When I arrived on Maui over a month ago, Melissa, Maureen and I were cruising through Mana Foods (our version of the Co-op) when Melissa spotted a little red book titled If Not Now, Then When?! Naturally, it was purchased. As I resign to the keyboard again today and pull in from the outside world to spill my thoughts and guts to the world wide web, I am finding the picture of that book in my head. This time, the title is SCREAMING at me....
"IF NOT NOW, THEN WHEN?!?!?"
Let's go back in time to a date approximately two years ago to explain. August 2nd, 2009- Final day of the 1st Annual Wanderlust Yoga and Music Festival in Squaw Valley, CA. I arrived early in the morning and was greeted by Cori and Maureen in the parking lot. They both had been at the festival for a few days already and were filled with Shri on the inside and sun tans on the outside. They were glowing. I had no clue what I was in for. Where the hell did they get their glows from?? :) Soon enough, I found out.
As we entered through the lodge, vendors offering all things 'yoga' from chocolate, organic energy bars to tye-dye pants lined the walkways. Of course it all caught my eye as I kept on like a child in a candy store: bright-eyed and floating in wonder. The last tent on the right, however, appeared as if it was sent from heaven. The banner read, "AFRICA YOGA PROJECT" and the messages said something like, "Be a part of the tribe!". The shirts on the table were made in Kenya by women who could sew, adorned with bright colors and prints, the words Namaste and Love. The people working at the tent were familiar to me as they were members of the Zuda Yoga tribe back home in Sacramento. I asked a few questions and floated away in silence. After the internal storm calmed, I muttered to Maureen, "I am going to do that. I am going to go to Africa and be with those people. I have to. They are a part of my tribe, or I am a part of theirs. I know it." Today, two years later, I still know it.
A few days ago, while lying on the beach reading the intro to the Bhagavad Gita, I took a moment to pause and check my phone as it rang. Skipping the call, I quickly checked my email before returning to the book. The email in my inbox was titled, "AYP Seva Safari Retreat- Join Us In Kenya this July!" My heart began to beat faster. IF NOT NOW, THEN WHEN?!, I asked myself!! For two years I have been dreaming of this opportunity to go and experience the slums of Kenya, share yoga with the people, be a part of the tribe and contribute to making their world a better place. Self-doubt has kept me from this dream... "Anna, you can't raise enough money to do that! That's asking too much of others. What makes you think people will donate their money to send you to Africa?" Also, "Anna, you are WAY too afraid of bugs to go to Africa. You won't make it one night!"
I have been living in Maui for over a month now and the gifts I have received since day one are bountiful...
*Jed and Maureen's open door into their home, family, refrigerator and hearts
*Maui Kombucha :)
*Trevlyn's overly-hospitable kindness
*My hair stylist pointing me to the perfect job
*My fantastic job!- Penguini
*My super cute BMW convertible Maui cruiser (comes with Troy, the man that sold it to me who just last night took the car back when it was overheating, gave me his new car in the mean time, FIXED my car, then gave it back in better shape than when I bought it from him. Thank you, Maui!)
*New friends coming from all directions and walks of life
*The beach, jungles and sacred land!
*30 avocadoes in 4 days in my backyard
*A sweeeeet home in Haiku and Rodney, my roommate filled with adventurous life stories
*Anusara Immersion (included with a scholarship AND a ride to the studio when I didn't have a car.)
*Fears vanished (including those of most spiders, excluding the cane spiders for now... we're workin' on it)
*Tan skin
*Acupuncture treatments for $26
*Jen's yoga classes graciously handed over to me (hopefully...)
*An exchange of sparkling eyes and genuine smiles between myself and Ram Dass
*A trade for a past life regression session
*Work trade for free yoga at Studio Maui
I could continue for hours. Since the gifts are flowing, why not let it continue?
Africa Yoga Project has been one of my passions for almost two years. I LOVE this cause and feel so deeply tied to the people. To read more about it and check out what the non-profit actually does there, go to www.africayogaproject.org.
Or, watch this video.
This project not only heals the people of Africa by spreading yoga throughout the land, but it also restores and creates homes, orphanages, schools, villages and hope. I would be honored to be a part of this life-enhancing organization. If you have it in your heart, if this video or story or non-profit makes you melt even just a little bit, or maybe a lot, please please please let me help you help them. If not now, then when? We are all one tribe. One heart. One people. We all have the same shine in our eyes.
