Life is full of limitations.

You must be this tall to ride this ride.

This lane ten items or less.

Limits provide us with framework and boundaries. As a species however, we would never have advanced if it were not for the desire to push beyond our limitations using the divine gift of imagination. Read more

As a yoga teacher, I’m always inspired by the stories of my students. This letter is from Rose. She writes:

“I’ve been running all my life. The real running started when I was 5 years old and ran 6 miles with my dad. The emotional running started at 16 when I became an emancipated minor, legally divorced from my parents. The only thing that held me together was my singular focus of playing division I soccer in college. I quickly lost track of how many couches I slept on and homes that I lived in over the next two years. I remember feeling so lost, so unloved and I had such a sense of self-hatred. Read more

Life is a game. Sorry to slap you with that cold hard reality people, but it’s the truth. In this game, the objective is to have an upwardly mobile career, get married, fill the minivan with 4 kids, invest wisely, and retire rich. If any of those things don’t happen, pretty much in that order, you’re screwed. Worse of all, success isn’t based on skill or intention, but pure blind luck. If you don’t like that, don’t get make at me. I didn’t make up the rules.

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On July 4th, 1845, Henry David Thoreau moved into a tiny self built cabin next to Walden Pond on the land owned by his friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was there he hoped to find the solitude to write. He was urged on by another transcendentalist poet, William Ellery Channing, who encouraged Thoreau’s greatest possible self discovery, saying “Go out upon that, build yourself a hut, and there begin the grand process of devouring yourself alive. I see no other alternative, no other hope for you.”

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There is a plaque on the Brooklyn Bridge which reads:

“Dedicated to the memory of Emily Warren Roebling, whose faith and courage helped her stricken husband, Col. Washington Roebling complete the construction of this bridge from the plans of his father, John A. Roebling, who gave his life to the bridge.”

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When a company promotes their product with such a cavalier disregard for the health and welfare of children, responsible people everywhere should cry out ENOUGH!, and send a clear powerful signal that money can’t trump human decency.

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I want share a note I received from a woman who I admire greatly. Her name is Glenda, and she has been a student of mine for over a year now. She is one of those yogis that shows up one day, and practices so persistently and with such passion that you can’t remember them ever NOT being in class. Glenda relates her story:

“At the age of 25, a few months shy of my 26th birthday, I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma – a type of cancer I was naïve to knowing even existed. My journey with cancer began in August 2005 and continued until roughly September 2008. While most young adults my age continued living their socially active lives, I spent roughly 3 years undergoing treatment. Finally, in 2008, after my second stem cell transplant I received the news that I was officially in remission.

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We all make mistakes. Some are small and are never witnessed by anyone. Like a failed experiment with cooking that produces a unpleasant result. Other mistakes are colossal and the whole world notices. Like when you convince, say, 100 million people into believing that the world will end on a certain day. Ouch. Harold Camping should consider doing one of those commercials for Southwest Airlines “Wanna Get Away?” campaign.

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I’m not sure who coined the term, “Never say never,” but I’m not a big fan of this notion. On the surface it seems innocuous enough, and it may even have a ring of truth depending on the context. For example, if you heard me say, “I’ll never fall in love again,” you might be tempted to lob a ‘never say never’ at me and you would probably be right to. Clearly that would be something I don’t really mean. Similarly:

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I recently watched “Live Free Or Die Hard.” Am I stupid?

Yup. Apparently the third Die Hard movie just left too many unanswered questions for me.

Just for the record, I loved the original Die Hard. Who can’t get behind the idea of rooting for the underdog? The character of John McClane represents the classic every-man archetype. A reluctant hero caught up in an impossible life or death situation, who through the grace of God (and plenty of bullets) defeats the forces of evil and restores light and justice to the world. We can all identify with this theme because we all want to believe that good always trumps evil in the end. We are inspired by that. The producers of Die Hard were inspired by all the money the film made, so they made a sequel.

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