Dolly Parton was my first yoga teacher, though I don't think she knows. It took her a few years to get my attention...

I first heard of yoga in 1991, reading Be Here Now by Ram Dass, while finishing a B.A. in Psychology and English Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I'd started out pre-Med, with a minor in Physics, and got so inspired by diverse writers [currently: Anais Nin (unexpurgated diaries), William Blake, Rilke ("Duino Elegies"), Adrienne Rich (The Dream of a Common Language), William S. Burroughs, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Love in the Time of Cholera!), Brian Greene, Ian Young, Terence McKenna] that my majors shifted radically, though never having tried yoga, or any other meditative or physical practice, I had no idea where I'd end up. I wrote a couple of terrible novels along the way and, after graduation -- and a short nine months in Washington, D.C -- I moved to San Francisco, enrolled in an M.A. program in Spiritual Psychology at ITP, and was at work on a huge thesis integrating the Tarot and the Christian Bible as maps of the spiritual journey, under the guidance of my friend Brian Williams, while bartending full-time in the Marina, when I met Darren Main on MUNI, and he invited me to try his yoga class.

Fortunately, Darren's a very patient yoga teacher with a deeply sarcastic sense of humor. He didn't laugh at me once. Even though I showed up for class in jeans with my pockets full of coins to make change at my bartending job later on, which rolled out everywhere during shoulder-stand, striking upside-down yogis all around me. Even amongst the quietly cussing Inversions, he kept his cool, which impressed me. At the end of practice, we lay down for deep relaxation, and I had my first out-of-body experience. I was quite suddenly standing on Hallmark clouds, when out walked Dolly, big white hair with pig-tails, red-and-white table-cloth shirt, legendary cleavage, and in perfect Tennessee she said: "Baby, you gotta teach yoga."

I sat up immediately (Dandasana!) and it was perfectly clear. I don't know how often people get messages of life's purpose from living Country music celebrities with whom they have no intimate relation -- though my family is Southern -- but that's how it started. I felt complete certainty, clarity, thenceforth; within a couple of months I'd enrolled in Larry Schultz' first four-month Teacher Training at it's yoga -- he told me later that he was sure I wouldn't finish it as I was so new at yoga but happily he gave me the chance! -- and within six months I'd taught my first class. I'd always been petrified of public speaking and Larry handled it perfectly: he gave me no warning. One night I came in for class -- to TAKE class! -- and he told me I was teaching it. I didn't even have five minutes to get nervous, and it went smoothly. The second class was another story...

My first regular public class was at Grace Cathedral, and I quit bartending entirely when Darren opened Castro Yoga (now owned by David Nelson), where I taught full-time for several years. During that time I studied primarily with John Robb at the Yoga Shala (now closed), and occasionally at Robert Brook's Ashtanga Yoga School (now closed). Eventually my focus shifted from Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga to the Iyengar method, and I spent two years at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco, primarily trying to work out what it was in the sequencing of the Ashtanga system that at least seemed to be unbalancing my body at a very subtle level. Several senior Ashtanga teachers have told me that they think the method is meant for some and not for others; perhaps I was one of the others.

At IYISF I apprenticed with Jaki Nett, who taught me a great deal about speaking one's truth in uncompromising ways. Kathy Alef's keen intellect and sharp eye were a great inspiration, as was Janet Macleod's unalloyed joy in the practice of yoga. I also took classes occasionally with Ramanand Patel and Manouso Manos, both incredibly skilled senior teachers of Iyengar yoga, and sat daily at the San Francisco Zen Center towards the end of the program.

In 2001 my class-mate from Larry's Teacher Training Kia Meaux published her first book -- Dynamic Yoga -- in which I was featured, and more recently I was in the June 2004 issue of "Yoga Journal"; the "Summer in the City" 2004 issue of the SF Weekly also highlighted my Sunrise Chakra-Based Series at Yoga Flow.

At present, my teacher is Andrey Lappa. My practice is also deeply informed by the publications of the Bihar School of Yoga, particularly Swami Muktibodhananda's translation of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika; and by the transcriptions of Osho's lectures on Tantra (see The Book of Secrets).

I tend to focus particularly on correct musculo-skeletal alignment and the use of breath to deepen the experience of meditation in posture and movement, and I have a deep faith in the radical healing potential present in yoga practice, especially when engaged as a daily discipline.

I think the most serious endeavors are best entered into with an attitude of play, that love is the greatest teacher, and that, really, ALL people are good at heart. The guidance I receive in practice, from within, is always of utmost importance; may it be for you, also.

And if you happen to know Dolly, I'd sure love to meet her...