Inhale. Exhale. I have to fundraise $5000 in order to go to Kenya. I need your support and love. The money goes towards accomodations, yes, but mainly toward the betterment of Kenya. During my stay, we will be spending 6 days rebuilding a community, and the rest will be spent doing yoga with the people, sharing this sacred practice and watching the boundaries of tribes vanish as we become one.
All donations are tax-refundable. The deadline to submit most of the funds raised is April 15th, 2011. If you live in Maui, fundraising events are coming soon!! If you do not and are moved to help this cause, please contact me at aacheechov@gmail.com for more information or through my facebook page. Your support is not only a gift to me to be able to live out my dream, but it is a gift to the people of Kenya. Their hearts will be able to feel your love, they will take it in, then send it back out to you. It WILL come full circle. It's just the way it works. I have no doubt about that.
IF NOT NOW, THEN WHEN?!
Much love to you all, my tribe. Mahalo for your support and love.
Namaste,
Anna
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Kali. My February Mentor.
I spent this past weekend with my new kula here in Maui taking part in the Anusara Immersion Part 2, Module 2. Three days of stretching, strengthening, meditation, contemplation, bliss, bhava, and discussions of time and goddess archetypes that are alive and well within us all. All of the work we employed in all layers of our beings over the three days led us up to one final question: What is divine beauty and what does that FEEL like?
As I sit here writing to you, whoever you are, I pause to feel. When we get quiet enough, still enough, undistracted enough, and pause for how ever long it takes us to feel it, THAT is what we live for. Not our jobs, not our clothes, not our cell phones. This is all extra. When we come into this world, we are naked and free. We probably even feel IT, the source of all- the one things that composes all matter, thoughts and spirit. We are so innocently free that nothing else matters except quietness and contentment. Some babies don't even want to leave the warmth of the womb.
We start in the darkness, the black hole, coming from nothing except the light that exists down in the depths of that hole. We are light. Everything is light that came from the dark. Kali, the goddess of the darkness and destruction emerges from this space/time. She is waiting for us before we are born and fiercely works to dissolve any barriers that may come our way when we enter into the material world in the form of our bodies. Kali is WILD! Check her out...
Can you relate? I can, for sure. Naked. Skulls around her neck. Human hands around her waist. Tongue out, dripping with blood of soldiers she has slaughtered and beheaded, then drank their blood to make sure they could not come back into form. Weapons in her hands. Gently claiming her victory over Shiva, her consort, the God of destruction. And yet, she is still a supreme goddess. Underneath it all, she is compassion. She is fierce so that we may know peace. She gets wild so we can shed that which does not serve us. We manifest her into our universe so we may know the source more intimately.
Pause. Can you feel her? She is the one that can guide you out of the dark. She is the one that can lead you to grace. This month, Kali is my best friend. The shine of the island is wearing off and Mama Maui is cycling me into the dark. Naked. Raw. In the jungle with no cell phone reception. Spiders. Silence. Alone time. Just me and my thoughts, living with the least amount of distraction I have ever experienced. Scary, yes. Thank God I have Kali to invoke into every moment. Her power to dissolve all the skeletons that are hanging in my internal closet give me hope that external light will once again shine.
I do have work. I can still text from home and make calls away from home. I am not living in a cave, although our humble abode is sort of like a portal. When you walk through the door, its almost as if you are taken back 50 years to the time when the peace movement was taking place in San Francisco. Let me tell you, this is a good thing. Those hippies (which I am aspiring to be) had it right, I think. They were able to transcend, with the use of substances or not, closer to the truth of who we are: light and love. That's it. And it's also 'it', the one, the source. They knew it and wrote about it, and made art because of it expressing the beauty they were able to see. It's no wonder so many people have written about spiritual experiences- its the truth!! Why would you NOT want to share the truth if you have seen it? In the silence, we can see it, know it. Then, when noise returns, we can appreciate it even more. The worldly expressions become more vivid. We see the gods and goddesses in others. We recognize light and love within ourselves and everything that we come into contact with. Talk about progress on the path, my friends....
