One night we drove through what seemed to be an empty field and ended up swimming in a volcanic vent where hot water seeped straight out into the ocean! - Kaitlyn, retreat guest

We got tossed upside down and around and the only thing that kept us steady was just holding onto the rope. - Kit, retreat host

If, in your world travels, you happen to come across a volcano, youre likely to also come across Rosie and Kit Volcano, who hold periodic retreats at active volcano sites around the world, like this one in the Azores islands off Portugal. They call themselves Yoga Life Coaches, and when theyre not visiting volcanoes, theyre working magic with their coaching clients, both offline in San Diego and online. Youve probably never met a Yoga Life Coach before. Neither had I, until I met these two. Not being into yoga myself, I had to find out just what a Yoga Life Coach can offer thats different from other life coaches, and how much into yoga do I have to be to experience the transformation they offer.

Apparently, not much. Rosie and Kit offer life coaching in person or online, and then offer up live Yoga sessions to their tribe on Facebook. Anyone at any level of yoga, from beginners to the most advanced practitioners, can experience the magic of The Little Volcano, their self-named business.

These two megastars however are from from Little. From their manifestation bathtub series every Monday on Facebook to their Volcano Yoga Retreats, the upcoming one taking place this September in which they will experience the Autumnal Equinox atop Mount Teide in the Canary Islands, where they will experience one of the the most spectacular views of the Milky Way available on earth.

The Volcanoes brand of Life Coaching revolves around mind, body and spirit, with a heavy dose of accountability thrown in. As life coaches, Rosie and Kit help support you in both determining and manifesting your vision, clearing out the blocks that have been holding you back from your deepest desires.

How they do it is signature Volcano style.

So what does yoga have to do with it? Well, in a sense, everything. Rosie explained it to me by sharing her experience the first time she trained with Ana Forrest, creator of the Forrest Yoga technique Rosie and Kit espouse.

So it comes time for the handstand, and I haven't done a handstand since I was a kid. I remember just thinking, Everybody else will do a handstand and I'll just do this thing called down dog on the wall. It's okay if I never do a handstand. I'm just not a handstand person. And then one of the assistants comes over to me and she tells me that Im getting in a handstand, and I was like No I'm not. It's okay. I don't need to do a handstand, and she said Yeah, you do. Come on. And so she basically coaches me through it and I go upside down and I remember just this crazy thought going through my head. It was like panic. And then I come out. And I'm Wow. The thrill that you get and the sense of accomplishment and a sense of fear conquering that you get just from doing a handstand. It applies to every other area of your life as well. It applies to other things that you might be irrationally scared of. There are things in life that people have a lot of fear around that the fear itself is what's keeping them from moving forward. Once you actually go after the actual thing [youre scared of] you realize it wasn't that scary to begin with.

So it's about taking the lessons you learned in yoga and applying them to other areas of your life, other areas where you're not growing, where you're making yourself suffer more than you should, or where you are putting up with a quality of life that [you dont] want.

One of the trademarks of Forrest Yoga is in holding poses for freakishly long periods of time. Rosie advises us to pay attention to, when the pose gets too uncomfortable, or metaphorically, when life gets too uncomfortable, where you start to check out, where you numb yourself to the present moment, where you vacate presence, and where you, like Rosie and the handstand, give up before you even begin.

Through their Yoga Life Coaching, Rosie and Kit guide you in reclaiming the present moment, pursuing your vision and experiencing transformation, through a combination of meditation, shamanic journeying, yoga and ceremony. It may sound sort of woo-woo and out there, but it may just be the kind of out there woo woo that the world needs to reignite passion and fire.

Being a lesbian couple, there were few traditions Rosie and Kit felt particularly beholden to when they got married, least of which was their surname, for which they randomly decided on Volcano, after a thrift store Make Your Own Volcano Kit sitting on their shelf.

As time went on, they realized how appropriate their seemingly accidental name turned out to be. Volcanoes represent creativity, destruction and new life. They destroy, and yet the earth following their eruptions becomes new and fertile.

Volcanoes are also a source of healing. People come from all over the world to experience the healing powers of mineral hot springs, whose heat is generated by the flowing magma underneath.

As Rosie explains, The whole idea of volcanoes [is in] being this kind of contradictory thing where they can either destroy or create. They can provide these healing, clear mineral rich waters that people [flock to for healing, or] they can create these bubbling boiling geysers of mud that [kill].

