Greetings All,

Let’s begin this update with a few smiles from our Cuban friends at the end of our 3 day retreat. As we move deeper into this year, we will all need our practice and our retreat time to keep grounded, awake and compassionate. Please see the article below for a story or 2 of our time in Cuba as we share both the inspiration and heartbreak that their tales and life experiences offer to us all. For slides and stories, join us for a free online informal presentation on 2/1 Saturday 12pm - Info here

Meantime…. Online News:

Our new program GIT -Getting it Together in 2025 begins this coming week on 1/31, 5pm PST Gentle and 2/1, 9am PST Active classes. Every first weekend for 6 months, there are 2 live online classes and chat time, based on a theme. 3 other practice recordings connected to the theme are available also for the month, along with 1 live class on first Tuesdays (2/4 this month) with the amazing Michelle Marlahan. Participants will have a space online to share info and feedback. As of 1/25/25 we have some spaces left. No drop-ins to this program at this time. LAST CALL!

Yoga Salon - Verdancy - is now FULL, wait list only.

In Person Retreats 2025

Knowing Our True Nature - An Earth Based Meditation Yoga Retreat 4/9-13
This outdoor retreat at the beginning of spring is very close to my heart. And is actually at my collective home, with many of our residents attending. Kirsten Rudestam, the inspirer and faculty member of the Buddhist Ecology Chaplaincy program I attended in 2022-23, will be leading the meditation and I will be managing the retreat and leading the yoga. Our intention is to explore an embodied practice, the body being so much more than this fathom long being, the body of the earth.
I was sure that this retreat would be filled by now, one reason being, that I constantly hear from folks who cannot afford retreats at the fees charged in many well known retreat centers. Off The Grid Retreats, the organization who is sponsoring this retreat aims to make the dharma accessible to a diverse audience and to encourage outdoor, in nature practice. So for a very reasonable camping and food fee + an invitation to give dana to the staff at the end of the retreat, folks can enjoy a beautiful setting, sweet sangha, dedicated instruction and silence, without breaking their bank accounts. (Off The Grid also offer scholarships for those in extreme need).
A few spaces left as of 1/25/25, but this is a small retreat so sign up now if you want to join us. More info and registration link here

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Summer Solstice Retreat - 6/20-25 - Update, due to some emergency cancelations, we have now a space in a shared wood cabin and one in a tent cabin, along with some space in camping and the dorm/bunkhouse.
This is your chance to join this annual retreat and sangha at the very lovely Spirit Camp by the California coast. This is a complex retreat to bring together logistically and we never know the future - so sign up this year if it’s been on your possible list for awhile. If you register in full this week, you will avoid the hike in price after 1/31. Those who are registered with a deposit only, remember to pay your final payment by 1/31, to avoid ditto reason!
“A magical gathering occurs when Mary Paffard calls yogis together. With expert instruction and open hearted building of community, the solstice retreat is special. You have an opportunity to be totally present with like-minded individuals in a beautiful setting. GO!”— Bhavvy, Yoga Teacher, Actor, Author

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¡We LOVE Cuba!

In case you missed previous missives, I went to Habana recently to support our Yoga Va communities and to lead a 3 day retreat for these groups at a small convent near Habana. I was accompanied by Traci Joy Burleigh, a dear friend and colleague, who came to Cuba in 2007 when we were in the process of completing the Yoga Va 2 teacher training program. Since that time, there has been a Yoga Va 3 program that the Cuban yogis under the direction of Jorge Avila, and under their own Yoga Va Habana school, completed in 2024.

Margarita above, is the mother of one of the graduates of this program, Lisandra, who is hoping to create a program within the university where she teaches that will bring folks not usually connected to the yoga worlds into practice. Margarita and Lisandra attended this retreat and Margarita is wearing a heart, one of 30 that Dennise Gackstedder, a Yoga Va supporter, created in the US with her neighborhood children helping. We brought books, medical supplies, food, clothes, chocolates!… but this gesture of solidarity touched many of the folks on this retreat deeply. As Margarita said, after reading some of the cards that were sent along with the donations from our yoga friends here, it is so powerful and reassuring to know that people who dont know us, care about us.

