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/