating well on the cheap, to ultimately give the girls a new sense of hope and personal well-being.
The Adventure of Self --Exploring Meditation, Rebellion and Creativity. This new series will bring experienced meditation instructors into practice and dialog with homeless youth around sitting, mindfulness, energetic breathwork, and loving kindness practices.
Teacher Training. We are setting up to offer our first teacher training this coming May, in San Francisco, in conjunction with a local studio there. This 12 hour weekend-long offering will cover not only many of the practical details of teaching yoga, wellness and meditation to homeless youth and other at-risk populations, but will delve into the nuances of self that one encounters in this work --the art and science of looking within to find the place where charity falls away, and compassionate exploration of personal sincerity begins. More details will follow in the coming weeks.
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:
The homeless youth we serve never cease to amaze me. By 9 AM this morning clients were lined up outside our door waiting to shower and put on dress clothes. Something I've not seen before. Last week one of the youth we serve passed away due to illness and today is the funeral. During a Process Group held in our dayroom, the youth decided they would all be "honorary pallbearers" and would walk in a single file line behind the casket. They also decided to try on all the donated suits, ties, dresses, and khakis in our clothing closet. I overheard someone say, "We'll do it show our respect." It is now 11:00 and as the youth board shuttle buses to go to the funeral, we as a staff are overwhelmed with emotion to be a part of such an amazing display of human compassion. May we all be so lucky as to have friends who have as much love and respect for us as the youth do for one another at My Friend's Place. David
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
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