About this blog

Greetings All!


Welcome to my blog!

First off, let me introduce you to my travelling companion on this first trip to Mysore, India--meet "Happy," the Yatra Penguin; or, as my friend, Sam, likes to call him, "Shakti Penguin."  Some of you already know Happy's story, but, for those of you who do not, let me fill you in.  Happy (which is the name he came with) was originally a small gift that I gave to my yoga teacher, Kate, for Christmas in 2012 while we were both in India on a yatra (pilgrimage) with Robert Moses, from Namarupa Magazine.  Happy quickly evolved into the yatra mascot: peeking out from the side pocket of my teacher's backpack, keeping us company on the bus from his perch in the handle on the back of a seat, joining us at the dinner table, making us laugh when we were sick, leading us in a chant...I think he may have even made it into a temple or two!

Before I came back to Boston, Kate handed him back to me and told me to bring him back home (while she stayed longer in India) and put him on the altar at our home studio--after all, he'd been to some of India's sacred places and was carrying some of that Divine energy (shakti) with him!  So, he has a special place in the heart of the Ashtanga community that I practice with in Boston.  This Christmas, Kate wrapped him up and gave him back to me again, with the message, "Take me with you!"  Apparently Happy wants to go back to India too.  ;-)

That little message was also part of the inspiration for the name of this blog.  It echoes the sentiment I have heard from people ever since I first moved away from my home in Arizona to Boston, "Take pictures and keep in touch, so we can live vicariously through you!"  When I started telling people that I was going to travel to, and live in, Mysore, India for 2 months, to study with Sharath Jois at the KPJAYI shala (school), people kept suggesting that I write a blog for the trip.  In the past, social networking sites (like Myspace and, now, Facebook) were a sufficient venue for keeping in touch with people.  But, surprisingly, *insert sarcasm here* not everybody lives on Facebook and, often times, Facebook does not really feel adequate enough to convey the depth of everything that I see and experience.  Email is good, but there are far too many of you for me to keep in touch with that way.  ;-)  So, we will try the blog.  I love taking pictures of the world as I see it, and I take a lot of them, so there will probably be plenty of photos on this blog.  I also have a tendency to write a lot, so consider yourself warned!  This first trip to Mysore is, obviously, the initial motivation for creating the blog, but I am also hoping that I can continue it past this trip and that it grows into a place where I can share the things that I see and do as I continue to explore the world around me, whether that is just from whatever city I am living in, the hikes that I go on or (hopefully) from more travel excursions.

"Take me with you" is also a reminder for me: that though I may often travel, hike, explore and live "on my own," I do not actually do these things alone.  It has been amazing and so heartening to see the widespread support that I have received going into my first trip to Mysore.  Family and friends, yes, of course, but also co-workers, my employers, the residents of the condo building where I worked as a concierge for nearly 3 years (the job I left to go on this trip), the UPS driver that delivers to that building, and even people I have never met--fellow Ashtangis who are already in Mysore and have taken the time to give advice, support and encouragement. It would be so much harder to do things like this without the support and encouragement of so many people.  It also reminds me of something I read in Radhanath Swami's autobiography, something that was told to him when he resisted writing his story, though many people had asked him to:

"This is not your story.  It is a tale about how God led a young boy onto an amazing journey to seek the inner secrets that lie within all of us...Share what has been given to you."

Though there are often times when I fantasize about retreating from the world and becoming a wandering hermit, "take me with you" is a reminder that my "story" does not belong just to me.  It also belongs to every person who has wished me well, wished they could stow away in my suitcase or teleport to wherever I am, and who has supported and encouraged me to do something, even if it meant leaving them.  So my friends, this blog is mostly for you :-)