Rosie and Kit Volcano embody this contradiction themselves. What started as a marriage between two lesbians, Kits transitioning to becoming a man has made their marriage ironically far more traditional. Their woo-woo shamanic journeying and ritualistic ceremonies are wrapped in extreme accountability that would make a conventional business coachs repertoire pale in comparison. And the transformations that their clients are manifesting are life-changing, within the bathtub, and without. After all, life tends to toss us upside down and around, and sometimes the only thing keeping us steady is the rope we hold onto. Yoga life coaches Rosie and Kit help us find that rope within ourselves.

The Morning Email

Wake up to the day's most important news.

See more here:
The Little Volcanoes Mean Big Business to Their Coaching Clients - HuffPost

A social worker once labelled six-year-old Sophie Willan rebellious, disruptive and rude.

Willan, whose early life was spent in and out of care, reclaimed this description of herself in her critically acclaimed and very funny show On Record.

Her new show, Branded, is a continuation of her life story, and also reveals that between the ages of 19 and 22, she earned her living as an escort.

I just really wanted to talk about marginal people and how we brand people and put them into boxes, says Willan. I think whatever you are branded there are only two ways you can interpret it, usually you are a victim or you are a hero it ends up being a single narrative.

Willan, from Bolton, wants to challenge expectations and labels whether it is being northern, female, working class, or a former sex worker. In particular, Branded hinges on an experience she had at the Fringe.

We were in Edinburgh, I had come up with a feminist theatre group and I told one of them about the escort work.

She said, Dont you think its a very unfeminist thing to do? Dont you think you are contributing to the patriarchy and male oppression?

It has taken her until now to be able to talk about it but Willan always wanted to look more closely at that experience of being judged and labelled.

I just felt embarrassed. I hadnt processed it properly myself. Im a lot more confident as a person and I trust myself more. She came from a good background where she had a bedroom and went on holiday. I thought she was a better person than me.

Willan makes the story a launchpad for an examination of class, privilege and economic freedom. Her aim is to challenge perceptions and to make us question the way we label other people.

I didnt want to make a whole show about it. This is just part of a larger story, a bigger conversation.

If you make it the whole thing it puts too much importance on sex work. For me it was a means to an end. I never saw it as a career.

With sex work we tend to glorify it or demonise it. But we need to stop doing that with marginalised groups of people.

One of the things Willan loves about putting her life on stage is when audience members say how much they enjoy the opportunity to laugh about lives like their own.

For health reasons, outings with her mum or with her step-dad can be stressful. But they can also be hilarious.

I talk about my mum, who is a heroin addict, looking like Iggy Pop, and about living with my step-dad who has multiple personalities. Its important to me to introduce them to the world from an affectionate point of view.

I have had care leavers come up to me after a show and say, Thanks for talking about that. It was like you were talking about my mum. Nobody sees her like I see her.

Willans unconventional, eventful and deprived childhood has given her a lot of access to therapy, psychology and counselling and she has benefited a great deal from that.

I think I have come out from it as a whole, rounded person and I think I am emotionally intelligent.

She now spends a lot of time mentoring other care leavers. In June this year she launched Tales of the Weird, the Wild and the Wonderful, an anthology of eight stories written by care leavers. The young people she works with always get free tickets to her shows.

I also offer life coaching sessions. Helping them think about where they want to live and what they want to do.

Working with care leavers is something I have built up over time. Its good because I have been through that experience. And because I am a high-achieving care leaver the idea of giving something back is quite important.

Willans own mentors in the arts are Lem Siss, a Manchester poet who is also a care leaver, and Louise Wallwein, another care leaver who is a playwright and poet.

Although her shows have an exuberant anarchic energy, they are carefully crafted. I think it is stand-up comedy because the jokes are written like stand-up but the structure of the show is quite theatrical. If I set something up there is always a call-back it never just disappears.

In previews, working out her script, she often threw in some random beat boxing. She says she might also throw in a bit of a tit wobble just to annoy people who think she shouldnt. I had a promoter say I shouldnt do that because it puts women in comedy back 20 years. It is amazing the amount of white privileged men who think, Im going to tell you what you should be doing.

Its not a good idea to tell Sophie Willan what she can and cant do or to try to limit her ambition.