At this time, there are many reasons for Cubans to feel isolated, ignored and threatened by the incoming administration and the economic crisis on the island, impacted over decades by the embargo and also by post pandemic life and the restrictions on tourism that has occurred due to both Biden’s and Trump’s actions.
Traci noted that the spirit of dignity and creativity that had inspired her on her first trip here appeared somewhat beaten down, weary, after years of material struggle and instability. And still these yogis with their curiosity, creativity and application always inspire us, their sense of humor and compassion in difficult times is contagious.

Our retreat catered for 30 students but a few students could not attend as they could not leave their houses overnight - due to a recent rash of robberies, petty theft and begging is on the rise in a country which used to be very safe (still is comparatively speaking) One student, Felix, went back and forth every day on his electric bike to his home quite a distance away to mitigate this situation. Bikes and electric bikes if you can maintain them are great blessings with the lack of gasoline and transport - it cost us more to get the students from Habana to the retreat than the entire cost of the retreat. We saw many long lines for gasoline with people - even embassy staff drivers - sleeping in their cars to keep their place in the very slow moving queues.

So practicing together, without having to worry about finding food or getting from A to B, was such a relief for all. After our 3 days here where we wove in meditation and silence with active and passive practice, along with ecological enquiry and discussion, there was also an opportunity to meet again and with other folks unable to come to the retreat at a studio in town where all the Yoga Va props are stored for a couple more classes. Traci also shared her deep knowledge of ayurveda and led a discussion group in another small studio in Habana. My last days were filled with meetings and a few very interesting interviews. If you want to hear more about our time in Cuba and the conversations with yogis, with Miguel Coyula Habana historian and architect extraordinaire, Roberto Perez from the ecological foundation FANJ and Patricia Rodriguez, one of the main energies behind restoring old Habana, join us on 2/1, 12pm for a live online informal slide and story session (if you cant make that time, the recording will be available for one week).

I want to leave you with a comment made by Patricia, whose work I greatly admire and who is a long time student of yoga of Jorge’s. When I asked her how she was handling the dire economic situation now and the change in government in the US, she simply responded with a big smile. “Of course I am worried. We have been here before. And I am a town planner, I have a big view, I have to look to the future for the sake of humanity and habitat, and so I have a vast perspective; that is what I am doing. I am an eternal optimist.”

Join me on 2/1, 12pm on zoom for more stories and slides, along with Traci, Kurt and other Yoga Va folks. Info

What can you do to help? getting a little more educated about Cuba and this project on

1. Dissolve the communications embargo and get more educated about Cuba through international press, and join us on 2/1 12pm on zoom to hear more about what’s happening right now and our project. If you can’t be there, the recording will be up for one week afterwards.

2. Contact your representatives and remind them that the entire world except the US and Israel condemn this unjust and crippling embargo. Time for it to go, along with the ridiculous labelling of Cuba as a terrorist country.

3. Help support Yoga Va in the US so we can support future Yoga Va events/supplies in Cuba - plans for another retreat for Holguin folk are under way, and we hope to create another retreat in 2026 but can only do this with your support. www.yogava.org/support or contact <kurt@reisdesign.com>

4. We are specifically seeking folks willing to pay a little per month directly onto some cuban yoga va folks phones; these yogis will be evolving the Yoga Va internet presence and needing the phone wifi access to do this. Kurt and Dennise from our US group can explain how to set this up if you are interested. It’s pretty simple and super supportive.

5. Understanding some of the limitations in tourism right now, go visit Cuba with an organized legal trip where the funds go directly to the people and you get access to interesting sights and people. There is an embargo on communication and education about Cuba that has left most of us extremely ignorant about what is going on there. Malia Everette of Altruvistas organizes many trips to Cuba with different themes and focuses. Malia also has a wonderful apartment in the center of Habana Vieja where we stayed this time and I can highly recommend it for any visitor. They need our tourist dollars, friends.

6. Practice and Poetry!!!

   May be see you on 2/1…..

   luv M x

   The Room of Ancient Keys
   by Elena Mikhalkova

   My grandmother once gave me a tip:

   In difficult times, you move forward in small steps.

   Do what you have to do, but little by little.

   Don’t think about the future, or what may happen tomorrow.

   Wash the dishes.

   Remove the dust.

   Write a letter.

   Make a soup.

   You see?

   You are advancing step by step.

   Take a step and stop.

   Rest a little.

   Praise yourself.

   Take another step.

   Then another.

   You won’t notice, but your steps will grow more and more.

   And the time will come when you can think about the future without crying.