Today is beginning of our 8 week interview series where we’ll present interviews of 8 influential yoga bloggers. We ask 8 engaging questions and we’ll release an interview every Saturday at 8am US EST.
For our first interview, we’re happy to interview Meredith LeBlanc of The Pondering Yogini. We connected with Meredith years ago through the Yoga Book Club on Twitter. Enjoy the interview and leave a comment or question for Meredith in the comments section.
1. When did you start practicing yoga?
I started practicing yoga 17 years ago while living in Las Vegas. At the time there were no yoga studios so I had to really seek out my first teacher. At that time, she taught in apartment complex rec rooms, dance studios, and even a raquet ball court. Even though I haven’t practiced with her in 15 years, I still feel her teachings and her love of yoga.
2. What drove you to share your message & your practice with the world through a yoga blog?
My initial intention with blogging was to strengthen my yoga voice. I had just gotten my teacher certification and although I felt confident with the knowledge, sometimes I felt like I didn’t know how to convey it effectively. It was a way to practice teaching.
3. Talk a little bit about one of your top three yoga blog posts.
I can’t name a specific one, but rather a series of posts I did in 2010 after my 14 year old lab Nicki passed away. She was my first dog and my guide through some of my greatest ups and downs. I credit her with really teaching me how to love unconditionally. Her passing was a profound experience for me; what yoga had taught allowed me to experience the loss with a great deal of compassion and find the beauty in it. Those posts helped me heal as well as others who read them.
4. Can you share with us the origins of Yoga Book Club & how you see it evolving? What role has Twitter played in the club’s success?
The Yoga Book Club started out in 2010 with a few of my Twitter friends and me all wanting to read Yoga School Dropout by Lucy Edge, so we decided to set up the club to share our thoughts on it by tweeting. It just kept rolling from there. Eventually I added the YOBC page to my blog for people to check in on what books were in the queue.
I’d like the YOBC to be a resource for yogis to come and find books that speak to them. As I mentioned earlier, when I first started taking yoga, there wasn’t much out there so I relied on books for a lot of my information. Book are a wonderful way to expand our yoga experience.
Editor’s Note: On Twitter, search “#YOBC” to view recent conversations within the Yoga Book Club.
5. What yoga or wellness books have had the biggest impact on you?
My first yoga book is still my favorite: The Sivananda Companion to Yoga. I’ve had it since I started practicing and still refer to it all of the time.
Also, Ethics for the New Millenium by the Dalai Lama is another wonderful book. I had the priviledge of hearing him speak at Salve Regina University in 2005 and was moved by the pure flow of joy that comes from him.
There are a lot of books I could name as well, but those two come to mind first and foremost.
6. What style of yoga do you practice & why?
I teach and practice Hatha Yoga. I like the completeness of the practice with the chanting, asana, and meditation. I like to keep the pace slow and strong.
Kundalini is the other form I’ve been practicing for a couple of years now. It compliments my Hatha practice perfectly. Its totally different and allows me to get out of my teacher head to simply be a student.
7. On what form of social media do you connect w/ other yogis/yoginis most effectively?
Twitter is where I connect most with other yogis. I’ve made some great connections there. I like the simplicity of the format and its easy to organize my interests.
8. What advice do you have for people who are just beginning to study & practice yoga?
Take beginner classes! I really feel strongly that even if one is already physically fit and can keep up with a rigorous practice, that learning proper alignment and breathing is critical for a safe practice.
If one teacher or style doesn’t work, try another. Research online and ask friends who practice about their preferences too. Don’t give up, try try again!
Meredith’s Bio:
Meredith LeBlanc has been practicing yoga since 1996 and became a Yoga Alliance Registered Teacher in 2007. Over the years she has studied Hatha, Bikram, Vinyasa Flow, and Kundalini. Her teaching style focuses on foundational asana to build a strong body, strong mind, and strong spirit; the pace is accessible to beginner to advanced levels of students. Emphasis is placed on listening the body and breath as each pose is explored. She feels breath is the key to inner alignment and soothing the soul. Through communication with ourselves and creating awareness we make space to acknowledge our connection with all beings.
