It would be impossible to name all of the bands that move me right now – we are seemingly within the influence of a madly musical Aquarian time.

The Age of Aquarius, though scientifically thought to be centuries away – popular theory maintains that we are currently within a transitory time carrying the influence of a new age experience which will usher in a group higher consciousness. Other ideas associated with Aquarius are a decline of religious influence (peace??) non-conformity, philanthropy and perseverance, which all sounds eerily and hopefully resonant.

If Artistic energy is any indication – and it always is – we are certainly rushing into a group consciousness. As the Elite Rock Star declines as a musical model, we’re moving towards a time of thousands of collaborative, real-life rock stars, indie and otherwise. Brothers, brothers and sisters, couples and bffs are playing together and not just seeking fame and fortune but moving through real lives that we can all relate to.

So, yes, I can’t help but spread my love around when it comes to the world of music. No longer looking to be star-struck, I feel more embedded within the energy of what’s not simply coming at me, but coming through me. It’s about the music. And also about a life that belongs to all of us.

This movie floored me. I don’t know that I’ll be the same after watching “I Am Love” last night. Or, maybe it’s that I’ve never felt more myself. Computer on our laps in the bedroom, I sat in a kind of electrified stupor as the credits rolled. We both did, Jerry and I, looking at each other without speaking.

The story is in some ways a classic melodrama, yet weaves in – with subtle mastery – a deeply emotional look at the lives of a wealthy Italian family, intelligent and functional, yet entrapped in tradition and pretense. But that’s not the point. Tilda Swinton both produced and took a starring role, and naturally and expertly serves as the driving force behind the message of the head and heart’s need for truth and identity.

Indeed, messages that we are ready for – waiting for – can often get stuck inside us, blocked by the usual stress-ridden events, thoughts and feelings. That inner knowing that directs us and charts not just a path to follow, but the passion that fuels us on our way – NO MATTER WHAT. It’s the, “no matter what” that makes us take a long look at just what the point of this movie is. If we “are love”, than there are really not so many choices to make, but only a life to be lived.

Love stories are usually irresistible to me, but this was so much more than that. This story isn’t as much about “true love” as it is about an acknowledgment of the “true self” and a commitment to whatever that means and brings.

Uniquely filmed, and scored with an unusual boldness, you will not just see or hear this film. You will feel it. And it will feel familiar. And it could change your life.

Spring Shakori, 2011

It just keeps getting better. Music. Music Festivals. What This year’s Silk Hope, NC event at Shakori, screamed SPRING, as the rains have been coming, the grounds are more beautiful than ever. I didn’t hear any complaints about the muddy paths and many surrendered to bare feet and squished their way around all weekend. Yep. Shakori is a barefoot friendly festival – with composting, recycling and reusables encouraged in the most organized, accessible ways, it’s a clean gig.

Although there is no lack of appreciation for the diversity in style and genre, I’m noticing that the bands keep getting bigger, better – both in members and sound. The sound is hyper-skilled creative explosion of celebration, movement from the inside out. And it seems to be contagious.

A personal favorite is Penny Prophets, an electric supergroup from NC bringing back rock’s “rhythmic tightness combined with psychedelic freak-outs” who did a Thursday show (and then worked the parking lot on the off days – after all, We Are One…)

Holy Ghost Tent Revival mixes brass with banjo, guitar, bass, drums and keys (and the occasional saxaphone) and from my hiding spot behind the speakers with an up-close stage view, I was mesmerized. This 7 member group – with more than 10 instruments between them, are also locals, from Greensboro, NC. They defy all genre as they move from instrument to instrument, creating a celebration of talent, passion and life itself.

Scythian stole my heart and perhaps the entire 4 days of shows in my world. They played a Saturday evening show and I swear the ground moved under my muddy feet. Described as Celtic New World style, I found a bit of everything in a  thrashing gypsy punk sound that destroyed all logic but created something else much more magical. I found out later that 3 of 4 members are classically trained musicians, and a drummer with a masters in Jazz Study. That explains a lot because you couldn’t keep these guys  from jumping and bouncing all over the stage Irish jig-like, yet never missing a note or a beat, with bows flying at hyper-speed – all while wearing infectious smiles.  Lead fiddler, Alexander had one so big, beautiful and real, that it broke me in a million pieces, while I remembered that this is really truly why we are here on Earth.

