Did you know that it takes 40 gallons of maple sap to make one gallon of maple syrup? Last weekend I went to the Lunenburg Vermont Maple Syrup Festival with the boys: Dylan, Avery, John and John’s friend Kegan. An old timer was there to demonstrate how to tap the trees. It’s crazy simple. I did quick math: 2 taps, a couple of buckets versus $19.99 for a half quart of maple syrup. Don’t get me wrong I understand it’s a heck of a lot of collecting, boiling and packaging and I think the maple syrup producers deserve every penny they make. But for this year I think I am going to go tap my own little maples. Even if I can get a pint it will be my maple syrup…me and momma nature. And that’s an idea I love. I used to be the type of girl that spent $100 a month on professional waxing, I do that at home myself for pennies. I make bread, hang clothes out on the line, have a sewing machine, use tea bags twice…are you seeing a pattern here? And I sell our little yogawear line from atop my massage table (I am a certified reflexologist, too) which I use as a desk and get to talk all day long to the coolest and craziest people on earth (ya’ll know who you are).
But it’s alot of sap to think of 40 gallons, and it just boils down down down down down. You need to boil (enough to make one quart of syrup) for 4 days straight. Make sure you don’t have any wallpaper in your kitchen because you will steam the wallpaper right off the walls!
But isn’t this just what we all ideally do with our lives? Boiled right down to the very essence, so it’s sweet and dark and lovely and delicate. I think of all the water that is boiled away is the stuff we really don’t need and I don’t need to call attention to those things because we know what they are in each of us. It just takes a whole lot of living to make a sweet life. Happy spring!
VOTE EARTH
> YOUR LIGHT SWITCH IS YOUR VOTE
>
> This year, Earth Hour has been transformed into the world’s first
> global election, between Earth and global warming.
>
> For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities,
> race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch
> as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or
> leaving them on is a vote for global warming. WWF are urging the
> world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes, which
> will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change
> Conference in Copenhagen 2009.
>
> This meeting will determine official government policies to take
> action against global warming, which will replace the Kyoto
> Protocol. It is the chance for the people of the world to make
> their voice heard.
>
> Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and
> businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the
> message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50
> million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as
> the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the
> Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all
> stood in darkness.
>
> In 2009, Earth Hour is being taken to the next level, with the goal
> of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global
> vote. Unlike any election in history, it is not about what country
> you’re from, but instead, what planet you’re from. VOTE EARTH is a
> global call to action for every individual, every business, and
> every community. A call to stand up and take control over the
> future of our planet. Over 74 countries and territories have
> pledged their support to VOTE EARTH during Earth Hour 2009, and
> this number is growing everyday.
>
> We all have a vote, and every single vote counts. Together we can
> take control of the future of our planet, for future generations.
>
> VOTE EARTH by simply switching off your lights for one hour, and
> join the world for Earth Hour.
>
> Saturday, March 28, 8:30-9:30pm.
>
> http://www.earthhour.org/about/
>
>
>
EVERYONE in Northern New Hampshire (where I write from) is sick of it, from the lady behind the fish counter at Shaw’s to my mother. Is it just me and my two young newphews who still have not had enough snow? I am always sad to see the last snow storm and in March we know we are nearer to the end than to the beginning. Last Saturday night the boys spent the night and after dinner they wanted to blow out the dinner tapered candles to make something like a birthday wish. And they are still at an age when they will indulge their aunt and tell me what they wished for. Avery wished that he could throw snow balls up in the air and have Queenie jump up to bite them. Dylan wished he could be a wizard. If I were to make a wish now it would be that things would be easier although it is not without notice that the silver linings of bad luck appear. I see many many people struggling with financial worries, marital worries, and health worries. What do we do? It’s a tough time out there, no doubt about it. Impossible to wish away. However, like the snow that melts and drenches our garden’s in spring it’s possible that the troubles we are all now may have have long lasting positive effects on our psyche and our world. For me, I am going to soak up the time of insecurity and challenge my thinking to search for the silver lining. To be one of the boys blowing out the candles and making a wish that even in bad times I enjoy life, work, nature, friendship, good food and drink and espeically my family. Planting a garden, hanging the laundry out to dry, making homemade food, doing beauty treatments at home, packing a lunch….trying to fix things rather than just replacing them and being very thankful I still have my job because of the very people reading this blog. Thank you. We will continue to make the best yoga wear we can afford to and continue to search for the people who will enjoy them.
My brother Jeff Woodburn teaches at tiny, Walden Elementary in Vermont. He teaches both 7th and 8th graders, but still only has 8 students. The cook at school lights the wood stove fire in the morning and the bus driver is also the custodian. Jeff raves about the education these children are receiving because of the example and inspiration of the school princple. He told me she roams the class rooms whispering in the student’s and teacher’s ears, “What is the purpose of this lesson?”. Everyone’s finger is constantly on the pulse:
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS LESSON?
With razor focus the teachers are required to provide and receive constant feedback so that the purpose of the lesson becomes reduced until it’s just one word. Interesting to me and I thought about it for a long time after.
A few days earlier I had a long conversation with a yoga teacher and soon to be boutique apparel buyer. She is starting from scratch a new yoga studio within a wellness center. She told me she laid out the mats in the studio preparing for success and to share the gift of yoga with her new students.
