Karma Yoga at Venus Envy

(I owe you a picture. Here's the updated situation. Before - if you haven't seen. So that's not too bad. I still have another balcony over a bit that doesn't have a privacy fence, but it's smaller and it's a different crowd and it's not facing me directly. So, thanks Sheps, for hearing me out and doing something about it.)

Things really are shifting. It's above freezing right now, for instance. Whoohoo. And I'm being more social.

I went to an event last night after the Yoga Teacher Training even though I would have normally gone home because part of my "recovery" is to get out of the house and Be With People. I even went in to the show without my phone. I'm making an effort to Be With People for my own sanity and it's working.

So Shelley's 8th Birthday Party of her baby, Venus Envy, was really inspiring. I don't know the whole story of how her business grew and what's really going on there, but from what I see on the outside it's much more than a business, but a real community that's been created. Sex shops tended to be icky places where women didn't feel comfortable going into.

I remember hearing an interview with someone who wrote a book or did a study about how when businesses made changes to suit women, they profited. Examples were the LCBO - it used to be awful to shop in there and now they have wine tastings and food classes and you can use the bathroom without fear - MEC - they made sure that there was a kids play area near the women's clothing - and other examples. Well Shelley turned Ye Olde Grosse Sexe Shoppe into a place that's safe for women to be and I think that may be a key to her success.

Something else I think is great is that she offers educational workshops and hosts events and supports others in the community, creating a community in the process. She serves her community. At least that's how it looks to me. In my biz, we call that karma yoga.

So even though I wouldn't have expected to find myself at a racy burlesque show on a Friday night, I was more than entertained (because the show was fantastic), I was inspired by the great work that's going on there. What I saw last night at the fundraiser was karma yoga - the yoga of action - plain and simple.