What do you love about Brown County? Most of all, the variety and intensity of the people. There is an amazing richness of talent, creativity, and public-spiritedness here. And just enough contentiousness to keep life interesting. Art in living is what it is all about for me, and Brown County is one of the places of great variety in that art! I love the physical beauty and the low population density! I also love the grappling that is going on with how to make a tourist town greener!

Why are you passionate about yoga?

When I was growing up, my love of movement and my spirituality were inaccessible to me. Yoga has uncovered both and has brought a deep joy in their fusion. I love the deep, subtle openings in the body and the mind that come over time with ongoing practice. I try to teach in ways that allow people to access what has been hidden right inside themselves - the open secret of beauty that we all possess. Yoga is about realizing the love that you are!

What qualifies you to teach?

A combination of personal experience and lengthy training.

I had my first taste of Yoga in 1970 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I soon had experiences that convinced me that I had encountered an extraordinarily powerful system. I was told to become a teacher by Swami Rama in 1988, during a personal interview at his Rishikesh ashram. At his insistance, I taught my first class on the banks of the Ganges the very next day! Since that incredibly powerful moment, yoga has been the force, pulling me forward into internal and external adventures I could never have anticipated.

I practice daily, and study with inspiring teachers as often as I can. For example, I have completed basic and advanced training in restorative yoga with Judith Lasater, Ph.D, PT, and - in the last three years - three advanced trainings in Yoga Therapy with Doug Keller.

I am deeply indebted to Angela Farmer and Victor Vankooten for their Teacher Untraining (I untrained for about 10 years!), and to Amanda McMaine, who has been an exquisite yoga friend and teacher, as well as to many other teachers and all my students.

I have been teaching since 1989, certified since 1991, and am listed as an ERYT500 by Yoga Alliance - the highest level currently recognized by this organization. I had to keep a CV for my university teaching, and it is currently over three pages long. All that training and study is really only to support my heart’s deepest wish to be of service . . .