Freshly Pressed for 15 Minutes of Internet Fame

On Friday, Perusals was chosen as one of the featured (aka “Freshly Pressed”) blogs for the WordPress.com home page.  Within a few hours visits to this modest little blog had quadrupled and the comments were coming fast and furious.  By the end of the day on Friday, there were over 1,400 hits.

Hello, 15 minutes of fame.  I’m not sure what flagged my blog for the Fresh Press designation, but it’s been a ton of fun reading the comments and interacting with all the new readers.  Whether the new readers decided to stick around (and I hope they do!) it’s made this Friday a great day!

Thank you, WordPress and WordPress bloggers for the honor!

The Truth About Blogging

I love XKCD.

You may have noticed that things have been a little quieter over here at Perusals lately.  Life has been getting in the way of blogging and as much as I love sharing with you all, that extra hour of sleep is winning out. [wink!]  But just in case you were wondering, this new, busy, crazy life I’ve found/created … it’s GREAT!

It’s an incredible feeling to look back at the past few months, (since the beginning of 2010,) and see how much I’ve changed and grown.  It’s been said by people far wiser than me that the Universe will send you the lesson you need to learn until you learn it.  The rewards of finally getting a piece of clue cake have created the best past few months ever.

Life is good. Life is busy.  Life is a series of joyful events that I am even more appreciative of and grateful for.

So whether this post is strong content, further building a relationship with you dear readers, or crazy filler because I’ve been a delinquent blogger, take your pick.

Yoga Blogs to Know and Love

Here we go with some link-a-liciousness!!

These are my favorite yoga blogs.  Thank you to all the great authors out there who keep me regularly inspired!

What blogs inspire you?  Please share them here — I’d love to check ‘em out.

Everyday Yogini
Based in Rome, Italy, Nona Jordan writes about yoga and life.  Posting isn’t very frequent, but everything up there is solid gold.  (Update:  Nona is moving everything over to a shiny new site!)

Everything Yoga
Written by a yoga therapist, the mind-body connection (and a great sense of humor) are present in every post.

Find Your Balance
Michelle is a health counselor and yogi who offers practical advice for anyone looking to find more balance in their lives.

Grounding Through the Sit Bones
Brenda P is a yoga teacher, event coordinator, mom and so much more!  Her blog is great for alignment tips and asana experiments as well as insightful prose into every day life.

Joy Yoga
Former Editor-in-Chief of a major publication, Lindsey Lewis is now a full-time Kundalini yoga teacher.  Her blog is a fun mix of yoga, media and interviews with other yogis.

Prana Journal
Michael keeps a great (almost) daily log of his yoga exploits.  It’s down to earth and fun to read.

Super-Mom
As the tag line says, it’s really more for Super People.  Sharing her unique voice, Taylor Wells, co-founder of Prana Power Yoga, posts daily quotes and longer personal posts including stories and interviews of Super People in the surrounding community.

Teaching Yoga
Awesome and inspiring posts about teaching yoga.  I’ve found some great sequences and transitions from Kira’s blog.  This is a great resource for teachers.

Buzz Blog
A sporadic blast of news-related posts from Yoga Journal.  Great for blog-fodder!  [Now that I've given my secrets away...]

Yoga Rants & Raves
Yogis who are decidedly yogic about their yoga.  This is a funny look yoga and the yoga community.

YogaDork
For the true Yoga Dork in all of us.

And for something a little different:

Namaste Book Club
An online community tacking one yoga text at a time, with lively and fascinating discussions.  This is a great place to meet yogis from across disciplines, background and practices.
Currently reading: Holy Cow by Sarah McDonald
Next up: Moving Into Stillness by Erich Schiffman

“Spring” Cleaning

Someone’s been doing some tidying up!

A few new things here on Perusals:

1) Yoga Teacher Training Links are now their very own page!

2) There are a few new blog links in “Other Great Blogs.”  Definitely check out Social*Ology for some beautiful and thought-provoking writing.

3) Twitter updates!  Follow me @AbbyThompson
Hopefully the sidebar is a little more streamlined and less cluttered.

Is there anything you’d like to see on the side bar (or on the blog in general) that you’re not seeing now?   What about extraneous stuff than can get chucked?

Also … IT’S SNOWING!

Here on Perusals at least.  Certainly not in Cambridge.

Have a WordPress blog?  Want to make it snow?

Ahonui

Peanut Butter and Juli has a beautiful post on the Hawaiian word ahonui.  Ahonui can be translated as patience, perserverence and many breaths.  It was the breath part that caught my attention and made the connection to the practice of yoga.  At its core, ahonui means yoga, and yoga means ahonui.  The power of patience, perserverence and breath can take you through challenges you never thought possible.

photo by Jeff Kubina @ Flickr

I’d like to re-echo Juli’s question here, for my yogis and readers:

What does ahonui mean to you?

Cross-Blog Promotion

Another fellow yogi is also blogging about the teacher training experience over at Hopefully A Yoga Teacher.  Check it out!  Her posts are inspiring and insightful.

See you tomorrow, J! 

ALSO – check out the right-side nav of Perusals for a new section on yoga teacher training.  I’m grouping the teacher training links together for easier access for anyone looking just for those posts.

RSS

Really Simple anything?  Bah.  I am having a hard time figuring out how to add an RSS feed to this wee blog here.  I know I’m not in the majority when I say that I won’t read people’s blogs UNLESS they have an RSS link.  If it won’t show up in Google Reader, then I’m not reading it.  (Reminds me of an “I’m not paying” story from college.)  *Sigh*  Another way Google runs my life.

Any wordpressers out there have any hints/tips?  Perhaps it’s just the theme I picked?

Hello world!

Welcome!

Please bear with me as I get this set up.  There’s a lot going on right now and it’s the perfect time to blog about it!  Coming up:

- MBA students return to school.  Will we see any in Historical Collections?

- Applications for Winter 2009 Prana Power Yoga teacher training are due by the end of the week.  Fingers crossed!

- The brand-spanking new website for North Berwick Lumber company goes live in the next few weeks!

I hope you return to travel this crazy, wonderful, every-surprising path with me.