My book is now on Amazon! You can actually search for me or for the title and it comes right up! Wow. If you really put your mind and effort into something, you can achieve it. I dare you to try!

bARTer

I was down a rabbit hole on Amazon last night, which started with me looking up the book "Twelve by Twelve"- an account of a man who lived in tiny cabin in the woods. I ordered it from the library, but I'm number 22 in line, so I may not get to read it for awhile. That book led to "Possum Living" which was written in 1978 by an 18 year-old woman who lived off the grid with her father in rural PA. I spent about an hour reading what I could on Amazon. Then I ended up looking at a slew of other books about simple living, including a new John Robbins book about how to deal with living in new economic circumstances. The preview function in Amazon can be an incredible time suck, but it is a useful tool in determining whether to buy a book.

After the Amazon research, I realized I had two credits at Audible that I still needed to use. In the new releases I found the book "What's Mine is Yours" which I remember hearing about on NPR recently. It looks at the rise of social media and the explosion of sharing, bartering, co-owning and freecycling. It immediately got me to thinking: how could I work out a barter system for yoga? I know that many people love yoga, but cannot afford to spend $12-17 for each class. I was one of those people. I took community ed yoga in order to have a regular class at an affordable price, but it was taught on a carpeted floor of an elementary school hallway-- a far cry from the gleaming hardwood floors, surround sound and showers of places like Core Power. "You get what you pay for" is what came to mind.

There has to be a way to give people a satisfying yoga experience without the expense. I think barter may be a solution. Almost everyone has something they can offer, even if they aren't aware of it. I am going to ponder this a bit more and try to figure out a way to work out a system for providing yoga without emptying pocketbooks.

Namaste,
Kate

Upper Midwest Summer Vacations

The above shot is from my three-day weekend visit to Madeline Island. Look at that water! Lake Superior is surely superior to any other lake. And to add to the attraction, it was actually warm enough to swim in! At least this summer, in Chequamegon bay. I visited the North Shore (Gooseberry Falls and Grand Marais, MN) a couple weeks later, and the water temp was a little numbing. But I did manage to float for a second before escaping back to agate beach to let my legs regain sensation. On the plus side, the MN visit afforded a fabulous view of the milky way and AT THE SAME TIME, a splendid light show from a storm raging over northern WI across the lake. Nature is just filled with wondrous surprises if we just go outside once in awhile.

Dog Days at the Weir Farm has finally been unleashed upon the world. After some attempts at traditional publication methods (a.k.a. collecting rejection letters from literary agents), I thought the timing may be good to try this new e-book publishing gambit. The idea of self-publication is losing much of the stigma that used to be associated with "vanity presses" as more and more authors are publishing their work directly and cutting out the middleman.

I did some research and decided upon Lulu.com as my e-publisher. The interface was very intuitive, and the time involved to upload and get the e-book available for sale was an hour or two max. In full disclosure, I must admit that I spent many hours in Adobe Illustrator and InDesign making the book look nice, but this was all part of my graphic design education,  and I used my book design as my final projects for those classes. There is great satisfaction in having created the book entirely on my own, from conception, to typing, to editing, to layout, to cover design, to uploading and now marketing. I am at last able to breathe the big sigh of relief and say I DID IT!

Thanks much to my fabulous writing group, The Desperadoes, whose motto is: "Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent desperation."


I can't wait to see where the future of publishing goes. We live in exciting and fast-moving times. This can be good or bad, depending on your point of view. Personally, I am looking forward to discovering a whole world of creativity that otherwise would not have been made available to the world.

Woo hoo!

Simply Living

I've been finding inspiration all over the place for my new obsession of living simply. I haven't embraced it in my own life yet, aside from combining my bedroom and office into one small room in my house, but I'm looking forward to purging stuff that I don't need and making do with much less. Maybe it was the Tumbleweed Tiny House site that first got me hooked on the idea, or visiting Thoreau's cabin several years ago.  In any case, I think that nothing but good can come of this. Do we own our stuff, or does our stuff own us?

Could you live with just 50 things? Everett Bogue of The Art of Being Minimalist has done just that. I probably have over 50 things just related to nordic skiing! Not to mention cycling, camping, kayaking, yoga...


How much is enough?


To paraphrase Thoreau: To be happy, do not add to your possessions, but subract from your desires.
I think he may have been on to something.
The Journey of a Walk Across America is a blog by a man who is walking from NY to OR and pushing his belongings in a modified jogging stroller. He carries two books with him and when he finishes one, he trades it for a new one.

If you need suggestions on how to incorporate simplicity into your daily life, a little at a time, visit
 Zen Habits

Living small doesn't mean living without style. Check out some gorgeous homes made from recycled materials at Tiny Texas Houses and find out how best to appoint your tiny abode at Apartment Therapy

A May bouquet to brighten your day!

The month of writing and guitar is going swimmingly. And I mean this literally, since it's been rainy for the majority of the first two weeks of this month. The weather has been cooperating with my intentions for indoor activities. But today the sun is back out, and it's time to get back outside for a bit. Before I do that, just wanted to share the latest update in the writing life. I have submitted my first piece for publication! It's an interview/article I wrote for the Yoga Center of Minneapolis' newspaper on Equestrian Yoga. Look for it at the downtown Mpls. and St. Louis Park locations next month.

And I'm off!

Yoga and Bike Month

I wanted to do the 30 days of biking challenge, but I also wanted to do 30 days of yoga, so I decided to do both in April. Yoga and riding the bike every day for a month. It went well. I only missed four days of cycling, mostly due to going out of town one weekend. I still made it 22 days in a row, which is way more than I would have done without the challenge, so I'm pretty happy with my results. The yoga was easy, since I count everything from five minutes of meditation to going to yoga class to practicing handstand for 10 breaths. The goal was not to obsess or beat myself up if I missed a day here or there. The goal was to see if I could commit to something every day for a whole month. I like this idea because the common belief is that it takes anywhere from 21 to 30 days to make something a habit. I want to add good habits to my life.

The month of May will be guitar and writing month. I've already done today's allotment. Only 30 days to go! Who knows, I may end up as a songwriter by June ;)

Anyone else feel a little lopsided, off-kilter, discombobulated or generally messed up lately? Ever since last weekend I haven't felt myself. Maybe it was the huge effort of the Birkie, or the blow to my tailbone (first chakra and all) when I fell at km. 48, or maybe it was the latest big earthquake which shifted the Earth's axis (Ruth Montgomery, you were prophetic after all; I wonder how much more we can expect it to move!)

In any case, I'm trying to go with the flow. Today's niyama in yoga class was Ishvara Pranidhana, which can be translated as faith in something more expansive than ourself. I trust that everything is happening according to my dharma. In the words of Jimmy Buffet: "Breathe in, breathe out, move on."

Music and meditation helps center the spirit.

Now if I could just get rid of the pain in my tailbone...

These are bulbs that were for sale on the street in Paris in November, but the photo makes me think about what may be stirring underground here soon. I don't wish for winter to end too soon, but if it must, there are worse things to replace snow than flowers.

I found this wonderful quote today:

"Everyday, think as you wake up: Today I am fortunate to have woken up. I am alive. I have a precious human life. I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself to expand my heart out to others for the benefit of all beings." Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet

Random Item:

I sent a manuscript of Dog Days to the editors at Random House as an entry in their First Young Adult Novel contest.

Wish me luck!