All of my life I have kept journals. Funny I should resist online blogging for so long. At 40, I strangely missed the computer world. Didn’t touch one till 24, but now, having followed my bliss, I’m back into writing to talk about yoga and story.

Today I started the Creekside Elementary after school yoga class with a drum. I just beat the thing and the kids wiggled around and I told them to shake out their bodies. I wanted them to hear the rhythm, that primordial sound, like a heartbeat, the heartbeat of the mother earth. Of life.

We were outside in the community garden, because the gym, where we usually meet, was occupied for drama rehearsal. It was a perfect Colorado, October day and we met in the courtyard, where my husband, Justin Chipman, helped Bryce Brown of the Our Love of Children Foundation and many people from school build the outdoor classroom this summer. We even got wagon wheels by asking the universe for it, but that’s another story.

The fifteen kids and I didn’t use any mats. I asked the children to take off their shoes and socks, although many of them still preferred to leave them on. We warmed up with the sun salutation, and I asked them to keep a journal of their experiences during the week with yoga, life, anything. Even if it’s just a letter that they bring me back. I will star those letters and keep them. Then at the end of the 8-week session, they will get a surprise.

I find letter writing to be an effective way to get kids to write. My daughter recently lost a tooth, and we had fun with me writing her letters as Felicity the Fairy. She was reading. Kids like to read when they are really excited about it. No I have to find some fairy dust. My daughter has been slower to learn to read, but she is picking up quickly.

I have been emphasizing a yoga practice at home, and for kids to do the sun salutation. A young girl named Imani already is standing out to lead a sun salutation in the future. She took my class last year. Even though she broke her foot, she is in there.

I emphasize to the children, grades 2-5, that yoga is a discipline. Lalita, my ladybug finger puppet from Folkmanis, came out and set the rules this time. This is a privilege to be here. This class is already over filled, so, two warnings and the next time and with any disruptive behavior. They will need to go home. They know I’m serious and they show improvement because they want to stay in on the fun. So far, kids are getting it. Even the most difficult ones I find they just need lots of attention.
I told the Aesop’s fable of the Treasure in the Earth. To celebrate that we are here and now, to breath in, to be rooted like a mountain. To be like the trees around us, and to connect to the earth that nourishes and provides for us. We did warrior pose and triangle, to be rooted, grounded and feel our feet in the earth. To breathe in and then breathe out and let your energy drop down your body, down to your feet, into the earth, travel to the person across from you.

Mr. Bones, the rubber skeleton, got tough about talking about healthy eating, and also staying away from cigarettes, drugs and alcohol. I taught the mountain pose to root them into the earth and use breathing in the present moment to withstand any difficulty, such as peer pressure, that may come. I would come up to them and say, “Come on, let’s smoke a cigarette.” An the child stands firm in mountain and says, “NO.” “Come on,” I say, give me your lunch money, little girl.” And the child stands firm, breathes in and out and says, “No.” And I congratulate them on being so courageous and centered in yoga.

Then I taught them walking meditation. I instructed the children to leash in their monkey and bring their minds into their bodies, so that their bodies could be in harmony with their environment. And that they are actually very, very powerful when they are present and aware of themselves and their body and their environment. And that they can have anything they want in the world, if they focus and discipline their minds, and keep a healthy body. Of course what kids want most in the world is an X-Box, or some other material object. A young Hispanic girl, Diana, said what she wanted most in the world was to be with her family. Brava chica.

Diana led them through the garden and to gaze at its beauty. Lettuce and spinach were coming up to be used for the school salad bar. There’s usually a big Wellness Wednesday. We walked down to the creek. And I had told anybody that if they talked, they would have to go back to the courtyard. I had them raise their hands to make sure they understood. Two were sent back. But at the creek, I had them just look at the water. If any thoughts came up, for them just to notice them, and return to their breath and return to the creek’s water and the beautiful nature around them. I instructed them to just look. Then we went back, and the bus was there to pick kids up.

We sang a new version of the namaste song to close.

So I will be blogging more. Here and with my wonderful students involved in the Storytime Yoga E-course. I’ve always been a writer. I encouraged children to keep a journal because that is how you hear your own voice. In yoga it’s svadyaya, to study yourself, to really peel away any stories that are clinging to you as to obscure your true identity and lead you astray.

I am enjoying my e-course. I get to know all these amazing women and what they are doing with yoga and story and especially children in their lives. They are dedicated to helping the planet, I can feel it. I think change is afoot as we feel and reconnect with the underlying essence of the unknown informing everything. And with yoga, a return to myth and story to engage our minds with our bodies, positive thinking and discipline from each person, our world becomes a paradise on earth. Transforming suffering to joy, educating children and bringing families and communities together. That’s my idea of a good time.