This is divine beauty. The recognition that there is darkness within. We begin in the womb innately as light within the darkness and have the opportunity to get brighter, then go back to the dark to dissolve more of what is keeping us from the light during our lifetime. Eventually we end in the tomb- darkness. Our light puts our bodies to rest, then continues on the cycle. We can do this on a daily basis and also over centuries. Light-dark-light-brighter light-dark-light. The cycle never ends on a macro and micro level. Tune in. Get quiet. Listen. It's there within us all.
At the end of a yoga practice, we say 'Namaste'. The literal translation is, 'The light within me honors and recognizes the light within you'. Namaste, friends. Much love and light to you on this day and all the days to come.
Now, it's time for Kali and I to go get some booch, go to the beach, and spread love in the form of coffee drinks, house made gelato and sorbets, paninis and wraps, or whatever else Penguini can offer those who live in Maui for all of your lunch-time needs. Aloha!
As I sit here writing to you, whoever you are, I pause to feel. When we get quiet enough, still enough, undistracted enough, and pause for how ever long it takes us to feel it, THAT is what we live for. Not our jobs, not our clothes, not our cell phones. This is all extra. When we come into this world, we are naked and free. We probably even feel IT, the source of all- the one things that composes all matter, thoughts and spirit. We are so innocently free that nothing else matters except quietness and contentment. Some babies don't even want to leave the warmth of the womb.
We start in the darkness, the black hole, coming from nothing except the light that exists down in the depths of that hole. We are light. Everything is light that came from the dark. Kali, the goddess of the darkness and destruction emerges from this space/time. She is waiting for us before we are born and fiercely works to dissolve any barriers that may come our way when we enter into the material world in the form of our bodies. Kali is WILD! Check her out...
Can you relate? I can, for sure. Naked. Skulls around her neck. Human hands around her waist. Tongue out, dripping with blood of soldiers she has slaughtered and beheaded, then drank their blood to make sure they could not come back into form. Weapons in her hands. Gently claiming her victory over Shiva, her consort, the God of destruction. And yet, she is still a supreme goddess. Underneath it all, she is compassion. She is fierce so that we may know peace. She gets wild so we can shed that which does not serve us. We manifest her into our universe so we may know the source more intimately.
Pause. Can you feel her? She is the one that can guide you out of the dark. She is the one that can lead you to grace. This month, Kali is my best friend. The shine of the island is wearing off and Mama Maui is cycling me into the dark. Naked. Raw. In the jungle with no cell phone reception. Spiders. Silence. Alone time. Just me and my thoughts, living with the least amount of distraction I have ever experienced. Scary, yes. Thank God I have Kali to invoke into every moment. Her power to dissolve all the skeletons that are hanging in my internal closet give me hope that external light will once again shine.
I do have work. I can still text from home and make calls away from home. I am not living in a cave, although our humble abode is sort of like a portal. When you walk through the door, its almost as if you are taken back 50 years to the time when the peace movement was taking place in San Francisco. Let me tell you, this is a good thing. Those hippies (which I am aspiring to be) had it right, I think. They were able to transcend, with the use of substances or not, closer to the truth of who we are: light and love. That's it. And it's also 'it', the one, the source. They knew it and wrote about it, and made art because of it expressing the beauty they were able to see. It's no wonder so many people have written about spiritual experiences- its the truth!! Why would you NOT want to share the truth if you have seen it? In the silence, we can see it, know it. Then, when noise returns, we can appreciate it even more. The worldly expressions become more vivid. We see the gods and goddesses in others. We recognize light and love within ourselves and everything that we come into contact with. Talk about progress on the path, my friends....
This is divine beauty. The recognition that there is darkness within. We begin in the womb innately as light within the darkness and have the opportunity to get brighter, then go back to the dark to dissolve more of what is keeping us from the light during our lifetime. Eventually we end in the tomb- darkness. Our light puts our bodies to rest, then continues on the cycle. We can do this on a daily basis and also over centuries. Light-dark-light-brighter light-dark-light. The cycle never ends on a macro and micro level. Tune in. Get quiet. Listen. It's there within us all.
At the end of a yoga practice, we say 'Namaste'. The literal translation is, 'The light within me honors and recognizes the light within you'. Namaste, friends. Much love and light to you on this day and all the days to come.
Now, it's time for Kali and I to go get some booch, go to the beach, and spread love in the form of coffee drinks, house made gelato and sorbets, paninis and wraps, or whatever else Penguini can offer those who live in Maui for all of your lunch-time needs. Aloha!
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