She remembers entering the BBC New Comedy award and being told, in reverential tones, that if she did well she might end up writing a joke for Miles Jupp. I said, me and Miles Jupp have nothing in common.

In future shed love to write a sitcom or something for children. And shes newly enthusiastic about politics after seeing the way young people got behind Jeremy Corbyn in the last election. I found Glastonbury really inspiring. It was like Woodstock but better. It felt really positive.

Shes nervous about talking about escorting on stage but shes pretty sure she can find a way to make people laugh about it.

Im quite a wild personality and as a performer I jump around a lot. And Ill be making them laugh. If I can write a bit that can make myself laugh I know that will be a fun thing to do.

See the article here:
Former escort Sophie Willan on her life coaching Fringe show - The Scotsman

Editors note: This story originally ran in the Bangor Daily News on May 11, 1994.

OLD TOWN, Maine Dick MacPherson surveyed the faces of the senior class of Old Town High School gathered expectantly before him in the schools cafetorium. He selected a story.

I was at Mass on a Saturday night in California a few months back when the priest told everyone to write down on a piece of paper what you hope to do with your life. Im almost 64, so Im thinking what am I going to write? MacPherson recounted, working the room with the ease of a hometown hero among the kids and grandkids of his friends.

I ended up writing down to make sure my wife and I kept our health, kept our love and happiness, and to hope our death would be a pleasant one so we wouldnt be a problem for our kids, MacPherson said before pausing a beat. I looked at that piece of paper and thought, Is that all Ive got left? Ive got to find something to do!

It was the kind of story upon which MacPherson built a 30-year football coaching career that carried him from college assistant all the way to head coach of the New England Patriots: Profound without being hokey. Motivational without being overbearing. Personal.

I kept that piece of paper, as a reminder, MacPherson told the high school kids.

The reminder is that there is indeed life to be lived as long as life remains. There is life after coaching. More specifically, there is life after being fired by the Patriots.

If it seemed MacPherson was relegated to lifes scrap heap 16 months ago when his stormy two-season tenure with the Pats was halted following eight wins and 24 losses, its because he couldnt do much to fight the perception. As a condition for receiving from the Patriots a reported $300,000-per-year settlement of the two seasons plus an option year remaining on his contract, MacPherson had to go away quietly.

By contract, I cant coach right now, MacPherson explained. By settlement, any money I make in any form of athletics be it radio or TV or anything would go back to the Patriots.

So MacPherson went away, agreeing to stay out of the sports klieg lights until March 1995 when his settlement runs out.

Outwardly, MacPherson appears satisfied with the arrangement. He is healthier, wealthier and, yes, wiser, since returning to Syracuse, N.Y., site of his greatest successes as coach of the Syracuse University football teams of the 1980s.

The acute intestinal inflammation that added injury to insult in Foxborough, sidelining him for seven games during his final season while the Pats went 2-14, is long gone. Regret is not in his vocabulary.

Heres what I told my wife and family. If someone were to ask us to come there and go through what we went through, and have that experience and the financial rewards that come with it for me and my family youve got to go, he said.

Probe a little deeper, however, and MacPherson cant help but reveal his view of what went wrong in New England.

When youre a head coach in name only, it isnt as much fun. Thats the reason Jimmy Johnson is done. Thats the reason Tommy Coughlin left BC. There arent many Don Shulas left in the world that can run their whole program, said MacPherson, declining to comment further on his relationships with former Pats owner James Orthwein and former general manager Sam Jankovich. The settlement, again.

MacPherson could have simply sat around and waited for his checks to arrive. He could have gone the golf route, or the world traveling route with his wife Sandra. Instead, he took a job as vice president for corporate communication for a business funding group.

Leave it to MacPherson to find the coaching in the job. Its getting people together and helping them get things done, he explained.

MacPherson is enough of a realist to know at his age he is unlikely to ever coach football again at either the major college or professional level. If thats true, he said he can walk away satisfied.

Original post:
Dick MacPherson discovers life after football - Bangor Daily News

Photo: Athleta

If you've been curious about mindfulness, this is your chance to find out what it's all about. From August 9th through August 13th, Athleta will hold a free 30-minute meditation session at each of its 133 locations across the country.

