Dissolution:

As 2010 approaches dissolution, it is a powerful time to reflect on the year nearly past.  Here in California, we have been deluged by powerful winter storm, and my consciousness wants to recede deep inside to revel in the rich darkness of winter reflection. 

This year was a year of great growth and great challenge, for me and for many, many people I know.  Some have lost their homes via economic crisis or natural disaster, and so many are "just making it" month-to-month.  I don't know too many people who have had an 'easy' or "abundant' year, but everyone I am around is cooking with the fire of transformation.  This year I became stronger and clearer in my work.  I also became more aware and honoring of my limitations and boundaries.  

I have taught more often and in more places than in any other year, and I am very, very thankful for John Friend and Douglas Brooks, my primary teachers, who have empowered my voice and experience.  I was especially honored to teach with my teachers at Anusara Yoga's Second Grand Gathering.  What an amazing time we had together!  You become the company you keep, and I have been fortunate to keep great personal and professional company.  Collaborating with my dear friends and teachers in various ways all year, I have been delighted, inspired, and pushed to my limits.  I am far better for it.

Teaching in community, I was moved by everyone's individual articulation of this great yoga, and even more amazed what unique yoga we were able to create and deliver together.  Each of us is continuing to deepen our sadhana (practice) and the authenticity and potency of expression.  Sianna Sherman and I just taught the Winter Solstice Celebration, the last of my LA based 'Sadhana Series' in LA.  The series was a wonderful hit, which I could not have pulled off without the expert help of the gifted, L.A. based Anusara teacher, Steffany Vance--to whom I am exceedingly grateful.  Teaching with Sianna was the perfect way to bring closure to the many creative projects that have been much of my focus this year (and the launching pad for so much more).  Just before that, Christina Sell and I taught a potent curriculum based 35 hour level  1 Teacher Training.  I am so pleased that all of these programs are (or soon will be) available for download via YogaGlo (more on YogaGlo below).  I'm so proud of the products reflecting the sum of our parts, and thrilled these moments are memorialized on film and available to all of you.

Madeleine, now a strong and powerful TWO, exercises more independence every day.  She is beautiful, luminous, communicative, even more fun and loving, and she possesses a wonderfully strong and clear personality (must be from her mother). This year, she traveled the world, as we were blessed to visit Europe early in the year, tour Canada in the early summer, and explore Australia and New Zealand for 5+ weeks in the late summer.  I often look at the pictures of Madeleine playing with the kangaroos and koalas, and smile for hours.  Most recently we played for two glorious weeks on the beaches of Hawaii.  We feel so lucky to share Madeleine with yogis everywhere. Now we are in pre-school application and interview season; and soon our little bundle will go off to school!   Madeleine is brilliant (not that I am biased), and I've decided that most everyone who is a parent experiences a form of strong desire to give one's children the best education and enrichment opportunities possible.  If we can give our children the benefit of our wisdom, and provide them with even more opportunities than we had, this world will surely be a better place.  Who knows...but she already says that she wants to teach yoga  :-)  !!  

Tracy and I are growing together each year, as we embrace the joys and attempt to conquer the challenges of relationship, shared business and parenting.  We have recently renewed our commitment to each other by deepening our love in the face of uprooting some habits that aren't serving us well.  We have also begun the process of updating our communication and conflict resolution tools.   Intimacy is damn hard stuff; but I am learning way more about myself, and my beautiful wife, in ways that I would never be able to without this level of commitment and life engagement.  I feel very lucky and grateful to have such a well-matched partner in this dance.

Creation:

2011 is upon us...how did it come so fast?  My travel schedule will continue at a ferocious pace, as I hope to catch up with each of you.  I will kick the year off teaching in Tucson with a three day Advanced Intensive, 'Tough as Nails, Soft as Ghee,' with Darren Rhodes and Christina Sell.  I can't think of a place I would rather be to set my intention for this upcoming year....  Then I will take my annual Barrington, IL, trip, and off to Europe for 5 weeks (Dublin, Munich, Bologna).  I will teach extensively in North America, some in Central and South America.  I will re-vist Australia and SE Asia, and our Family will see Fiji for the first time.  When I am home, I will offer a three part (intensive format) Immersion Series with Christina Sell (starting in May), and I will continue to teach Monday nights at YogaGlo.  We are working on adding a Level I class to the YogaGlo schedule, as well as Level II, so stay tuned about that and other LA offerings, which are in the planning stages.  If you haven't tried YogaGlo, check it out.  It's an amazing, comprehensive, beautiful yoga product.  You can start with a free trial in order to decide whether it serves you.

@ Yogaglo with co-teacher, Elena Brower

Always, the universe will give you what you ask for.  So seek the highest, in every moment.  Step onto the path of dharma, and, in your heart, dance with lila.  Bask in your own integrity.  Sometimes change happens in leaps and bounds, but most of the time, it is a step-by-step process of cultivation and growth.  Learning to maintain positive growth, to hold the change, to keep your many promises to yourself, your family, your community, is far harder than simply having good intentions.   Good yoga asks you to both set your intention carefully in 2011, and to actively align with your promise. 

Love, and wishes for a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2010.  With love and practice, may you manifest your highest desires.

Noah