Meredith lives in Rhode Island and teaches at Tenth Gate Center for Yoga & Meditation. She writes the blog The Pondering Yogini and moderates the Yoga Book Club, aka #YOBC, on Twitter.
8 weeks, 8 yoga bloggers, 8 questions, posted each Saturday at 8am. Join us next Saturday AM for our next interview.
Please leave a comment or question for Meredith in the comments section!
Thanks to our dear friend Bob Campbell for sending us the translation of Pope Francis’ letter to newly appointed Cardinals. One of the great things about having a close friend/family member who is a Deacon is that they constantly share Jesus’ message of love, humility, and compassion. Speaking of love, humility, and compassion, these virtues are prevalent in Pope Francis’ letter to the new Cardinals who were designated yesterday.
Pope Francis practicing humility.
Here below is the translation of the Pope’s letter. The bolded portion of the letter represents the message that resonated with me the most. This message is consistent with Pope Francis’ teachings since his installation as Pope.
It’s also consistent with his actions. Whereas popes of the past have been known to view themselves almost as kings, Pope Francis has done the opposite. Pope Francis rides the subway to the Vatican like the common man and participates in practices of humility like the one captured in the above photograph.
Enjoy this letter and leave a comment below 🙂
* * *
“Dear Brother,
On the day in which your designation is made public to be part of the College of Cardinals, I wish to express to you a cordial greeting together with the assurance of my closeness and my prayer. I hope that, as associate of the Church of Rome, clothed in the virtues and sentiments of the Lord Jesus (cf. Romans 13:14), you will be able to help me, with fraternal effectiveness, in my service to the universal Church.
The Cardinalate does not signify a promotion, or an honour, or a decoration. It is simply a service that calls for enlarging one’s vision and widening one’s heart. And, although it seems a paradox, this ability to look far ahead and to love more universally with greater intensity can only be acquired by following the same way of the Lord: the way of abasement and humility, taking the form of a servant (cf. Philippians 2;5-8). Therefore, I ask you, please, to receive this designation with a simple and humble heart.
And, although you must do so with joy and gladness, do it in such a way that this sentiment is far from any expression of worldliness, from any celebration that is foreign to the evangelical spirit of austerity, sobriety and poverty.
Farewell, then, until next February 20, in which we will begin two days of reflection on the family. I remain at your disposition and, please, I ask you to pray and to have others pray for me.”
May Jesus bless you and the Holy Virgin protect you.
Fraternally,
FRANCIS.”
* * *
We had heard great things about destinations in Malaysia including overwhelming reports about an island located off the northwest of the country called Langkawi.
Langkawi is offically known as “Langkawi Jewel of Kedah.” It is an archipelago of 104 islands in the Andaman Sea, some 30 km off the mainland coast of northwestern Malaysia. The islands are a part of the state of Kedah, which is adjacent to the Thai border.
By far the largest of the islands is the eponymous Pulau Langkawi with a population of some 64,792, the only other inhabited island being nearby Pulau Tuba. Langkawi is also an administrative district with the town of Kuah as largest town.
We originally found Langkawi through our European friends from graduate school, Jan and Sandrine. They called Langkawi a, “Heaven on Earth.” While we were traveling in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, we had heard stories from fellow travelers about Langkawi’s seethrough blue waters, large waterfalls, and friendly people. We knew it was a destination we had to get to.
As it turned out the stories were correct. We had a blast chilling for a week in Langkawi.
We recommend getting on a motor bike and really exploring the island. It has a lot to offer!!
Take the bus from Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Perlis. The bus will cost about about 30-40 Malaysian Ringitt which is $9-12 USD or €7-9. Next, take the ferry from Kuala Perlis to Langkawi, this costs 18 Ringitt. So that is a total of about 58 Ringitt or $17/€13 – about as cheap as it gets. If you are lucky, you may be able to catch an AirAsia flight for around that price. But you may have to book really early or wait for a promotion to get that kind of price.