The chain will offer "Permission to Pause" meditation sessions designed by Unplug Meditation, which will focus on the basics of how to incorporate mindfulness all day long, not just when sitting down to meditate. Participants will learn techniques to incorporate mindfulness into everyday life, including a 16-second meditation technique. (Here's a technique that will help you clear your mind.) The class will cater to all levels of experience, says Andra Mallard, chief marketing officer at Athleta.

"You can be the biggest skeptic in the world, the earliest beginner, or you could be a devoteethere's going to be something for you here," Mallard says.

Athleta is holding the events to promote its new Restore collection, which is made with soft, sustainable fabrics meant to be conducive to meditation and relaxation. The events are part of Athleta's "Permission to Pause" campaign, which is all about allowing yourself to prioritize self-care. (Here's what happened when one writer prioritized self-care for one week.)

The events will kick off on August 9th and run through August 13th. Visit the "store classes and events" calendar on the company's store locator to find a session near you.

Read the rest here:

Athleta Will Hold Free Meditation Sessions at Every Store This Week - Shape Magazine

Dolores Tersigni was hoping she would be taking a long-overdue vacation after leaving Netflix earlier this year instead, she was spending a lot of time talking to the team over at meditation app Headspace.

Now shes landed a job there as the chief people officer, starting full-time this week. The conversations actually led to a little bit of an involvement throughout the year, but now she will be working to craft the companys culture and help recruit new talent to the meditation app. Tersigni is the second big executive hire in the past month and a half or so, with the company bringing on a new chief business officer in June.

A bunch of people in my life were talking about Headspace, Tersigni said. People were just telling me to use the product because Im very much into mindfulness and yoga and meditation and had even begun trying to integrate it at Netflix. On another front, some people that I knew from a business perspective were really just interested in the business model. I had friends that knew some of the investors first or second hand and Headspace came up 4 or 5 times in 2 weeks. I kept thinking, I wonder why this company keeps coming up, and that led me to think more about what the company culture would be like.

Tersigni was previously the VP of Talent at Netflix, where she spent four years working on building up a team on the content side. Now, Netflixs original content efforts have exploded into a multi-billion dollar effort revving up Netflixs growth engine as it looks to expand internationally.

They havent really had anyone in my role before, Tersigni said. Trying to define what does that mean, how do you bring the culture to life, how does everyone in the company speak the same language, thats going to be the big challenge. How do you recruit and retain talent against those values and behaviors.

The role comes with plenty of unique challenges many of which arent actually measurable. The role will be judged in terms of hiring and retention, but a lot of it will be touchy-feely (to borrow the phrase for a class at a business school) and ensuring that the team is able to grow while maintaining its culture. That means sending out surveys, getting feedback and then trying to gauge whether or not people are actually enjoying their time at the company.

The latter of that is critical in terms of retaining talent. And it might be a little more difficult given that Headspace just went through a small round of layoffs.The company raised an additional $37 million earlier this year to fuel expansion. It may be in a better shape to continue to attract new talent and hold onto its existing employees. But for a meditation app, building that culture of mindfulnessthat the app is literally built around may be more of a challenge than expected.

We have a lot of employees and were seeing increased complexity in the business, Tersigni said. In any startup in the initial phases, its all hands on deck and everyone does everything. As you start to mature, it gets more complex, and you create more functions, your roles are more and more defined. Youre less of a generalist and become more of a specialist. At that point, you have to start defining what does [success] mean. Right now is the time in that organization, people start asking what does my career progression look like here. Really creating a framework and road map, how theyre able to define success, thats gonna be my first 30-60 days will be mapping that out so people have a better understanding.

See the rest here:

Meditation app Headspace brings on former Netflixer Dolores ... - TechCrunch

by Georgina Safe

Meditation is the new yoga.With benefits including increased clarity, improved productivity, better sleep and less stress, itis being embraced by everyone from frazzled executives to anxious creatives. But with so many types of practice on offer from traditional Vediccentres to the designer studios popping up faster than you can say om which one is right for you?

Life & Leisure road-tests a few.

I turn up to my first meditation session at The Broad Place in Paddington, Sydney, with three pieces of fruit, six flowers and an open mind. Co-founders Jacqui Lewis and Aaron Russell teach "integrative meditation", a twist on Vedic meditation with a few extra bells and whistles for the modern world.

