Religious freedom!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-26/the-satanic-temple-gets-irs-nod-as-official-house-of-worship

It is delicious for both dessert and breakfast!

https://youtu.be/fR0rjAYAevY

Thinking of my urban farmers today.

https://www.agritecture.com/blog/2019/11/19/agritecture-exclusive-dc-set-to-become-3rd-major-us-city-to-hire-a-director-of-urban-agriculture

I’ve had a lot of requests for recommendations of guided meditations lately. Any times a good time to spend a bit of your day looking inward— but particularly around the shift of the seasons and all that comes with it. Here’s a nice way to spend 8 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxzsD4vrTsk&t=353s

"The weather is getting colder, and people are pulling out their space heaters. We just wanted to remind you that you should NEVER plug a heater into a power strip," the fire department wrote on its Facebook page. "These units are not designed to handle the high current flow needed for a space heater and can overheat or even catch fire due to the added energy flow. Please share and stay safe this Winter season."

https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/heres-why-you-dont-plug-space-heaters-into-power-strips

My childhood obesity went hand in hand with my depressed mind state. Efforts at participating in youth sports were met with “weigh ins” for game day. I regularly wasn’t able to play, though I learned to love practice.

I also learned to be hyper critical of my size and to feel ashamed and to starve and binge and purge. When I finally got ahold of my mind state— coming out, changing schools, leaving school, nearly dying and learning to really want to live— the weight started coming off.. and staying off.

My blue print is not small. My healthy body and mind o— your healthy body and mind— are not numerical. I hope that this young lady’s testimony — our testimony— helps folks look again at the source and the solution of our own mutated self image and efforts at aesthetic.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/opinion/nike-running-mary-cain.html

I didn’t plant any trees— but I did harvest cocoa. It’s tough.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/climate-environment/mars-chocolate-deforestation-climate-change-west-africa/

Ok but I love it.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/16/world/vatican-click-to-pray-erosary-trnd/index.html

Yes, Holly!

https://trib.al/KD0m2AI

Step out of line.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/09/step-out-of-line-emmy-winning-mrs-maisel-actress-tells-powerful-tale-of-her-grandmother-fighting-nazis/

The District had its highest number of reported hate crimes last year: 204. That’s a year of gay men being beaten, black girls being threatened, transgender women being hurt, synagogues being harassed, Muslims being taunted and a Trump supporter smacked in a restaurant.

Liu, speaking at a forum at the Justice Department last month on combating anti-Semitism, said that sometimes, the odds of conviction are better when they don’t press a hate-crime charge.

But that ignores what hate crimes do to the people who experience them. And it doesn’t make vulnerable people feel like anyone’s got their backs.

Eleanor Holmes Norton: “As you may know, the number of reported hate crimes in the District of Columbia almost doubled between 2016 and 2018. Many of these crimes were targeted at the LGBTQ community, especially transgender individuals. At a recent well-attended community forum, I learned that this community feels it is under siege. I agree,” she wrote. “As you are well aware, it takes only a few prosecutions to create a deterrent effect.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-prosecutor-wont-do-her-job-so-bigots-are-getting-away-with-hate-crimes-in-dc/2019/08/22/9d6499c4-c508-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html

So... to those of you in DC who are no longer frequenting SoulCycle, Milkbar, nor Equinox... are you still shopping at CVS?

https://www.out.com/news/2019/8/15/cvs-reportedly-major-donor-trumps-2020-campaign

Ellie is a favorite somebody.

I value and relate to this essay.

http://www.ashtangampls.com/blog/authorization

Tracy Single.

https://www.out.com/news/2019/8/15/tracy-single-16th-trans-person-murdered-2019

Hi! We have a gun control problem! I know a lot of my friends don’t think guns are a problem— but you know— wal-marts not so different to you all than pulse was to me, so, maybe now is an apporopriate time for a map (that only those that agree with me already will look at!).

https://www.vox.com/a/mass-shootings-america-sandy-hook-gun-violence

Working inside of different federal agencies, corporations, and NGOs for the last 10+ years as a yoga teacher has been illuminating in the ways mindfulness practice can be co-opted for both the forces of good and some far more nefarious.

As a young teacher, i felt as though i was sharing something very useful with people who could affect change on a much larger scale than I ever could— i felt subversive to be doing it right in the heart of the corporate/capitalistic machine.

Practice works— and it works across a broad spectrum of therapeutic modalities each with individual metrics. Spiritual health, physical well being, interpersonal relational skills, emotional balance— each can be touched on. When instructed well, each can be elevated. So too, I’m sad to say, can the shadow side: further anesthetization, good old spiritual bypassing, and duration of a culture that punches down and goes to sleep.

Having seen this in local yoga studios, international finance organizations, and local community sports non-profits, its very much on my radar. But, it doesn’t mean to stop. It means to care more and share better.

