"The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion."

~Thomas Paine

What's new? Looking around we would have to say " So much!" We are in our NEW home at 12 Irma Ave, thanks to many of you. Looking within we would have to say "Not that much"! Our transition flowed seamlessly and filled us all with love and the awesome awareness of our interconnectedness and community, an awareness that we have long enjoyed, but never gets old! To celebrate our exciting newness and our sweet sameness, and to thank you for your continued support we wish to invite you all to our grand opening OPEN HOUSE on Saturday Feb 6th! Come and enjoy yoga for all, massage, meditation, acupuncture, chiropractic, live music, great wholesome food and many, many Fabulous Free Prizes!

Satsang with Lisa Bondy

"Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal." ~John F. Kennedy

A 6th grade boy is walking home with a group of his friends on a typical Friday afternoon in Port Washington. They stop at a local pizzeria for a bite and to hang out. After a while, some boys get picked up, some go off with friends, all of them successfully reach a parent to negotiate  plans. All but one, who had tried but failed to reach the mom who by dark was getting understandably anxious. She proceeds to phone and text her son's friends in the hope that she might find him.  Her first attempts to reach him are fruitless. But within a short time she hears from his friends and their parents about her son's whereabouts. Soon he is found at another boy's house safe and sound and apologetic for not having his phone handy. But it is hours later that the phone finally stops ringing with voices of concern.

"Did you find him?" "Is he okay?"

 "It is in the shelter of each other that the people live." ~Irish Proverb

A strong earthquake hits a nation already on it's knees suffering from the effects of terrible poverty.  Lack in all arenas of life from education to healthcare, to gross unemployment the norm. The quake renders the already hopeless devastated.  It is a horrific and pitiful sight for those watching outside Haiti. The world rises up and responds with help. Monies are raised through charitable organizations. Volunteers of emergency doctors, nurses, firefighters etc pour in. Debts are forgiven. Telethons and events of all kinds pop up to answer the urgent need.

A yoga community has to move it's center to a new site and has only 48 hours to be up and running.  Plans are made. On paper it seems laughable, but it has to work. People come out of the woodwork with offerings of hands, hearts and heads, time, trucks and talent.

From local to remote, from great to small, from personal to global, challenges happen. Some are terrible, some are not so terrible.  But for each challenge that happens there are miraculous responses. In fact within every minute of every day there are acts of great humanity and heroism. We may not hear of it, or they may get swept away by the tidal wave of negative and sensationalist media.

Be that as it may, the truth stands that within us there lies something great and awesome and beautiful. It is what we are all about. It is something to live for and something to die for. It is love.

It is what we find we are made of. It is where we go in our yoga when we open our hearts and become clear in our minds. It is what we experience when we move away from our limited concepts of self, different and separate, fearful and judgemental, into an expanded concept of self, connected and part of a whole, loving and compassionate.

On this roller coaster of life it is as good as it gets.

"Love is a temple
Love a higher law
Love is a temple
Love the higher law"
~U2