We met some awesome people on the ferry ride to the island. It was a lot of Malaysian, Indian, and Thai tourists. It seemed as if the entire boat was going on vacation and awaiting the clean beaches.
This is a perfect place to visit if your 30-day Thai tourist visa is expiring. There are four daily trips by ferry from Langkawi to Satun, Thailand. The boat ride duration is about an hour and fifteen minutes. A one way adult ticket is about 300 baht 30 Ringitt or $10 USD.
You can explore the whole island in 4-5 days so it depends on what type of experience you’re looking for. We’re always in favor of traveling slow. We were content with reading books on the beach and casually exploring every little nook and cranny the island had to offer. You could easily stay here for a month if you’re also a traveler that likes to take things slowly but we found that one week was perfect.
We did not have the best experience in terms of hostels in Langkawi. We stayed at the Gecko Guesthouse. The upside of Gecko Guesthouse is its great location. It’s right near the welcome center, near the Cenang Beach, and near the main street where you can eat at the amazing local markets and restaurants.
Staying around Cenang Beach is highly recommended for a backpacker if you’d like to meet other travelers. It takes a nice motorbike ride to get to the beach but you will discover that it is a large backpacker hub. There is cheap accommodations and good cheap food.
Here are the best rated hostels according to Hostel World:
1. Visit Telaga Tujuh Waterfalls (pictured above)
2. Stay and party around Cenang Beach (pictured above)
3. Motorbike to the Black Sand Beach (so beautiful that we don’t want to spoil it with a picture!)
4. Visit Smile at the Langkawi Welcome Center (one of the kindest people we met in all our travels, he works at the Langkawi Welcome Center and is happy to help with any questions backpackers have…. plus his name is Smile…. and he’s always smiling)
5. Take a boat ride to see a massive flock of sea eagles flying and feeding in Kilim Geo Forest
To keep the budget down we recommend buying local fruit (cheap coconuts!) from local vendors. They’re happy to cut the coconut so you drink the “water” and then cut the shell into pieces so you can eat the pulp.
You can get world class food in Langkawi. Penang, Malaysia is known for the best food in Malaysia — Langkawi is heavily influenced by Penang. We recommend the fresh tiger prawns, starfruit, lobsters, and any type of seafood.
Langkawi Tiger Prawns
Hostel: $14 USD
Food: $12 USD
Transportation: $2 USD
Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi and Malaysia in general are more expensive than other top Southeast Asian backpacking destinations. The Ringitt is a relatively strong currency compared to the Thai Baht or the Cambodian Real (in Cambodia, USD comes out of some of the ATM machines and vendors prefer USD over the Cambodian Real.)
Another difference that travelers will find is that Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim country. This impacts the culture. We discovered this during our travels in September (the end of Ramadan) when we were woken up at the crack of dawn every day by roosters and loud Muslim prayer. What an interesting experience!
Overall, Langkawi is a wonderful city with great food and interesting culture.
Traveling to Malaysia for the first time? Post a question in the comments section below, we’ll respond with advice!
One of our teachers played this peaceful piece during Savasana at the end of a yoga practice this week.
This piece is about slowing things down. We live in a fast paced world ~ it’s a lucid practice to slow things down, breathe, contemplate, reflect, and enjoy the subtle beauties of life.
The video above depicts slow scenes from two of the fastest cities in the world…. NYC and Sao Paulo. This piece is by Jonsi & Alex and it’s titled Happiness. Enjoy and leave a comment below 🙂
Lucid Practice Quarterly Transparency Income Report October~December 2013
AW Stats Traffic Statistics
2013 has come and gone and Lucid Practice has made awesome strides. We started with an idea back in April of 2013 — we had been inspired for years by different websites and social media handles/users and we knew we could add even more positive energy to the space of online inspiration.
I (Brian) remember thinking to myself in 2012 and the early months of 2013, “I’d love to learn how to make a website.” While I was on the internet for hours a day it was hard for me to grasp web design and the work that goes in behind the scenes.
Little did I know with vehicles like WordPress, web design is not as hard as one may believe. We continue to learn about HTML, Java, CSS, and SEO. It has been an incredibly fun process.
