People Should Get Paid To Do That.

Yoda & the ragtag crew on tour.

I'm referring to playing Tour Guide, of course. We just had a lovely, adventure-packed week with some family from the mainland. While we had a great time, we are also happy to settle down again, put our house back together, and get back to whatever "normal" life we have. So, while we take a moment to regain our composure, I'd like to share some fun yoga news with you. Perhaps we'll see you at one of these upcoming special events!

First, I'll be teaching a 5 week series of Gentle and Restorative yoga classes at Island Spirit Yoga in Lahaina, beginning April 27th and ending May 27th. We'll have Weally Welaxing Wednesdays ;) with Restorative Yoga 6-7:30pm. Thursday mornings we'll move through a Gentle Flow from 10:30-noon. Then we close out the work week with an Aloha Friday Gentle Yoga class 9-10:30am. The entire schedule is laid out in the sidebar under "Yoga with Jean Marie." Some of our teachers will be on retreat in Italy, and these classes have been trusted to my care. All of the classes are appropriate for all levels, and are likely to leave you feeling very warm and fuzzy. Come check it out!

Speaking of retreats in Italy, my dear teacher, Dominique Pandolfi, is leading 3 retreats this summer: one in Mallorca, Spain and two in Italy. She, along with Jen Weller & Chelsea Hill , will take you on a transformative journey, weaving yoga, meditation, language, & culture together in the retreat of your dreams! Visit their website for more information: www.livingdreamretreats.com, or call Chelsea at 808-357-9591. Tell them Jean Marie sent you! More information from the lovely ladies themselves:

That's about all for now, yogis & yoginis. Stay tuned for more updates, including happenings around the garden... I feel a breaking of the ground coming! I'll leave you this week with a gratuitous puppy shot, and a passage from Jack Kornfield that I've been sharing with my classes. I hope it has as much resonance with you as it does with me:

"In this way, meditation is very much like training a puppy. You put the puppy down and say, 'Stay.' Does the puppy listen? It gets up and it runs away. You sit the puppy back down again. 'Stay.' And the puppy runs away over and over again. Sometimes the puppy jumps up, runs over, and pees in the corner or makes some other mess. Our minds are much the same as the puppy, only they create even bigger messes. In training the mind, or the puppy, we have to start over and over again." (from A Path With Heart, p. 59)

NAMASTE!