*ANNOUNCEMENTS*

Dear Yoga Village friends and family,

On August 3rd, 2008 I moved to Beijing, China to conduct my dissertation research.  I was very fortunate to have been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship as well as a Critical Language Enhancement Award to fund advanced language study and dissertation research in China through November 2009.

In November I did return to State College, PA at the conclusion of my fieldwork in China and have begun teaching (Geography) at Penn State University during the spring semester 2010. Unfortunately, during the summer of 2009 I hurt my knee (torn ACL, injury to the medial meniscus) playing ultimate frisbee. As such, I've recently had knee surgery and will spend the next few months recovering and rebuilding the strength and flexibility of my knee. Thus, I will not return to teaching yoga until later in the spring of 2010.

If you have any questions or concerns about how you might continue your yoga practice - whether a personal practice at home, and/or via attending group classes at a studio or gym, please feel free to contact me via email at info@yogavillagepa.com or myrockyoga@gmail.com.

Blessed be.
Namaste,

Melissa Rock
Founder and Yoga Instructor
The Yoga Village

PS: a poem to share - for you and for yoga....

The Soul of Yoga
by Dana Faulds (Go In and In:  Poems from the Heart of Yoga)

What is the soul of yoga?
Follow your heart into the
center of the pose and find
in the midst of detail and
precision, in breath, alignment,
balance, bliss, fear and sadness -
at the very core of all of this
is love.  Touch upon your
truest nature even once and
the experience of what you
really are sears the psyche
like the surface of the sun.
The soul of yoga, the gift
within the pose is the
moment of communion,
resting in pure essence,
the awakening as if from
sleep to the face of
unmistakable divinity;
the ineffable wonder and
living reality of spirit - oh,
yes - the soul of yoga is love.