This need for groundedness was a big reason I cancelled all my national and international trainings. The travel disruption was difficult. Have any of you had to go through the bomb sniffer at the airport? I swear, our government is trying to discourage travel. My last training in Arcata, California was amazing, but the journey long and I missed my family. Anyway, I’m into routine, to balance my vata tendencies, into being with my natural environment as much as I can and relating to it as much as I can. That means my own body, my family and my school. That means reading with my children and tending the garden and training the puppy and doing the laundry and checking out the Rocky’s game at a restaurant because we don’t have any cable TV, or any broadcast TV that is. I’m committed to attending to my family and making my environment harmonious. I’m committed to practicing yoga and being peaceful within, so that my environment can be peaceful. I’m committed to low impact living, low consuming, and high on gathering with friends, doing things in nature, enjoying a good meal, doing yoga and telling stories. I got a puppy recently, a little Papillion from the Boulder Valley Humane Society I named Sergeant Pepe, and I’ve never related so much to an animal, and to the intelligence of animals, as I imagine all of life is so intelligent and worthy of our care and attention. We just have to be with it.

Of course I am passionate about my work. And it is best for me to write, and teach and tell stories from here. This voice of the silence. Words, Les Mots, as Sartre wrote. They have their appeal.

I was at the Yoga Journal Conference this weekend in Estes Park with Debbie Huttner, Executive Director of the Wellness Initiative. I co-taught the conference’s first family yoga class with her, and it was a joy to have so many children and parents doing yoga in such a beautiful setting.
My hopes is that family yoga - the joyous interaction of parent and children, the group of the family extended into the community – flourishes at these conferences, and across America and the world. And that communities come together in schools across the nation to celebrate health, family, friends, nature and harmonious living. That instead of billions spent on heinous war, billions are showered upon schools, community and joyous living.

And the Peddler’s Dream DVD for Children is about to be released. Angela Beloian, the artist who did the shadow puppets for the DVD, is having an art opening at the Boulder Public Library, Friday evening Oct. 5. She is really talented. I will be there.

Tuesday I have English language storytelling. Last week I introduced a crocodile puppet and asked them who it was. Is it a boy or a girl? What’s its name? The came up with Mr. Sharpy. Where is he from? Florida, and he got to Colorado accidentally in an outhouse. A little boy barely ate his applesauce and wanted to throw it away, so I told the story of Why the Sky is Far Away. An excellent version is by Mary Joan Gersten, and you can tell kids to find it in their library. But it reaches kids to respect the gifts of nature; and that little boy ate all his applesauce. The kids are instructed to come back next week with their own Porquoi, or why story, if they wish. And also to come back with a dream they had.

Wednesdays I do Spanish language storytelling. Mr. Sharpy is Jesus Ramon, and he came from Mexico on a bus. I used a wooden frog toy that makes croaking noises with a stick to chant to Cucu Cucu cantaba la rana. We pantomimed the story and we did frog poses with yoga. I told the story of the Peddler’s Dream, and I told them to tell that story and to also remember their dreams. This week I will do Chumba La Cachumba la Cachumbamba for Halloween. It is time to mark the seasons and this turning time of nature.

At home, we are making Halloween costumes. We went to the thrift store with our Nonie, my husband's mother, and got some stuff. My stepdaughter Crosby, 11, will be the corpse bride, and we found this great old wedding outfit. My son, Alejandro, 9, is a Pokemon card salesman, and we got an old trench coat. My daughter Paloma, 7, wants to be Pippi Longstocking along with her best friend Chloe, and we found some striped socks as well. Nonie is making the wigs and we will bust out the sewing machine to finish it all off.

I set up the altar for the Day of the Dead. Or rather to grief. My late husband’s birthday is October 13, and we will celebrate. My mother passed away 6 years ago October 11. We have the pictures up there, candles, and I told them they can add objects of someone they know who has died. My stepson, Walker, 13, put the cuff link of his grandfather. Crosby had had a dream about Grandpa Chips a few nights ago. We celebrate this. We bring death right up front and look at it right in the face and embrace it. And we know we are alive. We will be having a Halloween party. Kids go trick or treating with some parents, other stay home and have their tarot cards read by La Cyd Denis. Maybe I will tell the brother's Grimm The Juniper Tree that night.

My oldest sister, Narada, moved to India this summer. Her daughter, Radhika, moved to Colorado to be near family and the temple in Denver. She has two little girls. Kamesvari, 3, and Devaki, 6 months. I feel like a grandma. I love these young years. It’s so much easier when they are not yours! I’m enjoying setting up a child-friendly environment once again in our home, as Radhika comes to do work for us. She’s also setting up her own catering company. Check out Govindastogo.com.

Live is truly a joy. A beautiful work of love.

Until next time.
Love and Peace,
Sydney Solis