In three sessions over three days, Lewis teaches me how to meditate with a mantra, beginning with a ceremony of gratitude in which she makes an offering of the fruit and flowers and sings in Sanskrit, acknowledging the wisdom of ancient teachers.

After that, it's down to business: I'm assigned a personal mantra and my group engages in a 20-minute meditation. I find it difficult to let go of my outside thoughts, which is doubly disconcerting given Lewis works from an incredibly tranquil designer studio space calibrated for extreme relaxation. But that night I sleep better than I have in years, and in the second session I find it easier to let my mind drift off.

In the third session I inexplicably break down into a huge sobbing fit in front of my fellow participants a chief executive, a midwife and a dancer with one of Australia's pre-eminent contemporary companies. It's beyond embarrassing, but Lewis tells me it's perfectly normal; the meditation is bringing old and useless negative emotions to the surface and letting them go.

I really do feel better and lighter afterwards, which is why after the course I continue to meditate for 20 minutes once a day (Lewis recommends twice daily, but that's a little too much for me). It might be my imagination, but it feels easier to write for work, too.

The Broad Place also offers courses in Melbourne and retreats and workshops in Byron Bay, India, London and Los Angeles.

A fashion designer friend recommends the Tibetan singing bowls meditationat City Fringe, so I'm initially disappointed to discover there's been a bookings glitch and I've actually signed up for "How to meditate with noise" instead. But how glorious the noise is.

The session has been arranged because there'sa flute and harp recital scheduled for the performance venue downstairs, and as the music flows we learn a simple three-minute meditation designed to help us relax in noisy or busy situations. It's easy and effective, in a welcoming space filled with comfy couches, fresh flowers and a Himalayan salt lampglowing softly in the semi-darkness.

The centre teaches in the Brahma Kumaris tradition, a religious movement from India in which women play a prominent role.

BrahmaKumarisalso offers meditation in Adelaide, Melbourne, Tasmania, Perth, Brisbane and Canberra, See meditationspace.com.au

The best thing about the Headspaceis the voice of Andy Puddicombe. His mellifluous British accent think the David Attenborough of the meditation world is enough to transport me to serenity, even without pressing play on one of his hundreds of bite-sized app sessions on everything from managing stress to better sleep.

The second-best thing about Headspace is it's a mobileapp, rather than a place, so you can carry it around in your pocket or handbag. It also prompts you to set a daily reminder to meditate at a chosen time.

I found this a little guilt-inducing on days I was too busy to fit it in, but there's good reason Headspace is the world's most popular mediation app. It's particularly useful to block out annoying background noise and conversations in busy places.

Think of BodyMindLife as the designer gym of meditation and wellness. It offers more than 300 classes each week at four chic, minimalistlocations across Sydney, including meditation, yoga, Pilates, massage, reiki, kinesiology, and hot and cold and oxygen therapies.

I'm a bit of a princess when it comes to gyms. Dated decor and dirty carpets aren'tgoing to cut it. So I love the sleek surrounds, the change rooms equipped with organic products, hair dryers and straighteners, and the Yogi Lounge with free Wi-Fi and herbal tea. As for the meditation, it's a 30-minute guided session in a warm and dark room in which the only glow is the by now ubiquitous Himalayan salt lamp.

The beauty of BodyMindLife is the way it cater to wellness junkies rather than gym junkies. Sign up and you can access all the yoga, Pilates and mediation your heart desires, minus paying for spin, weights and workout classes you'll never use, if they're not your thing.

BodyMindLife has studios in the Sydney suburbs of Bondi Beach, Potts Point, Redfern and Surry Hills.

This is the thinking person's meditation centre. The boutique psychology and mindfulness studioprovides daily meditation and yoga classes upstairs, while downstairs professional psychologists and holistic practitioners offer one-on-one consultations.

I try the breath-based, centredmeditation, which involves focusing on your breath above all else, which I find surprisingly difficult. Another, sound-based mediation seems to be much easier perhaps because I've already had some practice but what I really want to come back to try are the nap classes.

Nap Time is a class for busy and tired workers to experience a guided relaxation meditation and sneak in some shut-eye in the middle of the day. If you are cool with essentially paying to take a siesta, the Indigo Project claims the nap classes boost productivity and refresh the mind.

The Indigo Project is in Surry Hills, Sydney.

