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Pictured, “Everyday Inspirations Vol 3”

All images original from Vermont, each an original verse.

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“the intent of this blog is to incrementally build a body of thought that works toward integrating various topics, yoga, fitness, and the arts – it’s a process…”

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Site Areas

Fitness ** Arts ** eBooks

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texas to vermont – have yoga, will travel (new beginning)

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Article Outline

 

Subtitle

 

Intro

 

New Stuff

 

• Videos
• Zumba®
• Line Dance
• Sequence Classes
  
• Vermont
  
• Art Hop

Video from Lake Champlain Vermont

New Future Plans

• Ebooks
• Online Studies
• Website
• Meanwhile

Final Thoughts

 

• My Integration of Yoga, Fitness, and the Arts is a Great Unknown
• Biggest Surprise – Continuity in Vermont
  
• Yoga 2.0 – “threads of yoga : a remix”
  
• Yoga Provides Me Continuity

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Subtitle

How We Escaped the Texas Heat Wave of 2011, We Moved 😉

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Intro

after experiencing both an earthquake and a hurricane this past week here in new england, i figured this would be as good a time as any to declare a new beginning, in this, my third of my series of texas to vermont posts 😉

unlike my preparations and transition articles, where i saw where i was and how things were changing in mine and sheila’s life, the material of our new beginning is only now beginning to show itself more fully

i’d expected that the new beginning would simply be a setting up of new classes, and start again –

but it’s been much much more…

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New Stuff

Videos

oh boy, never would i have imagined that i’d make a solo music-dance video, and that sheila and i would then follow that with one of us together –

much less to submit to a zumba contest 😉

the learning curve, just for these basic creations, was fairly steep for me, but in time, these’ll get easier, and more fun stuff should begin to show up, gradually 😉

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Zumba®

sheila and i are in process of learning, creating, and practicing enough routines to eventually offer a zumba gold express class

we are also looking fwd to a future specialty zumba is preparing, currently being called “sentao”

sentao means seated in spanish, and a fully functional chair class is something our main target group (seniors, de-conditioned adults, folks coming back from illness or injury or inactivity) needs very much

i’ve mentioned in various posts how chair work is good in so many ways, even very fit individuals –

it’s great as a recovery routine –

and as something to learn to share with someone one cares for but, needs “company” to feel comfortable doing an exercise

the awareness and body-mind connection engendered by yoga, i’ve found, helps tremendously in learning new ways to move, and being more expressive – so we see a nice synergy here

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Line Dance

the same type of synergy and continuity of motion and awareness exists in enjoying doing line dance

the (usually) repetitive, more melodic moving and breathing patterns in line dance are, i’ve felt, even more quickly enhanced by yogic breathing exercises and poses

because of the smaller amount of choreography involved, and the smaller range of motion (rom) usually involved, more seniors seem to bridge the pose work of yoga to movement to music

for the same reasons involving choreography, sheila and i feel line dance will probably be our first aerobic-dance class we’ll feature to go with our yoga classes, and will be an extension of the sequence of classes we currently offer at the fitness center downtown in burlington

the line dance class, like our projected zumba gold class, is being planned as an express class, approx 30 minutes

we’ll of course post an article (and more) when that comes about 😉

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Sequence Classes

we’ve been fortunate to develop a series of classes that offer a progressive sequence of activity and awareness, from very basic gentle longer held yoga poses, to chair based functional fitness work, to aerobic dance basics

all the classes begin with three yogic breath exercises, to promote a fuller calming breath and a stronger core

both our zumba express and line dance classes will also include one or two short yogic breathing exercises, plus a warmup and cooldown

all these components, breath work, warmups, and cooldowns, are too important and too beneficial not to include –

as i expressed in “teaching limitations is teaching awareness (a beginner’s view)” –

“from the start of my yoga-adan blog, i began my earliest posts with the intent to present and demonstrate the disarmingly simple idea that :

– each person is unique, yet similar to other people”

that idea has only strengthened over time…

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Vermont

 

being in burlington, and vermont in general, has so far been a real treat, a very new treat, for me

even sheila, born and raised here, a graduate of the university of vermont, feels “almost” new here – she has spent the last 30+ years in texas 😉

the terrain and the climate are an incredible new experience (beyond visiting for a week or so)

coming from the texas gulf coastal plain and even from the hill country of central texas, this is much more varied in terrain, and unbelievably cooler!