We want to personally thank everyone who is taking the time to read this. Thank you.
Every quarter we will update our readers on our blogging process. Our goal is simply to inspire others to practice. Whether that practice is asana or smiling once a day or eating clean foods, that is up to you. We *HOPE* to inspire practices based in love and positive energy. We *HOPE* to recognize and understand the fact that every breath we take in this roller coaster of life in Shakti is practice…asana is practice….eating is practice….family and friends are practice…life is practice.
As a wise man once said, “there but for the grace of God go I”…..I think that everything is here for us right now in this present moment….all of it….and let’s be thankful for being thankful!
Traffic Summary:
AWSTATS Traffic (Stats picture above): Traffic continues to grow since inception of LP. We have yet to see a month with a move down in unique viewers or page visits. In December we saw a near 400% increase from the unique visitor numbers of November. This was aided heavily by the website Stumble Upon.
Stumble Upon readers liked a few of our posts and that propelled us into higher levels of their algorithm. We are proud to let people know that according to AWStats nearly 24,000 unique IP addresses (computers/tablets/phones etc) visited Lucid Practice in December 2013.
There was nearly 42,000 page visits or what most people would commonly refer to as “hits.” These numbers are humbling to say the least. To know that we may be able to touch one person’s life out there who we do not know is an incredible feeling. To see and hear the comments shared on our site is even more so inspiring. We love seeing and hearing from the faces behind the numbers.
Google Analytics Traffic: As has been the case for almost all the previous months since inception, the traffic statistics differ when looked at through the eyes of Google Analytics. GA has us at 12,485 visitors this month with nearly 15k total visits or “hits.” If this were the case the growth would still be very positive.
Google Analytics Traffic Statistics
Thursday December 5, 2013: We had our biggest day of the year according to GA on this day. 4,985 people visited the site. This came as a present from Stumble Upon. On that day we were looking at our references and nearly 4300 of the visits came from SU.
Boom! A great day for Lucid Practice on December 5, 2013
Google Page Rank: 0/10
We would have loved for Google to bump us when they did a PR update in early December or late November but it was not meant to be. We know that we need to improve our SEO in order for our PR to take off. We also know that social shares are increasing in importance. Many have talked about Google adding this to their algorithm. When this happens, we will see a significant boost.
We need to work on our SEO. Our PR is something we can improve.
Domain Authority: 18 (an increase from a DA 14 in October 2013) – OpenSiteExplorer
Page Authority: 26 (an increase from a PA 19 in October 2013) – OpenSiteExplorer
We made decent strides in our DA and PA this quarter.
Alexa Ranking: 1,305,421 (an increase from 10,601,728 in October 2013) – Alexa
Sites Linking In: 336 (AHREFS) 555 (OSS) (an increase from 27 in October 2013)
Social Media/Interaction:
Twitter:
Twitter has been the main driver of traffic to our website. It has been our strongest social platform where we’ve connected the most with our readers.
We’ve experienced massive growth of followers. During the three month period of October 1 through December 31, we went from 4,500 Twitter followers to 8,600, a 91% percent increase!
We love interacting and connecting with many of our readers through Twitter and hope to do lots more in the future. Some of our most vocal supporters on Twitter have been @CoolMagic, @LelaindePeche, @AshleyQDavis, @thejoenazar, @faepanda and @FawnStudio. Thank you for your support!
Please, if you have not, reach out to us. We want to learn from you. Let’s connect here on the Lucid Practice Twitter Page.
We’ve been routinely getting double digit “retweets” and “favorites” from our loyal followers. Here are some our top tweets (most retweeted) from the past three months:
The Miracle of Gratitude
Stand up for what you believe in.
Facebook:
In our previous income report, we shared that Facebook likes had been hard to come by. This was because we hadn’t been making a viable effort to reach people. Facebook has 1.2 billion users and we are firm believers in it’s power to connect us with readers who are looking for inspiration in yoga, international travel, art, and wellness.