The beauty of meditating at this Buddhist temple is the way its teachers dispense practical advice for daily life. From how to deal with getting grumpy in a queue to surviving a marriage break-up, Buddhist nun Kelsang Monlam is full of handy suggestions for solving real-life problems.

The Surry Hills centre is part of the International Temples Project, a charitable organisation founded by Tibetan Buddhist Geshe Kelsang Gyatso with the vision of creating temples dedicated to world peace in every major city in the world.

My Saturday morning class involves ateaching on how to put yourself in others' shoes, two guided meditations and a prayer for world peace. It's a long class almost 90 minutes but I emerge feeling refreshed. An added bonus is meeting several interesting women over tea and biscuits in the foyer before the class.

If you can't get to Surry Hills, the centre holds 13 classes in suburbs throughout Sydney every week. There are also Kadampa meditation centres around the world and in most Australian state capitals. See kadampa.org.

More:

Feeling frazzled? Take your pick from these 6 meditation studios - The Australian Financial Review

Having a device that allows you to capture the perfect selfie or moment at home or on vacation is common. Some people are so good at taking these pictures it can even make other people jealous of how good they turned out.

So how can you sell photos online?

You will first need to find your photography niche and stick with it to build an impressive portfolio. After you have done that, it will be quite easy to sell your photographs online.

What do I need?

You will first need a device that is capable of taking high-quality photographs. This could be anything from a DSLR camera to a phone. You will need a website or some form of online portfolio to showcase your work. You can always hire someone to build you an easy and simple web portfolio on WordPress. You will then have to implement a form of e-commerce system into your website or portfolio. But none of those things matter if you don't first find what makes you as an artist stand out. You have to find your niche and then build your brand around it to form a following for your work. The more followers you have of your work the more exposure you have. This exposure is what will lead to your photographs being sold and you turning your hobby into a paying profession.

How can you find your niche?

Your niche is what defines you as a photographer. Finding this is probably one of the hardest parts of creating a brand and selling it online. It can be a very long and tiring process to settle into it. However, for some it can come naturally, it just depends on the person and what they are interested in. If you are having a hard time finding your niche you may want to branch out and try things you have never tried before. In order to grow as an artist you must identify what inspires and defines you. This sometimes requires that you take a leap of faith.

What about the technical aspect of taking good photographs?

Just like with most things in life, you will start at the bottom and work your way up the ladder of success. Having the basics with a good understanding of how a picture should be composed is a necessity. Just keep in mind that whatever is the standard now may be obsolete in three years' time. This is one of the many reasons you will want to make sure you have found and you are sticking to your niche.

In conclusion, it is very important to be patient when trying to sell your photographs online. Achieving success can be a lengthy task but the key is to keep taking those photographs you love and building your niche until you make it.

Follow this link:
How to turn your photographs into money online - Bizcommunity.com

Anchor Bay area libraries are offering programs and events for all ages, including a solar eclipse viewing, a used book sale, family story time sessions and more. Here's a look at what's coming up this month in the city of New Baltimore and Chesterfield, Ira and Lenox townships.

To register for a program, visit the library, located at 50560 Patricia St., call 586-598-4900 or go to chelibrary.org.

For more information, visit the library, located at 36480 Main St. in New Baltimore, call 586- 725-0273 or go to macdonaldlibrary.org.

For more information, visit the library, located at 7013 Meldrum Road in Fair Haven, call 586-725-9081 or go to stclaircountylibrary.org.

Lenox Township Library is located at 58976 Main St. in New Haven. For more information, call 586-749-3430 or go to lenoxlibrary.org.

Emily Pauling, The Voice

More:
AT THE LIBRARY: Anchor Bay area libraries gear up for solar eclipse, book sale, more - New Baltimore Voice Newspapers

Library to hold Back to School Bash | Daily Journal News | dailyjournalonline.com Already a subscriber?

Click on the button below to set up your account or log in if you already have one.

Purchase a digital-only subscription now for unlimited online access to local news and information.

You are the owner of this article.

The 2015 Back to School Bash at the Bonne Terre Memorial Library was well attended and has only grown since.

The 2015 Back to School Bash at the Bonne Terre Memorial Library was well attended and has only grown since.

With summer coming to an end, many kids are dreading the thought of going back to school next month. To help soften the blow, the Bonne Terre Memorial Library is offering a back to school bash for kids in the community to come out and have a good time.

