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Live a Life Worth Living & Love the Life You Have
I hope this finds you healthy, and I wish you emergent growth and dynamic expansion in this time of new beginnings.
I love spring time. Two things are very potent for me this season: (1) the blossoming of householder yoga, and (2) the joys of running a yoga school. We don't have real seasons in Los Angeles (says my inner Colorado self), but I have enjoyed much more time at home, than I have in the last couple years, incubating in my nest, so to speak. I have been able to settle into domestic routine in a way that I have not yet since the birth of Oliver (17 mos).  This is because our third child, our school, is exceeding our wildest hopes. Our programs are sold out (or selling out as I write this). Our amazing students are coming from every corner of the globe to study and grow the dream of world-wide yoga and world-wide community.
Yoga School at MYoga LA is well in session! I LOVE LOVE LOVE facilitating programs  and trainings at the space that we have created. It is cozy, potent and beautiful. I hope you may have the chance to visit us and bless us with your company. Our first 300 hour Yoga Teacher Training is underway, and I am excitedly anticipating the start of our 200 Yoga Teacher Training in April. This In Depth Studies Program is about to sell out, so if you would like to deepen your knowledge of yoga (even if you don't want to be a teacher) I highly recommend registering before it's too late! And, by popular request, we have added another 300YTT in 2013. I am blessed and floored and so very honored by this profound reception.
In our short life as a  school, we have exceeded our goal of a minimum 6% scholarship fund.
In fact, we have awarded or donated nearly 25% of our programs to dedicated and qualified students in need.
And so, I find myself more often at home. Here, I am lucky (and-truth be told- sometimes annoyed) to feel the experience of existing within my family unit. Tending one's domestic garden is hard work, long hours, with little to no external recognition. But there are so many moments throughout the day that really do make it worthwhile. 
Small children add tremendous value to life; the sweetness, love, innocence and wonder is so prevalent in them. I want my babies to stay 4 and 1 forever. I'm sure many other parents can relate. I salute all of you who are doing and who have done this work. You are heroic.
Tracy continues to be the heroine of our family. She is the glue that holds our worlds and seasons together. From helping me with everything that I do, to coordinating the endless logistics and demands of our household; she does it all. 
Without Tracy in my life, I would be living in a yurt in the mountains, well off the grid. She pulls me into the world, where, left alone, I would turn away. My wife invites me to engage in the dance, and challenges me to be my better self every step of the way.
We are in the thick of living, in the middle of the battlefield (to reference the Gita), where we take turns playing the role of Krishna (counselor, friend, tough love giver) for each other, when we collapse (metaphorically) in the chariot pit. I am profoundly awed (not to mention surprised and bewildered) by my marriage and its distinct personality and evolution.
Madeleine is  very interested in yoga now, and she and I love to practice together. I have included a video of one of our yoga sessions below, and have been posting some of them up on Facebook. She wants to learn the pose forms, their names in Sanskrit and English, and their stories. It is so nice to see her interest grow so organically. I have been concerned over the four short years of her life that she would resent yoga, since that is what takes her Daddy away so frequently.
She is quite a luminous being.
Oliver is now riding the bike with me and Madeleine and Tico!  He loves to cuddle and wrestle and tickle and laugh. I think he has my sense of humor, and my sense of adventure. He has been on the cusp of walking for awhile...'any day now," we keep telling each other. Then, his curriculum continues and I can take him camping and further afield; cause it just seems like too much work to bring a crawler on a camping trip...but I'll have to do it if he doesn't walk soon. Because summer time is a-comin!
I am trying to capture some of these moments with
photos and videos. Below is one example of yoga with Madeleine.
Check out my FB page where I share a lot of them, and please share your family yoga with us. We just closed our first family yoga photo contest, Family Yoga Tree, where our students uploaded photos of yoga with family members (partners, parents, kids, pets etc). It has been great fun and inspiration, and we will do it again soon. We have also filmed and launched some great short videos to introduce our mission and programs to everyone. Obviously, we have embedded a few of those videos here in the newsletter. Have a look and please let us know what you think!
 | | Meet Noah Video |
My Online Courses are also thriving and keeping me in touch with so many of you, despite the miles between us. The programs are proving to be rich with learning and group exchange. They are also fun, playful an d I have the great sense that we are broadening the realm of community through this engagement. I am loving the process of creating curriculum and the dynamic of learning from one corner of the world to another. Currently, we are well into a stories and mythology course. It is interesting to see my students heading in such imaginative and interpretive directions. I am thrilled to hear the stories of how students apply the teachings and course derivatives in their practice, lives and teaching. Please consider joining us, for the current course, and/or for any of the archived courses. They are all ongoing. With this newsletter, we launch our next Online Course: Increasing Skill: Intermediate Poses and Practice. This course is all about sequencing and practicing in the harder poses, and moving it all forward. I wish you the best. It is not easy. And it won't be easy--perhaps ever. But it can be real and valuable and beautiful. 
Live a life worth living. Love the life you have. Saprema, Noah |