Music. Celebration. Salvation. Redemption? I’m ready.

Here’s a prediction with good news and bad news: In the next few years, more people will lose their employment. The potential good news: More people will be finding meaningful, fulfilling work in self-employed or freelance work. Accordingly, lifestyles may change to accommodate the changes, but many people will find more fulfillment, more creativity and more meaning in those changes as well.

And, if you believe in it, in yourself, and do the work, something – anything – can happen.

An example of this just came my way….I once knew a clown named Bounce. Seriously. I met him in Key West. He had an act called, Locomotion, and his talent as a gymnast and juggling, unicycle-riding provided his living through street performances then. He was committed to this work and way of life in a way then foreign to my 21yo self, who was just taking a year off from college to fool around.

He lived in a busy household on the street where I shared an efficiency apartment with two friends. We connected in some unlikely way and I’m grateful, for it was Bounce who kept me out on the straight and narrow by modeling a lifestyle far more intoxicating than the partying being done by my peers at that time.

It was a life filled with many creative, artistic people moving through it – beyond my current imagination. It also involved exercise, whole food, peacefulness, and yes, hard work. We ran to the beach every morning. He worked on his juggling routines by day and performed at the pier in the evenings while I went to my restaurant job. It was a magical time that ended too quickly but I believe it permanently influenced me in more ways than I knew.

I eventually went back to school in the Midwest, thinking once again about a career in journalism and put the seemingly wild island days behind me. Time to get serious, I told myself.

Well, I didn’t end up too serious, but I did end up sincerely pursuing work that moved me. I did remember the passion and happiness that moved through the people I knew on the island…I knew I wasn’t going to settle for less than that.

And Bounce? I looked him up just the other day — 20+ years later — he still lives in Key West and is still juggling. He has a wife, OooLaLa, who performs with him. They have a son who still tours with them during the Summer break from school. They teach juggling throughout the year. They never, even for a moment, gave up on their artist’s Way. Namaste to both of them. Thanks for the inspiration and confirmation.

Some of us will be forced into it kicking and screaming, but we do have a path emerging through these chaotic times. It’s not one without bumps and bruises but it is one that can set us free.

As Winter weather drags on around here, we’ve taken to another HBO (itunes) binge at our little compound:) We’ve become absorbed in Big Love, the series about the Mormon experience, both fundamental and otherwise.

I know, I know. It’s TV. But as popular films and even many art-house movies (think Certified Copy) disappoint, I’m getting a cultural education, albeit an indulgently dramatized one. Big Love ranks up there with Mad Men, as a look into a time, place, and psychology of a time, place, and culture that I know little about. And I’m enjoying every cyber minute of it.

True to many dramatic series, by the time they reach a 3rd or 4th season, story lines tend to take a turn towards the ludicrous (think Weeds) and they same is true for Big Love. Mormon Gangsters? Mormon-owned casinos (or “gaming”, as they prefer to call it), blood atonement? Actually, I started to laugh at this, but it didn’t take much research to discover the threads of truth to these portrayals. Well. Okay then. Did I mention I am learning a lot?

The show does an excellent job at putting an everyday, very human – and in some cases – an appealing face to the idea of group marriage – at least in the household of these main characters, hiding their polygamist lives in 3 connected houses in a Utah suburb. The love, the process, and even the “schedule” seems real and plausible.

But the story weaves in and out of these seemingly blissful moments and reveals the unavoidable and perhaps insurmountable issues below the surface of shared housework, shared childcare, shared incomes and a shared husband. The sister-wives seem to have a genuine love and respect for each other, despite – or perhaps because of -  their different personalities and ages. Emotional jealousy seems to be negated by an unwavering belief in The Principle of the importance of family – and a lot of it.