Teachers have a responsibility: pick your platform, and to pick it well. Keep your ethics high, and they will trickle down.

https://www.thenation.com/article/ron-parser-mcmindfulness-mindfulness-meditation-book-interview/

One of my first Ashtanga Yoga teachers, Keith Moore was recently diagnosed with throat and neck cancer. Keith, and folks like him, support and sustain communities — let’s do the same for him. He’s a great guy with an independent studio and is a touchstone for a lot of folk.

https://www.gofundme.com/Keith-Moore-we-got-this?pc=fb_dn_cpgntopnavlarge_r&rcid=r01-156193452837-141790b3701e40f9&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fb_dn_cpgntopnavlarge_r

I’m so grateful for you.

https://www.advocate.com/youth/2019/6/27/report-just-one-accepting-adult-can-save-lgbtq-young-persons-life

I have not been so effected by a visual in a long time. Thinking of safe spaces. Thinking of change. We need to end gun violence in this country.

warning: extremely graphic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv-sdTOw5cs

This is important

https://www.mic.com/articles/189653/your-guide-to-brands-whose-pride-themed-merch-actually-gives-back-to-the-lgbtq-community

Love this. Love these guys.

https://soundcloud.com/chrispyoga/dc-yoga-podcast-kevin-waldorf-cruz?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=facebook

Join me on Friday evening for a collection of practices for utilizing yoga to develop a clearer vision of who you are and where you are going. We'll vision board, meditate, talk philosophy-- and best of all, be in community.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/yoga-for-self-inquiry-your-sacred-mission-and-vision-tickets-62048563925

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/yoga-for-self-inquiry-your-sacred-mission-and-vision-tickets-62048563925

October 20-24 anyone?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kristina-india/sets/72157707554433915

I feel similarly.

https://wired.trib.al/wuJ7tCU

One of the clearest signature highlights of the last few years is wrapped up in my friendship with Cory. I’ve learned so much from him.

He’s headed to TN to start Ashtanga Nashville this summer (June!). All a’ y’all are lucky to get one of the most authentic, knowledgeable, and clear embodiments of what yoga has to offer.

Go follow @ashtanganashville — go practice.

I wish GMU had as high a standard.

http://bit.ly/2U5Ggz9

For all y'all who dont think the universe is funny

http://deadstate.org/guy-who-says-god-sends-natural-disasters-to-punish-gays-has-his-home-destroyed-in-a-natural-disaster/

Has he been to Maggie's house? Her pantry is labeled. I recently found a shoe in my fridge. Tell me which is Order and which is Chaos.
...
For example, he sees the world as fundamentally divided between the forces of “chaos” and the forces of “order,” and explains the difference:

...
[Chaos is] what extends, eternally and without limit, beyond the boundaries of all states, all ideas, and all disciplines… It’s the foreigner, the stranger, the member of another gang, the rustle in the bushes… the hidden anger of your mother… Chaos is symbolically associated with the feminine… Order, by contrast, is explored territory. That’s the hundreds-of-millions-of-years-old hierarchy of place, position, and authority. That’s the structure of society. It’s the structure provided by biology, too…It’s the flag of the nation… It’s the greatness of tradition, the rows of desks in the school classroom, the trains that leave on time… In the domain of order, things behave as God intended.
...
It’s very easy to hear the echoes of authoritarianism, even fascism, in this: strong men create order, which is what God intends, and the social structure is preserved by deference to authority, tradition, hierarchy, flags. (Heck, he even talks about the trains running on time!) But the moment one tries to critique this, to talk about the dangers of adhering to flags and traditions for their own sake, Peterson will angrily insist that you have misunderstood his theory: order is symbiotic with chaos, not superior to it! (“Order is not enough.”)
...
What’s important about this kind of writing is that it can easily appear to contain useful insight, because it says many things that either are true or “feel kind of true,” and does so in a way that makes the reader feel stupid for not really understanding. (Many of the book’s reviews on Amazon contain sentiments like: I am not sure I understood it, but it’s absolutely brilliant.) It’s not that it’s empty of content; in fact, it’s precisely because some of it does ring true that it is able to convince readers of its importance. It’s certainly right that some procedures work in one situation but not another. It’s right that good moral systems have to be able to think about the future in figuring out what to do in the present. But much of the rest is language so abstract that it cannot be proved or disproved. (The old expression “what’s new in it isn’t true, and what’s true isn’t new” applies here.)

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/03/the-intellectual-we-deserve

“Recently released 2017 tax filings show that the Chick-fil-A Foundation donated more than $1.8 million to three groups with anti-LGBTQ policies, continuing the fast food restaurant’s long tradition of anti-queer giving despite claiming to have no political or social agenda.”

https://www.queerty.com/chick-fil-increased-funding-anti-lgbtq-groups-20190320

Friends on TV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSiAK6De11s&feature=share

Rob Kearney had a good week: Winning the Australian Arnold -- according to the article, it's considered the second most prestigious strong man event-- and marrying his husband. Oh, and Arnold was there.

Gay boys out here doing. the. damn. thing.

http://www.towleroad.com/2019/03/arnold-schwarzenegger-rob-kearney/

I had never seen this video, from a song I didn’t know was a single from one of my favorite albums of all time.

Alanis just gave me things I didn’t know I needed— more than 20 years later.

https://youtu.be/aGN3CJ40XCU

My least favorite posture. Zoe was gracious enough to include me in her awesome project!!!

Highly recommended!

https://clients.mindbodyonline.com/classic/ws?studioid=351284&stype=-8&sView=day&sLoc=0&date=02/02/19

I’m so thrilled to have DC Ashtanga in residency at the Eaton Workshop. While we don’t launch until the first full week of March, look at their programming— powerful, impacting, and aligned:

Dope.