CHAPTER 1….(more coming after the long flight)

‘m starting this post at Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport en route to LAX for Acro Yoga training.  There’s lots going on with both the inner and outer landscapes.  This morning’s travel adventure began at my friend’ s home with a mini-practice to get the energy going and fully catered Yogi breakfast of fat smoothie with yummy stuff!  It was a great relief after somewhat struggling the last few weeks to find sattvic food!  After a short mantra chant it was out the door to the tram and the train….seamless and easy.  The train to the airport and to the check in….flowing and smooth.  Checking in and finding the security point….graceful and welcoming.  Then I started to walk towards my gate….and kept walking….and found the gate and am certain that I haven’t passed through any security check-point.  There was one passport stamp and I’m here at the door to the plane!  After having gotten to this point so easily, there’s a segment on the TV hanging from the ceiling about Bombs in cars and lots of political scare propaganda.  Interesting irony!
Especially since my very potent time in Hamburg was filled with exploring my relationship to authority, boundaries and cultivating ease and flow with intention.
After the Alps retreat, I visited Hamburg, Germany for the first time and was being hosted by Qbi at Inspya Yoga.  She met me at the train station and then to her home where I was staying by the Allster, Hamburg’s beautiful lake which was teeming with activity all weekend!  After a quick drop off of the bags and introduction to Dirke, her bodyguard / yoga teacher boyfriend, I went with her to take a class at the studio.  She ended up teaching the class and I gave a nice Savasana Serenade to meet the space and students.  It was a great beginning to a weekend that was full of inspiration and yoga.  I guest taught regular classes and led 3 deep yoga experiences to full rooms and I was also invited to guest teach at Inspya’s teacher training program.  The teacher training sessions proved to be as potent for me in terms of the gift of being well received as it was for the students who were open and curious to explore various aspects of the path.  Ahhhh….here come the guards to gather us all sitting beyond the check-point….be right back!
OK.  “Safely” back at the gate I can rest assured that none of the bombs from the TV, or terrorists who carry them or the forces of darkness that propogate them will be on my flight

So As I was saying.  Hamburg was lovely.  My host Qbi has an incredibly vibrant personality matched with a lot of Yogic insight…and balanced with a strong German sense of getting things done in a timely and effecient manner.  It was nice for me, a fairly relaxed ‘time slave’ to be supported in my love of punctuality and the desire for the ease of ‘when things work like they “should”‘ Qbi took on a very maternal role through the weekend and I got to play with Bobbie, the giant Schnouzer!  Dirke, the bodyguard / yoga teacher boyfriend was away all weekend on assignment but it was easy to feel his presence in the house and in the lives of Qbi and Bobbie.  It was sweet.  His life was a nice extremists version of FindBalance!  He shared with me the necessity of the Bodyguard to be relatively closed and skeptical of the fans and people trying to get to his clients, while the teacher in him must search to see the light in all beings.  Telling me of one weekend festival he was working at with lots of famous alternative bands and heavy energy and then going to the Yoga studio and feeling the lightness and openness of the people there.  He sees first hand how we really are a big and diverse family!!!!
Thursday morning I had a play date with Bobbie and there were keys, meeting times, notes on how to feed, bags for the poop, and a phone!  Add the bicycle and super sunny day in Hamburg and it was a great combination to have order and freedom at the same time!  I find I operate best when it’s like that.  We got lost riding through the streets; mapless and armed with only my first time in a strange city and a dog navigator!  But in our ‘lostness’ we played lots of fetch, rode through mini-urban forests and found a few nice parks to hang out in.  I really stepped up the smiling at strangers in Hamburg.  There was a fairly recognizable sternness on the faces of many people.  Those over 60(ish) were the most noticeable while there were even quite a few of those in my generation.  So the bike, the dog and whatever High Vibe Music the iPod watered my ears with positiviy and there were lots of uncontrolled smiles and sudden bursts of laughter as I encountered other Humans living on Earth!  We’re a big and very diverse family!!!!!
I also had a great surprise visit from a San Francisco friend, Jamie Luv, who is on tour with her nanny gig in Europe.  I invited her to class on Friday night and then we went out for dinner and nice walk around the Reeperbahn, Hamburg’s mini-Amsterdam/Las Vegas/BurningMan tourist trap scene.  It’s always fun (for a while) to be out in the street with a beer and watching the thousands of people stumble and bumble around.  There were a few really great travel moments with Jamie (who brought a sense of the San Francisco vibe that I feel deeply connected to!) where we literally crashed a party where AC/DC was blasting, lights were flashing and the doors were open.  In we walked to a dance floor with about 10 people….the vibe was right so we jumped up and down to AC/DC!  The next song….starts with piano and accordian and a 40’s Jazz sound.  “Que Sera Sera….Whatever Will Be….Will Be!”  Ahhhh….. We made a Waltz/Two Step/Funky Chicken parade through the dance floor and after a minute or so more danced our way out the door with a bow!  Big Laughs….We got to ride a carnaval Pig ride at the Schweinski restaurantand posed with a window full of Guns ranging from $Euro 45 to $250.  Seemed a bit cheap to me?!?!  After more wandering and on our way to the final train home….we passed a group of 4 or 5 Romanian men sitting on a park bench.  One of them was singing some Balkan ballad with all his heart and passion and we had to walk closer to listen.  It was beautiful to see a bunch of men just hanging out with a few beers and singing with such joy.  We’re a big and diverse family!!

All the while, I had a heavy thought running through my head about a phone call I would have on Monday morning about my Mallorca residency.  Due to many factors, I needed to change my initial agreement of the length of time I will stay and teach on the island.  I had sent an email with these new plans and was met with a “we need to have a talk about our future together” response.  We scheduled a call for Monday morning and I was really conflicted about how this would work out based on new desires with different plans and my initial intentions and the integrity to keep my word.  It took up a lot of mental bandwidth as I was also giving lots of teachings about words, thoughts and actions creating the world in which we live!  During the call, I was really faced with a sense of needing to honor my word based on the impact of my change in plans.  So I agreed to cut my time in Brasil shorter then planned to come back to Mallorca.  That was tough (yes, I know….it seems like an easy