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what hasn’t been as new, is the type of people here in vermont –

they are as close to what i consider texans as any place i’ve been –

very independent, proud of their history, and yet collective in spirit

during the recent impact from hurricane irene, the local and state news sources provided the kind of care and newscasting any community could hope for

without the following consistent twitter contributions, following the state’s impact and response to the storm would have been nearly impossible

@keithmontpVT – @Seven_Days – @vermontweather

my deep and sincere thanks to all three…

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there’s a growth in the integration of my interests in yoga, fitness, and the arts, that i believe directly benefits from the energy of the land and the people of vermont

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Art Hop

art hop!

though i didn’t have new art (vermont art) to bring art hop last week, the venue is new, very new, to me

hugely spread out over the south end of burlington

it feels, when sheila & i attended it last year when we visited her brother, like a combination of the ruckus-ness of the westheimer arts festival of the 80’s in houston, melded to any two days of sxsw in austin nowadays –

that’s saying a lot of good things ’bout art hop 😉

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Video from Lake Champlain Vermont

sheila and i quickly caught sight of several 1/2 price and 2 for 1 offering companies here (as in texas), jumpon-it and livingsocial

when $7 tickets for a northern lights 1 1/2 hr sightseeing tour on lake champlain came up, we grabbed them, and i was able to shoot a bit of what we saw

the video is very experimental / learning-curve for me

so my apologies for the lack of polish 😉

no original audio – ‘cept for a chuckle at the end of a surprise cameo by sheila 😉

but did put in some soundtrack from some selections that imovie provided

i also played with various styles and types and durations of captions

so kinda a hodge podge finger painting like mud paddy cakes kind of video 😉 fun!

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i’ve created a clickable link on the video image, but just in case, below the image, is the link for copy / paste

did i mention i’m still sliding ’round the learning curve? 😉

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one of the sights on the video, is of rock point, of which i did a painting back in the 80’s

sheila’s dad had requested it, and had it for many years before he passed away

today we have it hanging in a great spot in our dining room

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[ the image of “rock point, vermont” will be included in an in-progress ebook of one year of images from this site ]

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the tour above provided commentary and information about the lake and surrounding landmarks –

evidently, the forestry around rock point is original to the time of first settlement, and has been kept from being harvested

the land is owned by the episcopalian diocese of vermont, and provides free passes for entry to the park there – “though donations are greatly appreciated 😉 fair enough!

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New Future Plans

Ebooks

ahhh, another new technology i’m looking into 😉

my first ebooks planned, at this point, will be of my original poetry

i’ll still post poems online, though, with commentary, and with nearly 1000 poems between sheila & myself, i could post one a week for 20 years, and still not be fully online!

what this means is, waiting for a subject collection, rather than the ebook, will be a hopefully pleasant process, but also a long one – something i kinda like myself anyways 😉

so the ebook will provide a subject collection right away

but this is going to take time

the format to successfully upload onto platforms, like the kindle, requires a shift in how to create page breaks, an index, etc

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the ebooks planned will have the poems presented by subject matter, and i will have more info in future posts regarding which subjects will be first, how many titles will be included, and what sub-topic-headings might be included

additionally, one or more features would be included not available or appropriate for the blog, and better presented via the ebook

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some sites i’ve been getting what appears to be useful info about this are :

one spoon at a time, tristan higbee, and threepress consulting

all are new to me, but again, seem very useful so far

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Online Studies

this is more vague in my mind than the ebooks project, but something that keeps coming to mind when i’m in a held pose, or moving in a particularly enjoyable aerobic dance step

my son has suggested several instructional ideas that have promise

but i know less about how to develop this than the idea before or that follows, so currently i feel this is further down the learning curve, and thus the time-curve, than some of the other projects

time, though, as usual, will tell – this seed need more time yet in the ground 😉

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Website

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first and most importantly, no changes in current content or availability would or will change

second, i have no ads, visible or hidden, affiliate or prepaid, anywhere on my site  [1]

“if” and when that changes, i will be letting everyone know, ahead of time…

and still, as per my first point, no content would change

i would not and will not charge for articles

or poems i choose to post

or images of art work

or photos

nor my fabulous yak yak commentaries 😉

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plus, if i decided to have some affiliate ads, i would never email them to anyone

the ads would only be on a site page, and be fully appropriate for the topic

an example would be ad to amazon for topic related books etc

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both roseanne at it’s all yoga baby, and nancy at flying yogini, have written about this, moving to or having a blog format/host that allows and enables more creative freedom, including the ability to have appropriate ads and/or affiliate links

integrity is number one with both the folk above on their sites, giving me positive examples of generating income on their sites

also my previous art site had google ads, and i didn’t have any problem with the ad types

so a site with even more control over which type ads, and for what type product or person or company, would be a fairly natural, even welcome, extension for me

