Southern culture

Bringing Yoga to the LBGTQ+ Community

accidental goddess1 Comment

I recently had an opportunity to represent a local yoga non-profit organization at a Pride Festival in Apex, NC. I’ve worked with You Call This Yoga as their website manager for many years and I believe in their mission to bring free, accessible yoga practices to people who:

  • Might not have access to yoga  (can’t afford it, can’t get to classes)
  • Think yoga is not for them  (not my community, my age group, my body type)
  • Believe they can’t do it (not flexible enough, can’t get up and down off the mat)

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I Love it When You Talk Southern to Me!

accidental goddess11 Comments

Bless Your HeartI was born and raised in New York and, until I reached my 40s, I had never lived more than 90 miles from the heart of “the city”, also known as Manhattan. Then, I followed my job to Durham, NC and found myself naively unprepared for the culture shock; language being one of the most immediately obvious differences. Growing up, I had seen episodes of the Andy Griffith Show, so I knew they spoke differently in the south. I just didn’t expect they would still be watching that show and still speaking that way.

Over the (20+) years I’ve lived here, I have come to appreciate many things about this area. The genteel ways have won me over and I now enjoy many of the southern colloquial, linguistic quirks. Mind you, I actually never find myself saying them—all my attempts at “y’all” still come out as “all you guys”—but I like these funny and sometimes corny phrases; they make me smile when I hear them. Here are my favorite “southernisms”, things that would never come out of a New Yorker’s mouth. Continue reading →