Brian really dug deep into Facebook in the last 3 months, increasing our likes from 6 likes on October 1 to 820 likes on December 31, a 13,566% increase. Most of this growth (80%) has been organic but one month ago we also signed up for Facebook advertising. This has contributed about 150 likes. We’re thrilled to have been able to share the messages of love and positive energy to so many people on Facebook. Click here to connect on the Lucid Practice Facebook page.
Here’s a screenshot of our Facebook page as of January 2 2013:
Pinterest:
Three weeks ago, Kate took the initiative to start our Lucid Practice Pinterest page. She’s done an incredible job, adding 11 boards and 626 pins. We only have 13 followers so far but the foundation has been set. We’re excited to connect with our audience on this amazing visual platform.
Our pin boards looks awesome thanks to Kate
Comments:
One of our goals is to connect with people, answer questions about yoga, meditation, spiriutality, travel, art, and wellness. To build a community. We hope to inspire readers, to learn from readers. One of the ways to gauge this is through the comments section on our website. If people are leaving comments, it’s a good sign. As of October 1, we had 34 comments. This increased to 122 comments by December 31, an increase of 258%!
We encourage you to leave feedback, comments, and questions in the comments section. We’d love to connect with you, learn more about you, what your passions are, what your goals are, what makes you tick.
It’s noteworthy that our readers Bob Campbell and “PM” have been the most active in posting their comments and sharing insights via comments on our posts. Thank you, we appreciate your contributions, we’re grateful to be able to learn from you!
Our Blog Post w/ the Most views: Our post on Mildred Barthe’s Happiness Quote received 7,465 views through a combination of Stumble Upon and Twitter.
Our Blog Post w/ the Most Comments: Our post on It’s a Wonderful Life During the holiday season has 9 comments so far.
Most organic searches: Our post on backpacking Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia receives multiple unique views every day from travelers looking for valuable information.
One post that we thought would be good but flopped: As bloggers, sometimes we think we have a great post that will really resonate with our readers…. but then when we share it…. crickets.
That’s what happened when we wrote our two part piece on our summer basketball league. We worked hard on writing and recapping our team’s remarkable season but the post barely received any shares or comments. This is perfectly fine, just an interesting observation 🙂 Here’s a link to the Epic Summer Basketball Championship Team.
One post that ended up being more popular than anticipated: Conversely, there’s often a post that you think nothing of, then it suddenly explodes. For us, that was the post on the Mildred Barthe quote featured above. We got thousands of unique visitors on this one post alone.
Advertising: We’re still not doing any advertising though we are starting to cultivate relationships with advertisers. We have been approached by a lot of amazing websites wanting to promote specific products, books and such. Its a humbling feeling.
We are in a blog consultation program and learning everyday about how to make this a full-time job. Being location independent is something we believe is a true Lucid Practice. Hopefully, with time and practice, we can develop a strategy that stays true to our values and promotes links, products, activities, trip information on our site that we feel will benefit our readers.
Partnerships: Quite a few bloggers and writers have approached us asking for an opportunity to write for us. They see that we’re growing quickly and want to “get in on the ground floor” so to speak. We haven’t accepted any of these inquiries yet because we’re not sure if we want to open up the platform. However, we are accepting guest posts and we’re running an interview series in early 2014. Click here and scroll to the bottom to get involved!
Again, any partnerships must stay true to our values of positive energy, honesty, and inspiration.
Other Opportunities: Other bloggers and website owners have inquired about our methods for reaching readers on Twitter. We’ve developed somewhat of a “system” that funnels us organic followers every day. We’ve discussed developing a business plan or offering a course around Twitter for travel, yoga, and/or wellness bloggers but we’re not sure if we’ll go this route. Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions or click here and scroll to the bottom to contact us 🙂
What’s Next? Next week, we’re rolling out a series of interviews with yoga bloggers and travel bloggers. If you’d like to participate, leave a comment below or click here and scroll to the bottom to contact us.
Additions: We’re proud to say that our teacher Rory Trollen, has joined us in our quest to inspire a passion for practice. Rory will be posting an article every three weeks. Click to check out his first article on Svadhyaya. If you haven’t already noticed, Rory is a very special person and a gifted teacher. His contribution to Lucid Practice means the world to us.