The first thing that popped my bubble was the pure, unadulterated sexism going on in the house – portrayed with accurate subtly. The “sisters” are expected to be immune to any feelings of competition or jealousy, yet Bill, the family patriarch, can’t contain his rage when a woman he is newly “dating” as a prospective 4th wife is discovered to be dating another man. The sister wife who escaped from the fundamentalist compound to join Bill and his first wife says it all when she reminds the other wives that “Our husband’s dating life is none of our business.”

Still, this family is living in the real world, not on a compound and one by one, in unique and sometimes covert ways, the women begin to grow and express their own sort of independence and it is both entertaining and moving.

This show accurately and continuously reminds us of the extreme conflicts between what is considered a fundamentalist sect and your average LDS Mormonism – a religion which stopped practicing polygamy in the 1890′s. Both churches, however, denounce homosexuality and the story line that pulls us through this kind of ignorance is both heart-breaking and real.

I was in Nevada when Deepak Chopra scheduled his live broadcast, guiding everyone in a global meditation for Japan. I had taught a yoga class at a studio that week and found out they were going to join the meditation as a group on Monday night. I believe in the tools of Ayurveda  as well as the power of the collective consciousness. And, in his wisdom, Deepak reminds us that “Love without action is meaningless – and action without love is irrelevant”. But how could I act in this??

After days of feeling unable to do anything except donate $ to the rescue operations, I knew I would be at the studio on Monday night, participating in this silent meditation, perhaps and most likely joined by tens of thousands of other people all over the world. There was not much talking, but I get choked up even now recalling the energy of love and purpose in the room.

It was something.

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It began several years ago, with Green Yoga in San Francisco, when a timely shift in the Western yoga culture towards Seva — awareness of and commitment to, service and compassion to others and the world was born. Or reborn, if you think about it. With studio after studio opening up, and yogis competing and preening for the best-dressed and most bendable, more like-minded practitioners around the country and the world began to wake up and smell the incense.

Yoga in the West was losing its roots, its perspective and its integrity. But yoga provides nothing if not awareness and the practice of yoga, no matter how scarred and dented by a wayward culture, will eventually bring truth and a return to balance.

In partnership with the Engage Network, an organization founded by teacher, Seane Corn – is asking yogis from all walks of life to get “Off the Mat and into the World“. After my 14 years teaching and practicing, I can’t think of anything that rings more true. Yoga is not about the yoga itself – it is a practice for the real thing - Life. What happens on the mat is simply a training ground for your real goals, both inside and outside yourself.

I can’t reconcile the many recent chaos taking lives and livelihood, but I can keep moving through a practice of awareness, acceptance, compassion – AND ACTION. We can be peacefully determined warriors for a common good. Whether you are a teacher, a practitioner, or simply inspired and interested, let the mission begin.

Tahoe, NV, 2011
A girls gotta have ‘em. Good underwear, that is, and before packing up for a trip to the still snow covered mountains of NV, I realized I was short a few ski tight friendly pairs. I first went to a local street-side store I knew of, but alas, it, like many small retail businesses, had closed its doors.

Heading back home where I knew I would end up shopping online for my somewhat ridiculous thong fix, I once again began to wonder about the way of the commerce and what it will mean for the future. Will we soon be limited to big box warehouse chains of discount stores and and mail order? I just heard that Borders Books is closing 200 stores across the country. Will the buildings stand vacant and the employees jobless? Can the internet provide more sustainable opportunities for our capitalistic ways?

In typical spoiled American fashion, my ruminations were short-circuited once I started web surfing. Yoga-minded me is not immune to the adrenaline rush of new stuff. Of course, the biggest rush did come from finding an eco-minded online store, WearPact, founded and run by some committed and creative people who have the goal of “creating projects that are deeply in tune with the needs for a sustainable future.”

From entrepreneurs > designer > an organic cotton factory, to a Planet Access Organization for social change, to a couple of talented filmmakers, Pact stretches the bottom line while it covers bottoms. (Don’t worry, that’s my line, not theirs.)

There is, however, a bottom line – “Change starts with your underwear and PACT is here to prove it.”

(That IS theirs:)))