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as nancy has blogged about, she experienced transition pains in moving from an ad free dot com address, to that of a more creative-allowing dot org home

that awareness is, for now, keeping me from adding video and other features to my current dot com site; new video, as it comes out (beginning with my very beginner feature on our boat trip on lake champlain above) i’ll probably post on youtube

audio would be interesting to play with too

so one day… 😉

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Meanwhile

my attention must remain on continuing to learn, continuing to present as best of material i can understand and present that integrates having fun and staying healthy via yoga, fitness, and the arts

that, after all, is what my life is about 😉

it’s what i think i model…

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Final Thoughts

My Integration of Yoga, Fitness, and the Arts is a Great Unknown

my integration-effort to understand and experience the underlying oneness i’ve always sensed in yoga, fitness activities, and the arts, began simply and easily enough

i’d write about yoga, and it’d easily remind me of something similar in aerobic dance movement, or painting, or poetry, or writing, or music – you get the idea 😉

obviously i’m leading up to saying it’s no longer as easy a process as i once believed –

not because it’s harder to see or feel or sense the connections…

but because the connections have become so dense!

the pathways of discovery are everywhere

they lead me down shortcuts

across new main roads

deeper into openings

of surprise sunlight

i no longer know where i’ll end up

or, more accurately, think i know where the road curves

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what is fiddling with video splicing into my ideas ?

how does that affect teaching poses in class ?

when are brush strokes and touch adjustments alike ?

why does the sound of words on paper feel like breath on hands upon the keyboard ?

am i listening to the murmurs of caring i am hearing?

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my mind and heart together know the map

but life is new everyday

new places, new roads, new rivers, will be explored

some updates will map instantly

others, not so quickly 😉

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Biggest Surprise – Continuity in Vermont

i expected a lot of unexpected surprises in moving to vermont

i’d visited a bit, here and there, for a week or two, throughout the years since i met sheila

intellectually, i knew the air would be drier (most the time)

and cooler 😉

that the land would rise and fall more continually, at times abruptly

hills would be small mountains back in my part of texas

and i knew experiencing this would still be…new

rumpled land tossed across yards and streets like morning blankets left unmade til evening

the big trees would hold the wind and shake themselves with it in a yogic-fire breath of release

i haven’t even made it out of summer yet!

what will my first full autumn colors bring to my heart’s eyes ?

winters ice and sand-dunes of snow ?

i expect all that –

my surprise, is how texan the people of vermont are

and how vermonty my texanness is

staunch in freedom

free in fairness

valuing

wealth in people

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there’s a continuity with my kind of people –

i should’ve known, with a wife from vermont 😉

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Yoga 2.0 – “Threads of Yoga : a Remix”

special thanks to carol horton for her shared link on facebook 😉

threads of yoga, a remix, from the folk at yoga 2.0, Matthew Remski and Scott Petrie, is the kind of contemporary re-look at enduring ancient thought that greatly appeals to me

i, literally, don’t know if i agree with all these guys have come up with – i say literally ’cause i’m not completely familiar with their line of thought –

a remix, as per the authors’ words, differs from a translation :

“The purpose of a remix is equal parts homage, adventure, reclamation, and pleasure. It collects the raw beats and hooks of the past and brands them, transparently, with the pulse of the present…

“In the yoga 2.0 idiom, this pulse says a few key things:

• relationship is more important than private bliss,
• metaphysics distracts from presence,
• consciousness is evolving new questions, and –
• yoga is always changing, because its practitioners are”

the quality of their continuity of effort will probably keep me returning to their line of thought

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Yoga Provides Me Continuity

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renewed continuity

enhanced continuity

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i’ve always been aware of, and been good, with connections

seeing continuities, similarities, attachments

yoga has helped me refine this

sometimes with my own brain-smile humor 😉

heart-bone is connected to the mind-bone is connected to the ankle-balance-bone is connected to the core-bone is connected to my art-bone is connected to my word-bone

yes, it was time for a new beginning 😉

namaste – con dios – god be with you

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eBook Updates

Texas to Vermont – Have Yoga, Will Travel (Transition)

Texas to Vermont – Have Yoga, Will Travel (Preparations)

footnotes

[1]  i believe wordpress does reserve the right to post occasional content appropriate ads on my site, and the few i’ve seen haven’t bothered me, nor has anyone written to me to complain

an interesting history about the lighthouses is available from lighthousefriends.com

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INTEGRATING YOGA FITNESS AND THE ARTS

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