Ryan Calvert has posted consistently since the beginning of LP and we are beyond grateful. The content he drops is fresh and different. Ryan’s ear for dope music is something I’ve enjoyed since meeting him some years back at Penn. I continue to try to pick his brain and motivate him to post more because I genuinely enjoy the content he shares. We really enjoyed watching this video he posted last week.
Kate and Danielle continue to be instrumental parts of Lucid Practice behind the scenes although they’re taking a more visible role of late with Kate running the Lucid Practice Pinterest page and Danielle contributing awesome posts like this Vegan Pizza Recipe. We’re grateful for their unending support ever since Day 1 of the site.
What We’re Working On: We’ve come to find that our readers enjoy our original content. Our original content also drives “shares” on social media and email. Our original content posts have been drivers of organic search engine traffic as well. We’re going to intensify our efforts in this regard. We’re also going to be featured on other blogs via guest posts and interviews.
Brian is heading to Central and South America with Kate on January 23rd. We look forward to bringing you travel experiences and inspiration from another continent!
The Bottom Line:
We haven’t made a dime but we’ve inspired thousands 🙂
Most bloggers wait until they’re profitable before posting a report like this. We’re sharing the process with our readers so you can follow along from the ground up!
Most importantly, we believe in what we’re doing and we’re in this for the long haul!
Whether you’re a blogger going down a similar path or a loyal reader who enjoys learning more about us, thank you for reading this. Please add a comment below as we’d really like to hear from you.
What recommendations do you have? What have you liked about Lucid Practice so far and what would you like to see us improve upon?
General Mills Agrees to Remove GMOs from Original Cheerios
Amid pressure from consumers, General Miss has agreed to discontinue the use of Genetically Modified Organisms within their flagship cereal, Original Cheerios.
General Mills had already made this change in Europe and other parts of the world but resisted in the US, spending over $1mm USD lobbying against a bill in California that would require food companies to explicitly state their use of GMOs.
Cheers to consumers for demanding the right to know what we’re feeding our children.
Read more about this story on GMO Inside’s blog.
What are your thoughts on this story?
Picture courtesy of gmoinside.org.
~Buddha
A dear friend introduced us to Richard Rohr four months ago. I’ve enjoyed listening to and reading his philosophy ever since. Rohr is a Catholic priest and a Franciscan brother. Many of his teachings are based upon traditional Eastern philosophies of universal connectedness, the ego, meditation, and contemplation.
Here are interesting excerpts from the interview.
“As a priest, I’ve stood at the alter, performing externally correctly but feeling grumpy or negative inside. And then at [the end of Mass], there are people who smile or hug you and thank you and you go back to the alter healed. And you say, where did that grumpiness go? That’s the cosmic allure that God uses to constantly pull us out of our shell. But if we resist that, if we don’t let the hug, the embrace, the love, the smile, the sparkling eyes of another person pull us out, we can remain dead into our later years…. It seems we would [rather] die than change.”
This is true for all of us, not just priests. We can see the beauty of life in everything around us. But if we don’t acknowledge this, we may continue to live life in negativity, spite, sarcasm, or ambiguity.
“God is revealing and loving through everything. That [includes] the creatures, the animals, the elements. The creatures are our brothers and sisters as are the wind, the fire.”
“The height of Christianity is to see God in everything. If we don’t see God in everything, we end up seeing God in nothing.”
“[God] is only hidden from those who do not know how to see.”
“The primary and essential revelation of the mystery of God is nature, is creation.”
These quotes remind me of when Brian and I returned from traveling Asia. Upon my return, I set an intention to refrain from killing insects/creatures unless I was planning on eating what I had killed. Pretty radical compared to most of my peers but it makes great sense to me. Why kill a fly or a mosquito in your home/office when you can just as easily live at peace with the creature or release it outside? I’ve learned this in Buddhist teachings and it’s interesting that Rohr applies similar philosophy to Christianity.