The Back to School Bash will be held Aug. 19 from 10 a.m. to noon. The bash is put on by the Friends of the Library, according to Childrens Librarian Rachel Howard.

Its the Friends of the Librarys way of doing something with the community, she said. The Friends and some of our staff did some brainstorming and came up with it.

The library has held the Back to School Bash for several years now, with each year being more successful than the last. Howard said last years event brought close to 100 kids. The event will take place outside, weather permitting and will feature games, prizes, food and a magic show.

Howard said the event has been so well attended because of the librarys involvement with local children.

The kids really enjoy our library, Howard said. We try to let them have fun all year round.

If anybody wants to have some fun, come and see us, Howard said.

Jacob Scott is a reporter with the Daily Journal. He can be reached at 573-518-3616 or at jscott@dailyjournalonline.com.

Go here to see the original:
Library to hold Back to School Bash - Daily Journal Online

Pennsylvanias medical marijuana program appears to be right on schedule for an early 2018 launch.

The state gave out the first round of dispensary and grower/processor permits, and physicians are now able to register to become certified to recommend (not prescribe) cannabis to their patients.

The question is will any actually want to?

The Department of Health didnt returnThe Inclines request for information on how many physicians have registered since late July.But according to the CEO of one of the companies that will teach Pennsylvanias doctors the ABCs of medical cannabis,the phone is ringing off the hook.

Doctors, nurses and pharmacists are hungry for this education, said Cheryl McDaniel, owner ofExtra Step Assurance. Her companys Cannabis Expertise is one of just two training courses the state has approved, per a July 26 email. The other is fromThe Answer Page, which has also designed online certification courses for New York state, Ohio and Florida.

Physicians who want to participate in Pennsylvanias medical marijuana program are required to register online, at which point DOH checks to make sure theyre licensed to practice. Before these professionals can get final approval, they have to go through a four-hour course.

The Answer Pages course is completely online with quizzes, while Cannabis Expertise offers live webinars and in-person seminars. Both will cover how marijuana can be used to treat various illnesses, how cannabis interacts with the body and the current state of regulations in Pennsylvania.

And they have just four hours to do that.

McDaniel and Dr. Stephen B.Corn of The Answer Page both said its challenging to do that.Corns company approached the task by offering 12-month access to a medical cannabis reference library along with online training that can be printed or saved.

We want to make sure all the clinicians would have a library of all this information, Corn said.

Extra Step Assurances Cannabis Expertise also offers an 18-hour seminar. After a recent event in Columbus, McDaniel said she was told by participants that the course was as though I went back to med school also theyd like some additional breaks.

We had an attitude that, my goodness, we want the doctors to know everything possible, McDaniel said. She described entering her 18-hour event like a freshman and leaving with a graduate degree.

But because Pennsylvania requires just four hours, McDaniel said her company tried to distill what doctors absolutely need to know: some history, basic science, dosing information.

I understand how to handle drugs and educate doctors, said McDaniel, who worked in pharmaceutical support services for 30 years. But as she became more involved in medical cannabis, she became alarmed that there was no good place where [doctors, nurses and pharmacists] could go to get info.

McDaniels company was well-versed in how to put on continuing medical education and training events, but didnt have the medical expertise to design something around medical cannabis. So she took the next several months to listen to speakers and enlist professionals like Dr. Dustin Sulak to take part in the trainings.

The curriculum is constantly being updated as new information on medical cannabis becomes available, McDaniel said. She finds it scary to think of the bad sources of information available.

You wouldnt say to a doctor, we want you to start diagnosing patients who have cancer. Could you read this pamphlet and good luck? McDaniel said. You wouldnt do that.

The Answer Pages online course can be accessed now and costs $299 with the promo code PADOH.

Cannabis Expertise will hold two live webinarsAug. 10 and Aug. 17(both are $298) and its first live seminar Aug. 25, in Allentown ($398 to attend in person). Future seminars are planned for Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, State College, Scranton, Erie, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Williamsport and Altoona.

You cant get extra credit, but Pa. doctors who want to meet the requirement plus get a more in-depth education can attend Cannabis Expertises next 18-hour seminar, in Orlando.

More here:
'The phone is ringing off the hook': What Pa. doctors will learn about medical cannabis - The Incline