Of course the conversation came round to apparel for yoga and we both agreed how ‘yoga clothes’ are now a real catagory in activewear. Proper performance yogawear helps support new students as the struggle with the beginning steps. Practicing in front of a mirror not only makes us take a honest look at our own bodies, but also of other bodies in the room which may be more flexible, lithe or confident. Yoga is a humbling pursuit (tha’s why we call it a PRACTICE!). Clothes that just simply make you not only look good, but also feel good makes your job easier. And who better than a teacher to show us how to support our practice?
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS LESSON?
Many studio owners are too overworked or overwhelmed to bring retail into their studios. Some believe selling anything is a compromise to the yoga. Slowly, I see an awarness growing in the community. Yoga teacher’s influence can and does go beyond the studio. The purpose of the yoga class itself is clear but can you expand the lesson by recommending things to the students to enhance their practice?
You are the teacher and you are laying out the mat for the student. Find out what you believe in and then share the word. Not everyone will agree and that’s great! The more feedback we get the better we all can be at what we do. But don’t leave the yoga props up to the company with the largest advertising budget to sell to your students. Do your homework to find out what works for you and what you can get behind.
And now I ask myself, what is the purpose of this lesson? I want you to know yogabela is an incredible yoga wear line that was started because I couldn’t find clothes for my own practive. We import the world’s best 
Brazilian branded Supplex and we make it in our factory in New York City. We are real people on the phone when you call with questions. We ask and listen to your feedback to make this the best damn yoga wear line out there! But we can be better by asking what is our purpose and how can it be improved?
Take a look at www.yogabela.com and if you aren’t currently selling our line in your studio, call me 917 693 8488 and I’ll send you samples so that you can begin your own research.
I get much of my inspiration from my dog and my husband. Last night, he gave me the key to better hockey playing and I think it translates well into what I need to be improving on in the next year. On the first day of yoga teacher training at kripalu our teacher told us, “If you’re going to be late, be early.”
Often it’s a single pause that creates the opportunity to observe and think in advance of the probable outcome of our actions and inactions.
In hockey, if you keep your head down the opponent thinks you are not paying attention. Secretly, you are scanning with your periphery vision not to where the puck is but where it’s going to be and who to shoot it to when it comes to you. I love it! Hero’s like Scully who safely landed his plane in the Hudson River yesterday thankfully operates from a “where the puck is going to be” mentality!
I, on the other hand seem to constantly chasing the puck, looking to where the puck was, not where the puck is going to be. When we started yogabela in 2003 many people asked “what are yoga clothes?” and “how could they be different from any other activewear?”. Five years later most agree yogawear has it’s only little niche in the activewear market. So we started with knowing where the puck was going to be, but that is a tough place to stay.
We can’t sit back and hope the puck will continue to come our way, we need to be ready for where it’s going to be and therein lies the rub, where the rubber meets the road. One thing we know for sure is that if you build a company it’s not so different from having a child. You may impose your will for only so long and that child becomes it’s very own person. yogabela has it’s greatest appeal still with the bikram yoga crowd for which it was designed. At the end of last year the New York Times selected yogabela for the hot yoga “gear test” column. It feels very authentic to be considered gear. The blog to me will help us better understand where the puck will be because it links us directly to you, the gear testers.
We are doing it now just like everyone else on the planet, blogging. This can be a great way to share. I’ve heard that getting ‘recommended’ via a blog is more authentic than any advertising we could do. So here we are. We can’t afford or actually don’t want to spend money on advertising. We’d rather take that money and send off free samples to yoga championships, take back orders that were not exactly right for our customers, noodle with patterns, and continue to make the BEST clothes we can make, paying for quality labor and buying the best fabric we can find. anywhere. period.
The other ‘reason why we are here’ is that we love what we are doing. Making yoga apparel is a GOOD THING, because yoga is CHANGING THE WORLD, it changes me every time I practice which is never enough! And it changes everyone, every time. So we are very grateful to be a part of that journey. My husband read to me the other night from Dean Koontz’s “The Darkest Evening of the Year”. It inspired me and belongs out there for to inspire others.
“Amy believed that dogs had a spiritual purpose. The opportunity to love a dog and to treat it with kindness was an opportunity for a lost and selfish human heart to be redeemed. They are powerless and innocent, and it is how we treat the humblest among us that surely determines the fate of our souls. The geometry of judgment is a circle. Hate is a snake that turns to consume itself from the tail, a circle that diminishes to a point and then to nothing. Pride is such a snake, and envy, and greed. Love, however is a hoop, a wheel that rolls on forever. We are rescued by those whom we have rescued. The saved become the saviors of their saviors.”
This is how it feels to be of service in the world, via our little company, yogabela.
Going out in the cold New Hampshire wind to let our lab Queenie, run in the deep snow, inhaling all of those interesting smells known only to her…
Title: Sale! 20% off all pieces in Bliss, Paprika and Iris!
Location: Yogabela Online
Link out: Click here
Start Date: 2009-01-01
Start Time: 12:00
End Date: 2009-01-31
End Time: 12:00
See Yogabela featured in this months SELF MAGAZINE!
(click image to view full size)
Yogabela’s Homepage
www.yogabela.com