“Whenever we’re moving towards connection, when we allow [connection] to happen, when we build bonds and bridges, we are furthering the second coming of Christ. Whenever you separate, hate, fear, deny, or enclose yourself in a self pitying corner, you’re backtracking on the glory of God. You’re denying the mystery.”
“The only thing that leads us to growth is suffering. Suffering is whenever you’re not in control. It’s interesting how long it takes some of us to make a change and seek God. We actually continue self destructive behavior for long periods of time.”
This rings true. I’ve heard so many stories about people who have found yoga, God, spirituality, love, connection, lucidity, etc., only after long periods of suffering.
“The dualistic mind divides everything up into what it understands and what it doesn’t understand. When you get to the contemplative level of life, you don’t think divide each moment dualistically. You almost naturally learn to think [in terms of] “both, and” and [this usually occurs] in the second half of life, when you’ve loved enough, suffered enough, [and] made enough mistakes. When you realize that even your good things had some bad to them, even your biggest mistakes had some great lessons.
That’s what begins to teach you non dual thinking where you let the whole moment come toward you as it is without dividing the uncomfortable part or separating from the mysterious part. The goal of of life is the contemplative mind.
That’s why I think what many people like their grandma on their grandpa more than their parents cause all things being equal by the time you get your sixties and certainly seventies and eighties [the conemplative mind] is where you should be. You see non dualistically.
The sad part is that a lot of people don’t get there, they’re more opinionated than ever when they’re seventy-five where they should be more humble and patient.”
This is one of the most succinct descriptions on nondualistic thinking that I’ve read. Interesting that this type of thinking usually comes comes to fruition in our later years. I suppose it’s a good sign for those of us who are on a spiritual, contemplative path at younger ages!
The mainstream media has had a habit of beating up Catholicism. But lately it seems that Jesus’ positive message is overwhelming the negativity. Although the Time Magazine Person of the Year Award has been diluted in recent years, it was encouraging to see Pope Francis named Time Man of the Year in 2013.
It’s also great to see intelligent leaders like Rohr preaching the beautiful messages of God and Jesus’ love. Catholicism, like all the major religions we feature on Lucid Practice, is a religion of love and peace. Let’s share this message.
Click to read more about Richard Rohr and check out his Center for Action and Contemplation.
What are your thoughts on this interview?
~Swami Sivananda
Pedro Reyes Turns Guns Into Functioning Musical Instruments
Violence has been running rampant in Northern Mexico throughout the last six years.
Artist Pedro Reyes is doing his best to reverse this trend by sculpting confiscated weapons into functioning musical instruments.
Image Courtesy of Lisson Gallery, click to see more on Pedro Reyes’ Art and Philosophy.
Why Turn Guns Into Instruments?
In an email to the Associated Press, Pedro said, “The music expelled the demons [the guns] held, as well as being a requiem for lives lost.”
At Lucid Practice, we believe in using creativity to counteract violence. We believe in changing negative societal norms — we’re featuring Pedro today because his project is a testament to these virtues.
The guns that Reyes used came from the Mexican Army who had confiscated the weapons from Ciudad Juárez, a violent city just south of Texas (see map below) with a population of over one million people. It is believed that Ciudad Juárez reached a murder rate of 300 per month at the peak of recent violence.
An Act of Protest?
With drug cartels and frequent violence, protests in Juarez’ surrounding cities has been common. However, Reyes’ work transcends protests as he says, “[My work] is not just a protest, but a proposal…. This project has a pacifist intent.”
Image Courtesy of Lisson Gallery, click to see more on Pedro Reyes’ Art and Philosophy.
How We Can Learn from Pedro Reyes
At Lucid Practice, we admire Reyes for his ability to use creativity, music, and love to combat suffering and bring the concept of peace to a devastated region. Instead of merely defining a problem, Reyes is using art to express a completely contrarian perspective to what the region has become accustomed to. As Reyes says, “This exercise of transformation we see with the guns, is what we would like to see in society.”
Mr. Reyes is correct, everywhere we see hate, let’s turn it into love.
What are your thoughts about turning weapons into instruments?