Guest Post: Off the Mat, Into the World

Guest Post written by my yogi friend in Colorado, an artistic human to the max and an inspiring goal setter, Carolyn Levine (last name pronounced like ‘divine’).  Read on and get real:

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Hello fellow adventure-seekers and lovers-of-life!

I am Carolyn Levine and I am beyond stoked to be able to share my goal with you today. In January of this year, I declared my biggest, hairy-est, most audacious goal to date: I committed to The Global Seva Challenge, a program of Off the Mat, Into the World, and pledged to raise $20,000 by December 31st!  I am here to ask you to help me crush my goal.

Proceeds from my challenge go towards organizations in India that are working towards eradicating human trafficking (a.k.a. slavery) and programs to educate and empower former sex slaves.

The fact that slavery still exists in 2012, and on an enormous scale, is outrageous to me, which is why I’m taking action to put an end to it. If you agree that slavery is bogus, let’s rock this goal together!

How can you help?

1. Donate. The easiest way to make a direct impact is to make a tax-deductible donation in my name, Carolyn Levine, on the Give to Global Seva page on the OTM website.* If every one of Jacki’s 2,468 Facebook friends (yep, I checked and she’s that popular!) donated just $10, we could CRUSH my goal.

 2.  Accessorize. Buy a bracelet for yourself or for a friend; they make great gifts (Christmas and Hanukkah are right around the corner)! They’re $15 each and 100% of the proceeds go to OTM. To order a bracelet, send me an email with your address and color preference and I’ll mail one right to your door!

3. Spread the word. Let your friends and family know about my goal and the cause. Send an email or a tweet, post it on Facebook, or heck, have a good ol’ face-to-face conversation with someone! Send along a link to my website, where I talk more about my commitment here.

The most important thing we can do is to make people aware that slavery is still rampant around the World and that it is unacceptable! Empower your friends and family to do something about it by donating to Off the Mat.  Together, we will easily raise over $20,000 in the next three months!

Thank you so much for reading about my goal and for helping me to crush it!

NOTE:  You can also mail a check (minimum $50) with my name on the memo line to:  Off the Mat, Into the World®, Attn: Global Seva Challenge, P.O. Box 14908, San Francisco, CA 94114

Adventure: Time Together

Some times you want adventures to be this big planned out hooplah! At least I do! Kayaking trip, or biking 40 miles or full day of festivals….

But some times, just time together can truly be the adventure.

So simple.

A couple weeks ago, Chris and I spent a couple hours at Barnes & Noble. Just hanging out. Reading. Perusing the aisles. I read an excerpt from a Romance Novel outloud to him. We snickered like high schoolers….okay, I did. He dove into the History aisles…total geek. And of course, we both ended up in the Travel section.

Together, we sat on the floor and looked at different travel books. Just playing with our future. Showing each other amazing photos of cool hikes, maps, gorgeous beaches and stories about other peoples’ travels. Talking about fun trips to take. Daydreaming. Or, book-dreaming!

And I tell you, there was just something about sitting on the floor together surrounded by all those books. So simple. So perfect.

A total adventure that time together.

So Simple. So Perfect.

Adventure: A Couple that Sweats Together, Stays Together!

So this past weekend, Chris and I embarked on our adventure!  We cycled from Mundelein, IL to Chicago, IL on Sunday morning!  Google maps declared it a little under 40 miles and an estimated arrival time within 3 hours and 20 minutes.

Sounds like fun!

We start our journey a little before 11am after a hearty breakfast.  We were super excited and the MOST friendly riders on the trail.  I do think we said ‘good morning’, ‘hello’, ‘hi there’  and ‘afternoon’ to half of Greater Chicago!  This was of course in the first 3 hours of the ride. 

For some odd reason, it took Chris and I close to 6 hours to finish our trek.  Mind you, we were leisurely riding at a nice Sunday pace and did stop for a couple granola bars, an amazing cookie from Bob’s Market, a push pop and water! 

When we got back home, we were exhausted.  Butts were killing us.  Maybe a couple knee twitches and a thirst for a nice cold beer that I have never known!  It was amazing though, we made it…together!

Because….the couple that sweats together, stays together!  😉